Dartmouth Tops Yale For Fourth-Straight Win

Saturday, February 9

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

YALE

2/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H.- The Dartmouth women's basketball team showed its balance tonight with five players in double-figures for the first time this season in a 73-63 victory over Yale at Leede Arena. The Big Green shot a solid 48.8 percent from the floor and an improved 73 percent from the free-throw line.

Dartmouth remains tied for first place in the Ivy League with a record of 8-12 overall, 5-1 Ivy, while Yale falls to 5-14, 3-3 Ivy. Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) led Dartmouth with 15 points and three assists while senior Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) had 14 points including a 9-of-10 effort at the free-throw line. Rookie Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) posted her fourth straight double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Craft opened the game with a bang, nailing a big three to give Dartmouth the lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the game. The Big Green's offense flowed nicely in the opening minutes, building a 15-5 lead at 14:14. Yale's Haywood Wright stopped the run with a triple at 14:07 to cut the lead to 15-8.

The teams traded buckets and Yale pulled within one, down 18-17 at 6:44 after a Wright jumper. Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) hit a pair of free-throws at 5:43 that would start a 17-5 Dartmouth run to close the half. Sydney Scott's (Houston, Texas) two from the line with 34 seconds left ended scoring for the period with Dartmouth up, 35-22.

The Big Green started the second half with a three from Schram before four-straight turnovers allowed the Bulldogs to cut the lead to 10, down 38-28 at 16:39. Dartmouth composed itself and put together a 14-2 run during the next five minutes to build its lead to 52-30 at 11:31.

The Bulldogs would not back down, however, and used 11 trips to the free-throw line in seven minutes to pull within nine, down 58-49 at 4:16. Yale would cut the Dartmouth lead to just seven points, down 62-55, at 2:08 after a pair of made free-throws by Stephanie Marciano.

The Bulldogs chose to foul late and the Big Green hit 11-of-14 from the line to keep the visitors at bay. Marciano hit several big shots late, but it was too little too late for Yale. Craft was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line in the final minute of play for Dartmouth.

Betsy Wlliams (Norwich, Vt.) posted 12 points for the Big Green while Scott finished with 10. Margaret Smith was solid off the bench with nine points, seven rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes of play.

Marciano led Yale with 18 points while Melissa Colborne had 12 points.

The Big Green hits the road for a critical Ivy trip to Columbia on Friday night and Cornell on Saturday.