The Dartmouth women’s basketball team played Cornell University in their second Ivy League game on Jan. 10, losing 61-52 to drop to 0-2 in Ivy League play.
Cornell got off to a hot start, ending the first quarter with a 19-6 lead. The Big Green shot just 3-13 from the field and went 0-3 from behind the arc.
“When you start out the game after the first quarter down 19 to 6, you’re kind of in a hole and trying to dig yourself out,” assistant coach Shelby Boyle said.
The Big Red sustained their lead in the second quarter, going into halftime up 29-17. In the first half, Cornell outrebounded Dartmouth 23-16, and scored 12 points off 10 offensive rebounds.
“Allowing a team to have 12 points off of 10 offensive rebounds in the first half is a tough stat line for us,” forward Catherine MacDonald ’27 said. “We know in order to win games, we have to rebound.”
Boyle noted that the team “didn’t follow the scouts to the best of our ability.”
Cornell extended their lead in the third quarter, outscoring Dartmouth 15-11. The Big Red shot 50% overall, and went 3-5 on 3-pointers.
Dartmouth’s defense came alive in the fourth quarter, holding Cornell to just two points in the first five minutes of the period.
“We just came out way more aggressive and started rebounding, boxing out, playing better defense,” Alexandra Eldredge ’27 said. “All the little things that we needed to start the game with, came together in the fourth quarter.”
The Big Green narrowed the deficit to seven with 50 seconds left in the game. However, time was not on their side, and they fell 61-52.
Boyle said she believes the Big Green’s slower style of play made it difficult to come back after falling behind early.
“What you get out of being one of the slowest teams is we’re holding teams to some of the lowest points in the country, but it definitely makes it harder to crawl out of those deficits,” she said. “Part of our preparation this week was trying to play a little bit faster and flow into our offense a little more naturally, and I don’t think it translated well into the game.”
MacDonald led the Big Green in scoring with 12 points, while guard Zeynep Ozel ’28 and Eldredge each put up 10 points. Dartmouth’s bench contributed eight points, and the Big Green scored 10 points off of turnovers.
MacDonald and forward Olivia Austin ’28 led the team with six rebounds each. Ozel and Eldredge also had five assists each.
The Big Green found success in the paint, scoring 28 down low. They were less successful from the three-point line, with just three of their 18 3-pointers falling.
“The message going forward for us is we have to utilize our post game more,” Boyle said. “3's aren’t exactly falling for us right now. We have to find a way to score in the paint, or at least get those paint touches and then facilitate open threes.”
Boyle said she believes the team’s identity is defense and rebounding, but that the question is, “does that identity show up on game day?”
Dartmouth’s loss brings them to 0-2 in Ivy League play and 9-6 overall. The Big Green previously lost their Ivy League opener to Harvard, 72-47, on Jan. 3.
Boyle is optimistic about the team’s future, despite their recent losses.
“We like who we have in our locker room. We have full faith in our players. So I think it’s just a few tweaks that need to be made and we can be on the right path,” she said.
MacDonald says that going forward, the team has clear goals to work toward.
“If we’re able to rebound and if we’re able to have a bunch of players right around the 10-point margin, that’s when we’ve seen success in the past,” MacDonald said.
The Big Green will head to New Jersey to play Princeton at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17. The Tigers are 14-1 overall and 2-0 in Ivy League play.
