Dartmouth would have been the first 14th-seeded team in history to defeat a third-seeded squad.
"They did not give up and they believed in each other," Dartmouth head coach Chris Wielgus said. "They played their hearts out. I am so proud to be their coach and I am so proud of the way they represented Dartmouth and the Ivy League."
The Scarlet Knights, ranked ninth nationally, opened the match with a 13-0 run and held the Big Green scoreless for five minutes. Rutgers dominated the first 14 minutes of the game as Dartmouth turned over the ball seven times and trailed 26-10.
"We had the shots we wanted, and they just didn't fall," Wielgus said. "What happened is that kids are really good at reading and countering. They're really ball-tough."
But the women in green refused to allow a repeat of last year's 95-48 loss to the University of Connecticut and halted the Rutgers advance. The Big Green started to get into the rhythm of the game and went on a 15-6 run. With a buzzer-beating, 35-foot-long half-court basket by point guard Angie Soriaga '06, the two teams retreated to the locker room with Rutgers leading 32-25.
Soriaga's half-court three-pointer was her first in the game. But she found confidence with the basket and scored 20 of her game-high 23 points in the second half. Her 20-point effort in the second half enabled a Dartmouth comeback that threatened the Rutgers lead.
"That was my first make of the game and it got me some confidence," Soriaga said. "We were expecting to come here and get the upset, and we stayed with them as they got tired toward the end of the game."
In the second half, the Big Green fought relentlessly, but the Scarlet Knights were able to pull ahead 50-37 with 10 minutes left in the game. However, Dartmouth caught up from behind with a 7-0 run to trail by only six points.
At the five-minute mark, Rutgers led 57-46 before the Big Green went on a 12-4 run capped by three Soriaga baskets from behind the arc. By hitting a three of her own, Jeannie Cullen '06 also tied the Dartmouth and Ivy League record for career three-pointers with 273.
Dartmouth trailed by three points with 46 seconds left at 61-58.
Then the Big Green saw an opportunity to tie the game with 16.7 seconds remaining when a Rutgers foul set up a Dartmouth side-court inbound. Soriaga received the pass, dribbled toward the basket but tripped into Rutgers' Essence Carson as both players fell to the court. Soriaga was charged with a controversial offensive foul with 13 seconds left in the game.
"Sometimes calls don't go your way," Soriaga said. "It's the way basketball is. It's alternating currents."
"Angie's a bit of a brute at five-foot-six. She's got to stop running over those Rutgers kids," Wielgus joked.
The game ended at 63-58 after an Ashley Taylor '07 foul and two free throws that Rutgers' All-American candidate Cappie Pondexter made with composure.
"The score at the end of the game had Rutgers with more points than Dartmouth. There's no way that any of the women on our team are losers," Wielgus remarked after the game.
The players and fans of the Rutgers team shared a sigh of relief at the sound of the buzzer for its faint escape from losing a first-round match in its home state.
"It was a game that is uncomfortable as a rule, because of the style they play," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer told reporters after the contest.
"Give credit to Dartmouth; unfortunately for them, they're not going on and hopefully for us we're getting better and going on to another style of play."
Soriaga and Taylor scored 23 and 19 points, respectively for the Big Green. With her six three-pointers in the game, Soriaga set a new record for the Sovereign Bank Arena for most three-pointers in a game by a female player.
"She was phenomenal," Wielgus said of Soriaga, who received All-Ivy Academic honors this week.
Rutgers had the meanest defense in the country but allowed the Big Green to shoot 10 percentage points better than its other opponents and tolerated three more Dartmouth triples than the Scarlet Knights' season average.
"Anybody that gets out there and competes and that's an Ivy League school, they're real dangerous," Stringer said.
"They're smart enough to know that it doesn't matter who the individual or individuals are, as long as the team plays together."
Pondexter led Rutgers scoring efforts with 21 points while teammate Matee Ajavon added 19 points.
"I didn't see the kinds of things I should have seen," Pondexter said. "We were just rusty, but I don't want to use our legs as an excuse. Dartmouth played gritty. They played tough and they took it to us.
The women in green were unsatisfied with the loss despite how close they came to defeating the regular season Big East champion.
"We didn't come here to play close. We came here to win," Wielgus said. "That's what we talk about. That's what we tried to do. If we came here to play close, we'd be all smiles and happy, but the kids have been crying."
In its six NCAA appearances, Dartmouth has come close two other times. The Big Green lost to Virginia by three and to Purdue by four.
But Dartmouth's head coach does not believe that near misses are all the Big Green can hope for in the future.
"Someday," Wielgus said. "Someday we're going to get one."
"I'm not surprised," Stringer said of Dartmouth's performance. "Hats off to them ... I'm sure they'll be back. They've got a lot of seniors but the tradition will continue."
