Women's Basketball Stays Alive in Ivy Race with 62-52 Win at Yale

Friday, March 7

New Haven, Conn.

7:00 pm

Dartmouth College

YALE

Women's Basketball Stays Alive in Ivy Race with 62-52 Win at Yale

3/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

New Haven, Conn. - It was gut check time for the Dartmouth women's basketball team and the Big Green responded with a 14-4 run in the last eight minutes to down Yale, 62-52.

Dartmouth (13-14, 10-3 Ivy) remains in the Ivy League hunt with the win while Yale dropped to 8-18 (6-7 ivy). Harvard (11-2 Ivy) won its game tonight, but should it lose to Yale tomorrow and Dartmouth top Brown, it could tie for the title and force a playoff.

Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) had a monster game, scoring 20 points along with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) and Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) joined her in double-figures with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Williams got the Big Green going early, scoring the first six points of the contest as part of a 9-0 Dartmouth run in the first 15:39. The Bulldogs proved they would not lie down easily, responding with a 13-6 run of their own to make it 15-13, Dartmouth at 7:11.

Schram kicked it into high gear, scoring the Big Green's next seven points to give her team a 22-16 lead at 3:52. The teams traded buckets for the balance of the half and Dartmouth took a 31-26 advantage into the locker room. The Big Green was an economical 10-of-20 from the field but 15 turnovers made it unable to fully capitalize on the hot hand. Yale shot just 29.6 percent for the period.

The Big Green scored the first four points of the second half to take a 35-23 lead at 18:05 and it looked poised to hold the advantage for good. Yale climbed back to within five points, down 40-35 at 15;17. Dartmouth had another run to go up 46-35 after a conventional three-point play by Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine).

Yale would not back down, however, and despite having starters on the bench in foul trouble, managed an impressive 13-3 run fueled by Mady Gobrecht to tie the game at 48-48 at 8:05.

Dartmouth flexed its muscles, however, when Brittney Smith hit a layup off a feed from Schram to start a 14-4 Dartmouth run in which four different players scored. Schram hit a back-breaking three to put the Big Green up 56-48 at 5:16 and the defense rallied to force six missed shots and six missed turnovers by Yale down the stretch.

The Big Green shot a solid 46.5 percent from the floor but hit just 18-of-30 free throws while Yale hit only 32.7 percent of its shots. The Bulldogs won the battle of the board with 36 caroms to the Big Green's 34.

Dartmouth held Yale's Melissa Colborne to just four points, well below her season average and Stephanie Marciano was 0-for-7 from the field, scoring just two points on free-throws. Gobrecht had a double-double for Yale with 14 points, 10 rebounds.

Dartmouth has another big game tomorrow night when it heads to Brown for a 7:00 p.m. start.