Comeback Falls Short as Cornell Tops Dartmouth Women's Basketball

Saturday, February 16

Ithaca, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Comeback Falls Short as Cornell Tops Dartmouth Women's Basketball

2/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Ithaca, N.Y. ? The Dartmouth women's basketball team mounted a furious comeback in the closing minutes against Cornell before falling 50-43 to the Big Red.

Cornell took sole possession of first place in the Ivy League with the win, moving to 15-6 (6-1) while Dartmouth fell to 8-14, 5-3 Ivy. Sydney Scott (Houston, Texas) led Dartmouth with a season-high 15 points while Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) had 12 points, putting forth an impressive effort on both ends of the court.

The Big Green trailed by 15 points, down 41-26, with just 6:33 left in the game before going on a 12-0 run fueled by senior guard Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa). Craft hit a pair of big free-throws and drove the lane for a layup and teamed up with Schram to play buckle down defense, stifling the Big Red's guards. Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) capped the run with a jumper at 2:17 to make it 41-38, Cornell.

The Big Red hit a pair of free-throws before Williams nailed another jumper to keep pace. After one made free-throw by Jeomi Maduka, Schram nailed a huge three to make it 46-43, Cornell with 41 seconds left. Dartmouth chose to foul late and Cornell hit four of six from the line to keep the Green at bay.

Dartmouth struggled from the outset and was held scoreless until 14:52 when Scott hit a pair of free-throws to finally get the Big Green on the board. Cornell's lead inflated to 12 points up 14-2 at 10:52 before Scott scored on a nice move inside for Dartmouth's first field goal at 9:58 to make it 14-4.

Slow and steady was the course for Dartmouth who used its defensive momentum to chip away at the Cornell lead. Scott's bucket started a 13-3 Big Green run to take it to 17-15 at 2:25. The Big Red rallied late with four-straight points from Jeomi Maduka to take halftime score to 21-17, Cornell.

Dartmouth shot a woeful 25 percent from the floor in the game while Cornell hit 41.5 percent but was well below its scoring average. The Big Green had an uncharacteristically tough night on the boards, getting outrebounded 39-25.

Craft, who along with Schram battled illness all weekend, posted four points along with three steals, two assists and one block. Dartmouth's leading scorer Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) was held to just four points but had a team-high seven rebounds. Jeomi Maduka had 15 points and 12 rebounds to pace Cornell.

Dartmouth will look to regroup this week before hitting the road again to face Penn on Friday and Princeton on Saturday.