Dartmouth Women Drop Heartbreaker to Northeastern

Thursday, November 29

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

NORTHEASTERN

Dartmouth Women Headed For Showdown at Maine

Dartmouth Women Drop Heartbreaker to Northeastern

11/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H. - Dartmouth's defense was firing on all cylinders but Northeastern slowly chipped away to earn a 57-50 victory tonight at Leede Arena.

The Big Green drops to 0-5 while the Huskies improve to 3-2. Senior guard Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) led all scorers with 14 points along with six rebounds while rookie Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) posted her first career double-double on 11 points, 12 rebounds. Her sister, sophomore Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) had 12 rebounds and eight points while junior Koren Schram (Batesville, Arks.) added 12 points and two steals.

The Smith sisters led Dartmouth's monster rebounding game, holding a 45-28 advantage, but the Big Green's 27 turnovers told the story on the night.

Dartmouth jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead with three-straight layups before Jasmine Crew provided Northeastern's first points on two made free-throws. The Big Green buckled down and its lead inflated to 15-2 by 11:17, forcing a Northeastern timeout. The Huskies got their first field goal of the game at 10:53 when Kendra Walton stopped the drought with a jumper.

That bucket started a staggering 10-0 Northeastern run in which Dartmouth was held scoreless for nearly seven minutes until rookie Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) hit a jumper to make it 17-14 at 4:18. The teams traded baskets down the stretch and Dartmouth took a 24-20 lead into the locker room after a jumper by Craft.

Northeastern scored first in the second, but Dartmouth opened a 10-0 run to take a 34-22 lead at 13:32 after a triple by Schram. Northeastern continued to claw back and costly Dartmouth turnovers allowed the Huskies to pull within three, down 41-38 at 6:15 after a three by Ashlee Feldman.

Feldman struck again with just 4:49 left to give her team its first lead of the game, up 43-41. It became a possession game and Craft tied it up for Dartmouth with two big free-throws at 2:03 to make it 47-47. Shaleyse Smallwood hit a pair of her own to regain the lead for Northeastern, up 49-47 and the Huskies would hold that advantage for the remainder of the game.

Northeastern went 6-of-6 from the free-throw line in the last 26 seconds to seal the 57-50 victory.

Walton had a double-double for Northeastern with 14 points, 10 rebounds while Jasmine Crew added 14 points off the bench.

Dartmouth shot a season-best 42.4 percent from the field and held the Huskies to just 32.3 percent, well below their season average of 43 percent.

The Big Green is back in action on Tuesday when it heads to Sacred Heart for a 7:00 p.m. tip.