Big Green Tops Crimson in Thrilling Ivy Opener, 52-47

Saturday, January 5

Cambridge, Mass.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Brittney Smith Named Ivy Rookie of the Week

Big Green Tops Crimson in Thrilling Ivy Opener, 52-47

1/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Cambridge, Mass. - Two of the Ivy League's fiercest rivals opened the conference slate with a bang today as Dartmouth downed Harvard on the Crimson's homecourt, 52-47.

Road wins are always critical in the Ivy League and a true team effort allowed Dartmouth to improve its record to 3-9, 1-0 Ivy while Harvard fell to 7-8, 0-1 Ivy.

The Big Green led by as many as 16 points in the first half and 15 in the second, but Harvard posted a valiant comeback effort to take a one-point lead in the second half, up 39-38 with six minutes remaining. Dartmouth closed the game on a 14-8 run, however, to take the game.

Dartmouth's backcourt duo of Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) and Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) each scored a team-high 12 points and combined for 12 rebounds and seven steals. Rookie Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) hauled in her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Katie Rollins led Harvard with 18 points while Adrian Budishack had a team-high 10 rebounds.

Harvard's Lindsay Hallion scored the first basket of the game but Craft answered with a three to give Dartmouth the lead it would maintain for the balance of the half. Dartmouth's defense led to offense as the Big Green held the Crimson in single digits until the 6:06 mark when Rollins hit a jumper to make it 21-10.

Dartmouth kept at it, inflating its lead to 16 points, up 26-10 at 2:57 after a jumper by senior Sydney Scott (Houston, Texas). Harvard closed the half on a 7-3 run to make it 29-17 at the half.

Schram opened the second half with a spark, scoring five points in the first minute to extend the Big Green lead to 34-19. The Crimson put together several solid possessions before Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) hit a jumper to make it 38-28 at 12:23.

The Big Green then went stone cold, not scoring for nearly seven minutes while allowing Harvard to go on an 11-0 run to lead 39-38 at 6:18 before Smith stopped the bleeding with a layup at 5:49, regaining the 40-39 lead.

The teams traded buckets and Dartmouth held a slight 44-43 lead at the 3:00 mark. Dartmouth called a timeout and ran a great offensive set as Scott found her classmate Craft who drilled a huge three at 2:37 to extend the Dartmouth kead to 47-43.

Harvard would not quit and Rollins delivered back-to-back buckets in the paint to tie it at 47-47 at 1:29. In the last minute of play, Craft missed a jumper but Scott hauled in the offensive rebound and putback with 52 seconds remaining to give Dartmouth the 49-47 lead it would not relinquish.

Dartmouth put the pressure on defensively and Schram came up with a huge steal and sprinted towards the basket. She could not slow down in time and missed the layup, but Smith was right behind her to snag the rebound and compose herself for the putback to seal the win. Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) hit the front end of a one-and-one to clinch the 52-47 victory.

Dartmouth shot a solid 38.8 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three-point range while Harvard hit 34 percent of its shots and just 20 percent of its long range attempts.

The Big Green controlled the glass, outrebounding the Crimson 38-33 led by the Smith sisters 20 combined boards.

Dartmouth is back in action on Wednesday when it hosts New Hampshire at 7:00 p.m.