Hot Shooting Trojans Down Dartmouth Women's Hoops

Saturday, December 19

Los Angeles, Calif.

4:30 PM PST/7:30 PM EST

Dartmouth College

Southern California

Hot Shooting Trojans Down Dartmouth Women's Hoops

12/19/2009 9:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

LOS ANGELES - Pac-10 power USC drained 11 three-pointers en route to a 78-46 win over the Dartmouth women's basketball team this evening in the Women of Troy Classic.

The Trojans shot a sizzling 48.3 percent from the floor for the game, including a big second half in which they stretched the lead to 33 points within the first five minutes.

Dartmouth was led by Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) with 12 points while Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) had nine points and seven rebounds. Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. The Trojans had three players in double figures including 18 off the bench by Heather Oliver.

For the second-straight game, Dartmouth was uncharacteristically kept off the free throw line and the lack of foul calls gave the Trojans key defensive rebounds and fast breaks all game. After taking just two at the line in the first, Dartmouth took 14 free throws in the second for 16 total, many coming at the end of the game.

The Big Green did command the boards, outrebounding the bigger Trojans, 40-37.

Another anemic shooting performance in the first half doomed the Big Green early on in, hitting just 22.2 percent from the field. Dartmouth got the ball to its posts, but struggled to put it away against the Trojans, who got away with plenty of contact inside. Defensively, Dartmouth forced eight turnovers but the Trojans shot 45.2 percent from the floor and hit six back-breaking threes in the first 20 minutes.

Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) gave Dartmouth its first points of the game at 18:26 before Briana Gilbreath responded for USC a minute later. The Big Green's defense buckled down, but the offense went cold until a Dosenko bucket at the 14:46 mark, which made it a 5-2 game. Ashley Corral hit the first of her three triples at 11:54 and Brittney Smith responded with a jumper to make it a manageable 12-8, Trojans at 11:17.

USC then rattled off a 7-0 run to build a 19-8 advantage before a Williams threeball at 7:42. The Trojans responded with 10 unanswered points to go ahead 29-12 after back-to-back threes at 4:47. Dartmouth mustered just six more points in the final five minutes of the half while USC continued its offensive tear, building a 38-18 advantage at the break.

The Trojans opened the second half on an absolute tear, forcing four consecutive Dartmouth turnovers and scoring seven points in just the first minute to go up 45-18. Dartmouth did not score until 16:57 and didn't get its first field goal until Williams hit a three at 16:02, at which point US led 52-22. USC hit four-straight threes while limiting the Big Green to tough takes inside to go ahead 61-29 at 11:16.

USC went on a 7-0 run to build a 68-29 lead off a Gilbreath jumper at 10:15 before Steen took it hard to the hoop to stop the bleeding at 10:05. Williams nailed another three at 9:32 but it was quickly answered right back by another Trojans triple from Daniela Roark.

The teams traded buckets down the stretch before Dartmouth closed on a positive note. Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) hit a big three at 4:37 followed by one from Williams that would start a 10-4 Big Green run to end the game, capped by a nice take by Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio). The Trojans did not score in the last 2:48.

The Big Green has a quick turnaround before its 3 p.m. (PST) start tomorrow against either Delaware State or Cal State-Bakersfield.