Women's Hoops Falls to Marist in Home Opener

Sunday, November 18

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

MARIST

11/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H. - A cold-shooting night plagued the Dartmouth women's basketball team in a loss to Marist, an NCAA Sweet 16 team a year ago, in its home-opener at Leede Arena today.

The Red Foxes built an early lead and cruised to the 71-35 victory. At 0-3, Dartmouth is still searching for its first win of the season while Marist improved to 3-1.

Senior point guard Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) led the Big Green with 11 points while Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) had a game-high nine rebounds.

The Red Foxes came out of the gates hot and never looked back after building an early 15-3 lead off a Nikki Flores jumper at 12:17. Dartmouth sophomore Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) stopped the run with a jumper at 11:13 to take it to 15-5.

Marist inflated its lead to 27-8 before a modest 6-0 Dartmouth run started by a triple from Craft to make it 27-14 by 2:15. The Red Foxes scored five-straight to take the 32-14 lead at halftime.

The Big Green's defense stepped up in the early goings of the second half, holding the Red Foxes to just seven points in the first eight minutes. Unfortunately, Dartmouth was unable to capitalize on the Foxes' turnovers and the visitors kept pace, up 39-20 at the 12-minute mark.

Dartmouth got a spark of life at 11:18 when junior shooting guard Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) nailed her first triple of the night to make it 41-23. Much to the crowd's pleasure, the Green got a stop on defense but could not convert on the next possession.

Marist capitalized on that and went on an 8-0 back-breaking run to take a 49-23 lead at 8:57. The Red Foxes' tuned up the offense down the stretch and the Big Green never threatened much again offensively, taking the final to 71-35.

Elise Caron and Julianne Viani each had 14 points to pace Marist. The Red Foxes held a 42-36 rebounding advantage, marking the first time this season that Dartmouth had been out-rebounded.

The Big Green gets back to work this week to prepare for a post-Thanksgiving tango at St. John's at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 25.