Dartmouth dug itself a bigger hole on Friday night as Princeton (18-6, 9-2 Ivy) handed the Big Green a humbling 62-49 loss. Fortunately, Dartmouth got into shape on Saturday evening and delivered a convincing 67-45 win over the University of Pennsylvania (4-20, 2-9 Ivy).
Dartmouth is now 18-6 overall on the season and 9-2 in Ivy play. The Big Green needs to win its last three games just to stay in the Ivy League championship race.
On Friday evening, Princeton rejoined the hunt for an Ivy League championship with its first win at Leede Arena in eight years, snapping the Big Green's 11-game winning streak against Ivy League opponents at home. Prior to playing Princeton, Dartmouth had defended its home turf for two years without a loss.
The Tigers jumped out to an early 15-1 advantage, but the Big Green was able to tie the game 24-24 at the half with 10 points from Sydney Scott '08.
In the second stanza, the Tigers continued to dominate last year's Ivy League champions and stretched their lead to double-figures with eight minutes left in the game. Dartmouth was never able to stop Princeton in the second half and the Tigers left Leede Arena victorious.
Fatima Kamara '07 led Big Green in scoring with 13 points and six rebounds, while Scott added 12 points to the effort.
Princeton scored a whopping 20 points off of Dartmouth's 24 turnovers. The Tigers also recorded nine blocks.
The Tigers limited Jeannie Cullen '06, one of the nation's top three-point shooters, to just one basket from three-point range and seven points overall. Angie Soriaga '06, one of the top scorers for the Big Green, had only two points in the game. Less than three weeks ago, Cullen and Soriaga combined for 40 points in the win over Princeton.
Meagan Cowher scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Tigers, while teammates Becky Brown and Katy O'Brien each added 14 points to the winning effort. Princeton was 42.3 percent accurate from the floor overall and completed half of its three-point field goals in the second half.
Despite the loss, Dartmouth remains optimistic in its hopes for another Ivy League championship.
"We are not out of the Ivy League race yet," Big Green head coach Chris Wielgus said. "Going through the first seven games in the Ivy League with no losses gives us a little room right now."
Dartmouth, the team with the best field goal percentage from behind the arc in the country, managed to connect on only 14.3 percent of its attempts from three-point range in the game.
"We were not ready to play," Cullen said. "Princeton beat us in every aspect of the game. Hopefully, that won't happen again. We understand the importance of each game and the senses of urgency we need to have from here on out."
The Big Green learned its lesson from Friday night and converted frustration into action on Saturday as Dartmouth overcame the Quakers in a dominating 67-45 win.
Dartmouth got out to an early 14-3 lead and continued to extend the margin in the first stanza. The Big Green went into the locker room holding a 35-19 advantage over Penn.
In the second half, Penn scored the first five points in the half to cut the Dartmouth lead to 11, but the Quakers got no closer for the rest of the contest.
The Big Green bounced back from an off-night to complete half of its field goal attempts overall and made 53.8 percent of three-point attempts in the game.
Cullen scored a game-high 15 points for Dartmouth, including four baskets from three-point range. With those four baskets from behind the arc, Cullen moves into second place in Ivy League history with 264 career three-pointers. Classmate Soriaga chipped in 10 more points to the effort. Krista Perry '06 scored eight points and added nine rebounds to the win.
"It was not an easy win with Penn because we were coming off two tough losses, so we knew that we needed to play a good game and fix things," Cullen said.
The Quakers received 31 of its 45 points from the bench. Monica Naltner scored 12 points for Penn and was the only Quaker to score in the double figures in the game. Dartmouth limited Penn to just 27.8 percent from three-point range overall.
Dartmouth returns to action next weekend when it travels to New York to take on the Columbia Lions (6-19, 2-10 Ivy) and the Cornell Big Red (8-17, 5-7 Ivy).
