Boxscore
New York ? The Dartmouth women's basketball team had three chances to tie
the game in the last minute, but Columbia
held on for a 58-55 win tonight to snap an 11-game losing streak to the Big
Green.
The Big Green moves into second place in the Ivies with a
record of 8-13, 5-2 Ivy while the Lions improve to 8-13, 5-2 Ivy. Cornell
topped Harvard tonight to pull themselves into first place at 14-6, 6-1 Ivy and
drop the Crimson into the three-way tie for second at 5-2 Ivy.
Dartmouth led by as many as
11 points in the second half but Columbia
used a series of conventional three-point plays, drawing foul calls inside to
close the gap. The Lions took a three point lead at 1:36 after one such play by
freshman Lauren Dwyer, going up 56-53.
Rookie forward Brittney Smith (Fort
Worth, Texas) scored
inside to cut the lead to one with 1:00 remaining before Dwyer got back to the
line to give her team a three-point lead. The Big Green had two looks from
three-point range on the next possession but could not get one to fall.
Dartmouth fouled Columbia's Brittney Carfora but she missed the front end
of a one and one and Sydney Scott (Houston, Texas) grabbed the
rebound and called a timeout with 4.9 seconds on the clock. The Big Green raced
the ball up the court and got a shot off at the buzzer than spun around the rim
before falling off.
Smith led all scorers with a career high 22 points along
with eight rebounds and two assists. Scott was just shy of a double-double with
nine points and nine rebounds.
The teams traded buckets in the early goings of the game
until Columbia
railed off a 10-4 run to take an 18-12 lead at 8:08. The Big Green battled back
to go on an 8-2 run of its own to tie the game at 20-20 with 2:17 left in the
first. It was even in the final minutes and the score was knotted at 24-24 at
the half.
After Columbia scored two quick buckets to open the half,
Dartmouth went on a 13-0 run in less than five minutes to take a 37-28 lead at
13:37. The Lions battled back but Dartmouth
kept at it and a Smith layup at 10:59 saw the Green take its largest lead of
the night, up 11 points, 43-32.
The Lions would not go quietly, punching out a 15-5 run
capped by a Michele Gage triple to cut the lead to 48-47 at 6:06. Columbia kept at it and
took its first lead of the night off a Sara Yee jumper to go up 51-50 at 3:38.
Gage was then fouled shooting a three and hit two of her free-throws to make it
53-50 at 3:10. Scott and Smith tied the game for Dartmouth at 53-53 with 2:04 remaining before
Dwyer's eventual game-winning three-point play at 1:36.
Dwyer finished with 21 points and eight rebounds and was
joined in double figures by Gage with 11 and Carfora with 10.
Dartmouth has its work cut
out for it tomorrow when it heads to Cornell for a critical matchup at 7:00
p.m. in Ithaca.
