Dartmouth Tops Columbia, 59-41, on Senior Night

Saturday, March 1

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 pm

Dartmouth College

COLUMBIA

Women's Basketball Has Sights Set High in 2007-08

Dartmouth Tops Columbia, 59-41, on Senior Night

3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team sent its seniors out in style and remained in the Ivy League title hunt with a 59-41 win over Columbia tonight.

The Big Green improved to 12-14 (9-3 Ivy) while Columbia dropped to 9-17 (6-6 Ivy). Dartmouth moved into a tie for second in the Ivies with Cornell (17-8, 9-3 Ivy) while Harvard took possession of first place at 10-2 Ivy.

Senior Kristen Craft (Marshalltown, Iowa) led all scorers in her final home game with 14 points along with six rebounds and three assists. Fellow senior Sydney Scott (Houston, Texas) added 12 points and nine rebounds while Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) joined them in double figures with 12.

Dartmouth made up for its 32.6 percent shooting night through defense and rebounding, holding the Lions to just 41 points on 25.4 percent shooting while winning the battle of the boards, 48-40.

Dartmouth opened the first half on a 12-0 run and never looked back. The Big Green held the Lions scoreless until the 15:38 mark when Brittney Carfora hit a jumper to stop the bleeding for her team. The positives were short-lived for Columbia, however, as Dartmouth rattled off another 10-0 run to increase its lead to 22-2 after a Brittney Smith (Houston, Texas) layup.

The Lions would not score their second bucket of the half until 8:10 with a Katrina Cragg layup to make it 22-4. The Big Green scored five-straight to take its largest lead of the half up 27-4 at 4:54 after a Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) jumper. Columbia did manage to hold Dartmouth without a field goal for the final 4:54 while outscoring the home team 5-0 to make it 28-9, Big Green at halftime.

The second half was much more interesting, as Columbia quickly reached the double-digit mark and went on a 13-6 run to cut the Big Green lead to 37-22 at 13:59. The Lions press gave Dartmouth fits and Columbia's Michelle Gage scored five-straight points to make it 40-31 at 8:56.

Columbia would never get the Dartmouth lead below nine, however, as the Big Green rattled off an 8-2 run to rebuild the lead to 48-33 at 5:08 after a pair of free-throws by Scott. Dartmouth closed the game on an 11-8 run including four-straight by Williams to take the 59-41 win.

Dartmouth had three rebounders with nine boards, including Scott, Brittney and Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas).

Danielle Browne was Columbia's leading scorer with 12 ponts while Gage finished with 10.

The Big Green takes to the road with its Ivy Title hopes next weekend when it faces Yale on Friday, March 7 and Brown on March 8. Both games tip at 7:00 p.m.