Taylor's Career Night Sends Dartmouth Past Holy Cross, 68-44

Thursday, January 18

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

Holy Cross

Taylor's Career Night Sends Dartmouth Past Holy Cross, 68-44

1/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. - Senior guard Ashley Taylor (Cookeville, Tenn.) scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Dartmouth women's basketball team to a 68-44 victory over Holy Cross tonight. She dominated the game, scoring from all over the court including two triples and a 6-7 effort at the free-throw line.

The Big Green improved to 6-9 overall with the win while the Crusaders dropped to 6-13.

Dartmouth opened the game with a bang, as sophomore Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) and Taylor hit back-to-back threes and junior Sydney Scott (Houston, Texas) converted a conventional three-point play. The Big Green went up 11-0 before a defensive shift by Holy Cross allowed it to go on a 15-2 run, taking a 15-13 lead at 9:09.

Both teams duked it out for the remainder of the half, but Taylor and center Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) combined for the Big Green's last nine points of the period to go up 30-22 at the break.

After a hot start to the half, the Big Green's shooting cooled to 34.6 percent while the Crusaders shot just 27.6 percent from the field.

The Big Green started the second half strong, taking a 34-22 lead at 18:23, forcing a Holy Cross timeout. The Crusaders went on a 10-0 run during the next three minutes including three consecutive triples.

Tayana Carper hit a jumper to pull her team within three, down 40-37 at 13:00, but Taylor hit a pair of free throws that would start an amazing 28-7 Dartmouth run to close the game.

Holy Cross got three points from the free-throw line in that stretch, but did not score another field goal until just 11 seconds remained in the game - nearly a 13-minute drought.

Dartmouth improved to 44.1% shooting in the half while Holy Cross was at just 26.9 percent.

Taylor added six rebounds and four steals to her 30-point effort. She was joined in double figures by Schram with 11 and Rose with 10. Junior Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) came off the bench to add five assists, five rebounds, four points and two steals.

Every Dartmouth player saw action in the game, including freshman Michelle Meyer (Covington, Ohio), who scored her first collegiate points and finished with four.

Dartmouth forced 17 Holy Cross turnovers and committed just eight itself.

Senior Brittany Keil led the Crusaders with a double-double on 12 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes of work.

The Big Green will be back in action on Friday Jan. 26 when it heads to Brown for a rematch of last year's Ivy League play-off semifinal.