In its penultimate non-conference game of the season, the Dartmouth women's basketball team was overpowered by Boston College on the road Thursday. The team fell prey to a surging Eagles offense, 84-46.
The Big Green (4-9, 0-0 Ivy) loss capped off a tough first half of Dartmouth's regular season. The reigning Ivy champions will next turn their full attention to the hotly-contested race for the league crown.
"These non-conference games are key to our success as a team," Michelle Meyer '10 said. "These games expose our weaknesses and strengths, and it is by exposing these things that we are able to get better in practice and look forward to how we will beat our next opponent."
The mid-season pivot to conference games, however, has the potential to be a major turning point for the Big Green.
"Essentially, the [early season] games we play against the top 25 teams are there for us to grow as a team," Meyer said. "Our coach presents us with a difficult schedule to test our inner strength and camaraderie."
Despite a 3-9 start last year, Dartmouth finished the second half of the season with a record of 16-2 to capture the Ivy crown and a spot in the NCAA tournament.
This year, the Big Green will have to adjust to its new motion offense and rely heavily on its defensive prowess to engineer another mid-season turnaround.
"Our strength lies within our defense, which also dominates the game's tempo," Margaret Smith '10 said. "If we get a steal or stop our opponent from scoring on multiple possessions, our energy is sparked on the offensive end as a result."
However, inconsistencies in both field goal and free throw shooting have held the Big Green back, as signs of Dartmouth's early season offensive struggles surfaced again in Thursday's game against BC (10-6, 1-0 ACC).
"Over the past month, I think we have struggled more with the offensive end," Smith said. "However, in the last few games we have improved on our shooting percentage, which is a good sign for future games."
On Thursday, no Dartmouth player posted double digits in scoring.
The Eagles held reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Brittney Smith '11 to only eight points.
In the first half, BC jumped to a 7-0 lead before the Big Green bounced back with two straight shots to narrow the gap to three points.
The comeback attempt was short-lived, however, as a 17-0 run helped the Eagles soar to a 24-4 advantage, leaving Dartmouth in the dust.
Led by junior center Carolyn Swords, the home team dominated in the post during its scoring surge and kept the Big Green scoreless for almost seven minutes.
Dartmouth finally scored again with a Brittney Smith free throw midway through the first half, but the Eagles' huge opening run proved too much to overcome.
Trailing 38-13 at halftime, the Big Green shot only six for 26 from the field in the first half, while the Eagles were clearly more offensively potent, making 17 of their 29 shots from the floor.
A slow first half has doomed Dartmouth throughout the season, with the team's record at 0-9 in games when trailing at halftime.
In the second half, Dartmouth briefly held Boston College in check before the Eagles extended their advantage into a towering lead.
"On the defensive end we are performing very well, holding our opponents to scores in the lower 50s," Meyer said. "Offensively, we are struggling a bit."
Though the Big Green offense did start to heat up around six minutes into the second half, the Eagles fought fire with fire, protecting their lead with a 20-9 run down the stretch that closed the door on any chances of a dramatic comeback.
Jalea Moses '12 and Sasha Dosenko '12 each posted seven points, while Swords recorded her fifth straight double-double for BC with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Smith said that as the team heads into Ivy play, each player will have to rely more on personal work ethic and less on luck.
"Our mindset is to continue to work hard so that we can see the results of our hard work at the end of the season," she said. "We do not want to simply win games; we want to deserve to win games."
The Big Green is off for a full week before opening the Ivy season against Harvard at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Leede Arena.