Dartmouth Women Battle Back, but Fall to Hartford

Sunday, November 22

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

HARTFORD

Dartmouth Women Battle Back, but Fall to Hartford

11/22/2009 5:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth women's basketball team had a strong second half against an impressive Hartford squad, but a first-half deficit proved insurmountable in a 70-41 loss this afternoon.

Dartmouth drops to 1-2 while Hartford, which counts 2009 NCAA Finalist #19 Louisville among the teams it has beaten this year, improves to 3-1 overall.

The Big Green played a tough second half, outscored only 29-27 before the Hawks hit two threes in the final minute of play. First half turnovers resulted in a 35-14 Hartford lead at the break but Dartmouth cut the advantage to just 13 midway through the second half by shooting 41 percent from the floor. The Hawks responded, however, and reinflated the lead for the final, 70-41.

Hartford's work on the boards proved a difference maker as they held a staggering 49-23 advantage in one of Dartmouth's worst rebounding outputs in recent history.

Junior Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) paced the Big Green with nine points and eight rebounds along with three blocks. Seniors Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) and Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas), contributed nine and eight points, respectively. Hartford had three players in double-figures led by New Hampshire native Alex Hall, a freshman, who scored 20 points while Diana Delva tallied a double-double on 12 points and 11 boards.

Hartford scored the game's first seven points to take a 7-0 lead at the 17:30 mark and never looked back. Brittney Smith finally got the Big Green on the board at 16:30 and the buckets continued until Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) pulled her team within five at 12:27, down 12-7. Hartford responded with a back-breaking 12-0 run to inflate its lead to 24-7 at the 6:37 mark off a Ruthanne Doherty fast break layup.

Williams stopped the bleeding for Dartmouth with a three from Margaret Smith at 6:10 to make it 24-10. Hartford capitalized on turnovers down the stretch in the half, however, and got five points from Amanda Weaver to build the halftime advantage to 35-14.

The Big Green came out with a clear fire in the second half, locking down on defense earl and getting a boost from six points by Williams to cut the lead to 37-20 at 16:02. Hartford managed to maintain that edge until Dartmouth went on a 6-0 mini-run started by freshman Kelsey Byrd (Saratoga, Calif.) and capped by classmate Kylie Kufeld (Billings, Mont.) to cut it to 41-28 at 10:06. That was a shot in the arm for Dartmouth, which got a stop on the next possession but ultimately gave up an offensive rebound that Doherty putback for the 15 point edge.

Brittney Smith kept the deficit at 15 with a layup from her sister Margaret at 8:20, down 45-30, but Hartford responded with a 6-0 run to build the lead to 51-30 a 7:02. Dartmouth seemed to gain its best opportunities at the line, where Margaret Smith stemmed a Hartford run by hitting 5-of-6 to keep it a 20 point game, down 56-36, by 4:45. The Big Green continued to play aggressive and effective defense, but the Hawks managed offensive rebounds against the smaller Dartmouth lineup to keep the Green playing defense for long stretches.

Dartmouth had the advantage down to 18 after a Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) triple at 3:11, but could not get any closer down the stretch. Hartford did not stop shooting in the final two minutes, including eight points in the final 1:24 to make a once 22-point deficit into a tougher to swallow, 70-41 final. Dartmouth committed just six of its 19 turnovers in the second while forcing nine of Hartford's 16 in that period. The hawks got 29 of their points off Big Green miscues.

Dartmouth has yet another tough test in its grueling non-conference schedule this week when the team heads up I-89 to take on another America East foe in Vermont, on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.