The Dartmouth women's basketball team arrived in Princeton, N.J,, on Friday just one game out of first place in the Ivy League and gearing up for what could have been a championship showdown with Harvard on March 6. They left Philadelphia, Penn., Saturday night with almost no hope of a championship, wondering what went wrong.
The Big Green (14-11, 7-4 Ivy) dropped both decisions this weekend, giving up leads late in the second half to Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. The losses snapped Dartmouth's six-game winning streak.
Friday night's game against Princeton (11-14, 5-6 Ivy) saw two teams in a close game that neither could take control of. Sydney Scott '08 put up an impressive performance with 17 points and 16 rebounds and was joined in double digits by Kristen Craft '08 who had 12. But this was not enough to overcome Princeton's offensive attack inside the post, and Dartmouth fell 61-56.
Scott had one of her best games of the season, and was the only Big Green player who shot better than 50 percent from the field. As a team, Dartmouth shot just 30 percent on the game.
"[Scott] was very effective. She did a wonderful job for us at Princeton forcing their players to play defense on her inside," coach Chris Wielgus said of the junior's performance. "We were capable of scoring more, and our offense was stagnant. We had great looks, but the shots didn't go in."
The Big Green shooters went especially cold coming down the stretch. With under three minutes to go in a game that had been a hotly contested, back-and-forth affair, Dartmouth tied the score at 51.
The Big Green couldn't find the basket after that, Princeton pulled into the lead and missed three-pointers by Craft and Koren Schram '09 sealed Dartmouth's fate as the team had to foul Princeton to stop the clock.
The Tigers were led on offense by junior forward Meagan Cowher, who scored 19 points. Cowher, the daughter of former Steelers' head coach Bill Cowher, was joined by senior forward Casey Lockwood, who had 12 points. Both pulled down 10 rebounds, giving Cowher her third consecutive double-double and Lockwood her first of the season.
The Big Green's disappointments continued on Saturday night, as the squad dropped a decision to Penn in similar fashion, losing 56-53 in the final minutes of the second half.
Penn controlled the game early, but Dartmouth was kept in it in the first half by Scott. The Quakers took a 28-25 lead into the locker room.
Dartmouth came back out hot, starting a 14-6 run in the second half to grab a 49-40 lead with just six minutes remaining. That's when it all fell apart for the Big Green. Penn answered with a 14-0 run, led by high scorers Monica Naltner and Lauren Pears, who had 12 and 10 during the game, respectively.
With just 36 seconds to go, Schram hit a three-pointer that kicked off the game's exciting finish. Dartmouth had several chances to take the lead after a five-second violation and missed free throws by Penn in the last 30 seconds but could not convert its opportunities.
"We had the game in hand and we had some things go against us and we had shots and we missed them, and we missed some free throws," Wielgus said after the game. "We had every opportunity to win, and we just didn't put it away."
Even as Dartmouth failed to capitalize, Penn kept giving the Big Green chances to steal the game back. With just six seconds left, Ashley Taylor '07 was on the foul line shooting two to tie the score. But Taylor, who is usually close to flawless from the line, missed the second shot and the Big Green was not able to grab the rebound.
Penn went back to their end of the court after Dartmouth fouled to stop the clock and made two free throws to take a three-point lead with just one second to go. Dartmouth's desperation shot at the end fell short, as did Dartmouth's offense.
"We were all kind of scratching our heads," assistant coach Courtney Banghart said. "We missed easy shots; we didn't take open shots. Our offense was stymied all weekend, and it showed up in our results."
With Dartmouth's losses and Harvard's defeat of both Penn and Princeton this weekend, the Crimson pull ahead to three games up on the Big Green in the Ivy League standings, with just three games left. Both teams face Cornell (12-13, 8-4 Ivy) and Columbia (8-18, 4-8 Ivy) at home next weekend before facing off at Harvard on March 6.
