Balanced Effort Sends Dartmouth Past UNH, 62-49

Tuesday, January 13

Durham, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

Balanced Effort Sends Dartmouth Past UNH, 62-49

1/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Durham, N.H. ? Early defense and late scoring gave the Dartmouth women's basketball team a 62-49 victory at New Hampshire this evening.

The Big Green (5-9, 1-0 Ivy) got a balanced effort throughout, led by 12 points and eight rebounds each from Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) and Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas). Smith added five steals to her statline as well. New Hampshire dropped to 3-13 with the loss.

After trading buckets early on, Dartmouth jumped out to a quick 11-5 lead at 14:05 capped by five-straight points from Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas). The Wildcats used the three-ball to get back in it as back-to-back triples from Candace Williams and Amy Simpson helped cut the Big Green lead to 13-11 at 12:40.

Dartmouth's quick hands and aggressive defense stopped the Cats in their tracks for a five-minute span while the Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) started the Green increasing its lead to 19-11 at 9:42. UNH stopped the bleeding with a runner from Abigail LaRosa and a Kate Early lay-up. The Big Green kept pace on its own offensive end but the Wildcats cut the lead to four, down 22-18 with a big three from LaRosa at 4:15.

That would be the last of the offense for the half for New Hampshire, while Brittney Smith powered one home inside and Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) drilled a three to give Dartmouth a 27-18 halftime lead.

The Big Green shot 43 percent from the floor in the period and snagged seven steals with an impressive defensive effort, also limiting New Hampshire to 28 percent shooting.

Dartmouth stormed out of the gates in the second, opening on an 8-2 run including four points from Margaret Smith to extend its lead to 35-20 at 17:04. UNH was without a field goal until Simpson had a shot bounce up and in at 12:38, at which point Dartmouth led 40-25. Early added another for the Wildcats to cut it to 13 before the Big Green scored five of its own capped by a Cassie Cooper (Augusta, Maine) three to make it 45-27 at 9:15.

Out of a timeout, Dartmouth endured a three minute drought while allowing UNH to cut the lead to 12 with six-straight points including a LaRosa three. Rose got the Big Green back on the board at 6:03 before Brittney Smith converted a three-point play to bring the lead back to 50-33 at 5:01.

The Big Green got a little loose with the basketball down the stretch, committing costly turnovers that made it take longer to put the Wildcats away. Simpson hit some big shots down the stretch to allow UNH to keep it close, but Dartmouth had the game in hand thanks to solid free-throw shooting from Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) and Jacky Nikic (Longwood, Fla.) to make it 62-46 with 30 seconds to play. Simpson had one more three in her to take the final to 62-49, Dartmouth.

Margaret Smith rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points and six rebounds for Dartmouth. Simpson and Williams led UNH with 21 and 16 points, respectively.

Dartmouth takes an 11-day break before heading to Bryant for its final non-conference game on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 1 p.m.