Big Green Hangs Tough Before Falling at Colorado

Friday, December 21

Boulder, Colo.

9:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Colorado

Dartmouth Faces Holy Cross in New England Showdown Tonight

Big Green Hangs Tough Before Falling at Colorado

12/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Boulder, Colo. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team (1-8) dropped a hard-fought battle against the University of Colorado (8-2) tonight, 57-43, at the Coors Center.

It was a 10-point game until the last minute when the Buffaloes, who are the top vote recipient outside the top-25 (26th) and are predicted to crack it this week, sealed the victory with late free-throws down the stretch.

Senior Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) and junior Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) each had 11 points to pace the Big Green. Craft added seven rebounds, four assists and four steals to her statline. Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) neared a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds in just 24 minutes of play.

The Buffs struck first in the game but Dartmouth answered back and the teams were tied at 9-9 at 13:52 after a layup by Smith. Colorado rallied to take a 15-10 lead after a conventional three-point play by Kara Richards at 12:58.

Dartmouth rallied from that point to go on a 10-0 run started and ended by threes from Schram to take a 20-15 lead at 10:00. The Big Green went cold late, however, and the Buffaloes took advantage to go on a 20-4 run to close the half and take a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

The Big Green opened the second half on a modest 5-0 run to cut the Colorado lead to six points at 17:09 after a bucket by Sydney Scott (Houston, Texas). The Buffaloes stormed back and increased their lead to 11, up 44-33 at 10:51, but Dartmouth would not go quietly, cutting it to 46-39 by 9:13.

Both teams stalled offensively late and after taking a 51-39 lead at 6:04 off a Brittney Spears triple, Colorado was held without a field goal until the last 17 seconds of the game. Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) hit a jumper at 3:48 to make it 51-41 but both defenses buckled down for the balance of the game.

Colorado's All-American forward Jackie MacFarland had been held to just eight points in the contest until she went 4-of-4 from the free-throw line in the last minute to seal the win for her team and bump her total to 12 points. Craft closed the scoring for the game with a nice jumper with six seconds left to take it to the final 57-43.

Dartmouth struggled to knock down shots, shooting just 23.4 percent from the floor after a 47 percent performance on Wednesday. Colorado, who had a sizeable height advantage, held just a 43-40 edge in rebounding.

MacFarland had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds to lead Colorado while Spears finished with 13 points and nine boards. Dartmouth forced 22 Colorado turnovers while committing only 15 itself.

The Big Green returns to Hanover and the friendly confines of Leede Arena to host the Blue Sky Classic on Dec. 29-30. Dartmouth opens the Classic against Marquette at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday Dec. 29.