Sophomores Lead Dartmouth to 69-56 Win over Wagner

Tuesday, December 30

Hanover, N.H.

5:00

Dartmouth College

Wagner

Sophomores Lead Dartmouth to 69-56 Win over Wagner

12/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H. ? The Dartmouth women's basketball team made good in the consolation game of the Blue Sky Classic as sophomores Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) and Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) combined for 38 points in a 69-56 win over Wagner (4-7).

Boston College defeated Fairfield, 62-57, to clinch the 2008 Blue Sky Classic title.

McFee had a monster game off the bench for the Big Green (3-8) with a career-high 14 points, four rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block in 27 minutes. Classmate Brittney Smith posted a double-double with a career 24 points and 11 rebounds. McFee was a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range while Smith was a flawless 10-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Senior guard Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) scored the first of her 10 points on the opening possession, starting a back-and-forth half. Schram and McFee drilled back-to-back threes to put Dartmouth up 16-14 at 12:14. The half featured six lead changes and three ties including a 16-16 stalemate minutes later before Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) stole the ball and got it ahead to Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) for a score in the paint.

Cooper's bucket started a 9-4 Dartmouth run capped by a Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) jumper at 5:37 to go up 29-20. The Big Green maintained the advantage for the balance of the half, though Andrea Reed pulled her team within five, down 34-29 with 1:34 to play. Smith scored the last two of the half from the line and the Big Green took a 36-29 lead into the break.

Dartmouth picked up where it left off in the second, opening on a 16-6 run including back-to-back buckets by Smith and Cooper in the paint and capped by McFee triple to go up 54-35 at 13:52. The Seahawks tried to creep back in but Rose and Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) kept them at bay with consecutive scores to give Dartmoutha 19 point lead, up 58-39 at 10:49.

The Seahawks had some fight left in them and Stephanie McBride got her three-point stroke going to spur an 11-1 run that cut the Big Green's lead to just nine points, down 59-50 at 5:42. Rose got Dartmouth out of its funk with a jumper at 3:35 and the lead never dipped below nine again.

Brittney Smith put the game out of reach with a jumper at 1:48 and Dartmouth held Wagner to just two points in the last three minutes to seal the 59-56 win.

Rose finished with a solid 11 points, seven rebounds for the Big Green while Margaret Smith added five points and seven boards. Williams struggled from the floor but added six rebounds and matched her career-high with five assists.

Wagner had three players in double-figures including Casey Stokes with 15, McBride with 14 and Reed with 12.

Dartmouth is back in action this Sunday, Jan. 4 when it hosts Holy Cross at Leede Arena at 2 p.m.

2008 Blue Sky Classic All-Tournament Team

Baendu Lowenthal, Fairfield, SR, F
Stephanie Geehan, Fairfield, JR, F
Andrea Reed, Wagner, JR, G
Mickel Picco, Boston College, JR, G
Koren Schram, Dartmouth, SR, G
MVP: Stephanie Murphy, Boston College, SO, F