Big Green women's basketball began its regular season on Saturday with a rough 73-40 loss to the University of Hartford in Hartford, Conn.
The Big Green (0-1, 0-0 Ivy) faced a formidable opponent in the Hawks (1-0, 0-0 America East), who were the 2008 America East champions, tallying an impressive 28-6 record last season. The Hawks also advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2008, defeating the Syracuse University before losing to Texas A&M University. Hartford was seeded 10th in the Oklahoma City Regional bracket of the tournament.
"We always go into games expecting to compete and play well," captain Darcy Rose '09 said. "We traditionally play a very tough non-conference schedule, so we're used to playing strong teams and enjoy the challenge. We know that playing good teams now will help us to work harder and grow faster as a team, which will help us throughout the season."
Last year, Dartmouth finished on top of the Ivy League, tied for first place with both Cornell and Harvard. The Big Green was one game away from competing in the NCAA tournament but failed to beat Cornell in the playoff game that determined which team would represent the Ivy League at the tournament.
The Big Green endured a dismal first half in Saturday's game before showing some bright spots in the second, but the team was unable to come back from a 40-14 deficit at halftime.
The Hawks were able to shoot a remarkable 48 percent in the first half while holding Dartmouth to just 17 percent shooting from the floor.
The Hawks also stood out defensively in the first half, during which they forced 19 Big Green turnovers and held Dartmouth to only 14 points.
"We didn't have the defensive urgency that is necessary to set the tone for our team," Rose said. "We allowed too many offensive rebounds and didn't play well as a cohesive unit."
The Hawks tallied 14 offensive rebounds on the game, while the Big Green managed to grab 13 offensive boards.
One category in which the Big Green was able to keep up with the Hawks was rebounds; Dartmouth had 36 to the Hawks' 40.
The first basket of the game came from Big Green guard Betsy Williams '10. The following 4-2 Big Green lead, coming after two free throws by Brittney Smith '11, would be the team's last of the game.
The Hawks then went on a 5-0 run before a jump shot from captain Koren Schram '09 pulled the Big Green to within two at 15:04.
The Big Green failed to even it up, as Hartford scored seven unanswered points before Williams was able to stop the Hawks' run and bring the score to 15-9.
The Hawks continued on to their most prolific run of the game, shutting down the Big Green offense for six minutes while scoring 13 points to gain a commanding 28-9 lead with six minutes left in the half.
A pair of free throws from Williams broke the Big Green scoring drought but did not spark further offensive gains for Dartmouth, who ended the half down by 26.
The beginning of the second half did not bring much change to the Big Green attack, which was only able to tally four points in the first seven minutes of the half, all off of free throws.
The Hawks began to find their long-range game during the second half, sinking five out of their nine 3-point attempts for an impressive 56 percent.
Hartford's indefatigable offense and its success from outside the arc opened the lead to 57-18 midway through the second half. While the Big Green picked up its game in the latter part of the second half, the 39-point deficit proved insurmountable.
Following the team's first three-pointer from Schram at 10:58, the Big Green began to find its offensive groove with the help of guard Meghan McFee '11, who came in off the bench to score four straight points.
"In the second half we were much more focused and picked up the intensity on defense," Rose said. "We also worked on screening each other more, which opened up some scoring opportunities."
The level of Big Green play increased dramatically late in the game, as Dartmouth held the Hawks scoreless for nearly six minutes before a jump shot from Hartford's Katie Kelley broke the Big Green's defensive lockdown.
Dartmouth finished strong by scoring eight points in the last minute and a half of the game.
The Big Green showed improvement in the turnover rate late in the game, giving up only nine in the second half, compared with 17 turnovers in the first half.
"We know that we need to get better, and we're ready to work really hard to make sure that we're improving every day," Rose said.
Smith, who was last year's Ivy League rookie of the year, was the team's highest scorer, finishing with 11 points on the game.
Schram finished second with 10 points and three rebounds.
The Big Green looks to do better in its second game of the year on Tuesday, Nov. 18 against St. John's University. The game is at 7 p.m. in Leede Arena in Hanover.
