Each week The Numbers Game will break-down one Dartmouth sport’s statistic.
This week’s number: 62 – Number of double digit scoring games in Lakin Roland ’16’s Dartmouth career.
Lakin Roland ’16 may be the most talented athlete at Dartmouth that nobody seems to ever talk about. The Jeffersonville, Indiana native just wrapped up her senior season in Hanover in which she started all 30 games and led the Big Green to its best finish since 2009. Roland did it all for Dartmouth this past year, leading the team in scoring, field goal attempts per game, field goals made per game, total rebounds per game and offensive rebounds per game. Although she shouldered most of the offensive and defensive load for the Big Green, the 6-foot forward still remained highly efficient on both ends of the floor. Roland was able to shoot a respectable 40 percent from the field while also forcing defenses to guard her behind the 3-point arc where she made 32.4 percent of her attempts. For her play this year, Roland was named to the First Team All-Ivy squad.
If we look at Roland’s entire career here in Hanover, it becomes clear that she is truly a special talent. Always the type of player with a marquee flair for the the dramatic, Roland made SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays during her junior season with a spectacular catch and finish buzzer beater to force overtime against the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Roland’s development of a respectable 3-point shot during her time at Dartmouth shows that she is a player who works diligently in the offseason to improve her game. She attempted only two threes in her first two collegiate seasons, but in her final two campaigns she attempted 245 threes and converted on 82 of these attempts.
This past year she became only the 16th player in school history to record 1,000 career points and finished her career with 1,236 total points in 2,936 minutes. She also recorded 11 games in which she scored more than 20 points. Roland scored in double figures in an astonishing 62 contests in the 112 games she played for the Big Green, highlighting her remarkable consistency over her decorated four-year career.
If we compare Roland to other Dartmouth women’s basketball standouts throughout the years her 62 career double digit scoring games still ranks well. Teammate Fanni Szabo ’17 ranks 17th on the all-time scoring list and has recorded 35 games in which she has scored more than 10 points. Roland also recorded more double digit scoring games than former Ivy League Player of the Year, Brittney Smith ’11 — in her illustrious four-year career, Smith recorded 60 of these games. Faziah Steen ’13, arguably the best player to go through the program in recent memory, recorded 73 double digit scoring games in her career.
Looking forward, Roland’s tremendous basketball talents have given her a chance to possibly play professionally. She was recently invited to attend the 2016 Women’s National Basketball Association Professional Combine where she performed admirably and was selected to play in the All-Star showcase which took place in the same weekend. Although she was not selected during the 2016 WNBA Draft back in April, her strong showing at the combine coupled with her illustrious career at Dartmouth give Roland a strong chance of playing professionally after graduation.
The Dartmouth women’s basketball team will lose key contributor Daisy Jordan ’16 in addition to Roland next year. After posting a much improved 7-7 record in Ivy League play this year, head coach Belle Koclanes will need impact sophomores Szabo and Kate Letkewicz ’18 to take their games to the next level if the program wants to continue its upward trajectory.
