Dramatic Comeback Falls Short as Dartmouth Falls to Rhode Island, 58-57

Tuesday, December 29

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

RHODE ISLAND

Wielgus Enters 25th Season as Dartmouth Preps for 2009-10 Campaign

Dramatic Comeback Falls Short as Dartmouth Falls to Rhode Island, 58-57

12/29/2009 9:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team battled back from a 16-point deficit in the second half but could not get a lead in a heartbreaking 58-57 loss to Rhode Island.

The game was the second of the 2009 Blue Sky Classic at Dartmouth. Rhode Island improves to 6-6 with the win while Dartmouth drops to 3-7. Vermont (9-2) defeated Dayton (10-3) in the first game, 75-68.

Junior forward Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) turned in her second-straight double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds along with five steals and three assists. No other Dartmouth player got to double figures, but Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) had eight points and five boards off the bench and Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) had eight points and three steals.

Dartmouth used two critical runs and five big threes to slice what had been a 16-point second-half deficit to trail by just one point in the final minute. The Big Green shot 52.2 percent from the floor in the second half while holding Rhode Island to just 28.6 percent to dig out of a 12-point halftime hole.

The closing minutes proved dramatic after Williams hit a big three after an offensive rebound to cut the URI lead to 58-56 with just 1:07 to play. URI missed two shots on its next possession before turning the ball over and fouling Brittney Smith with 18 seconds to play. Smith hit just one of two at the line to make it 58-57 before Rhode Island's Anisha Wilson gave Dartmouth a huge break by missing two free throws with 15 seconds on the clock. The rookie Steen put up a three with five seconds to play but missed off the front iron. Dartmouth sent URI to the line again and the Rams missed both, allowing the last two seconds to tick off without a Big Green shot.

The first half was a frustrating 20 minutes for Dartmouth, who could not close the gap to less than seven points after getting itself into a 16-point deficit in the first seven minutes. Rhode Island opened the game on a 9-0 run before Brittney Smith and Steen converted on back-to-back possessions to make it 9-4 at 16:18.

The Rams answered right back with a staggering 12-1 run to build a 21-5 lead after an Ashley Rivera three and an Anisha Wilson fastbreak bucket at 13:25. Brittney Smith stopped the bleeding with a layup at 13:06 to make it 21-7, jumpstarting a 9-0 Big Green run. Michelle Meyer (Covington, Ohio) hit two big threes to cut the lead to 21-14 at 11:01.

Just when Dartmouth seemed set to storm back, Rhode Island answered with back to back jumpers to go up 25-14 at 8:37. Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) cut the deficit to its smallest of the half, 27-21 with a three at 5:15, yet the Rams had another big run in them. Rhode Island closed the half on an 8-2 run to take a 35-23 lead at halftime. The Rams shot 46.4 percent from the floor in half to the Big Green's 25 percent.

Each team hit a three in the opening minute of the second half to keep the differential the same, before URI built the advantage to 42-26 at 17:17 after a Lara Gaaspar fastbreak bucket. Dartmouth stormed back and a big three from Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) to cut it to 44-31. That started a 7-0 Dartmouth run with back to back buckets by Brittney Smith making it 44-36 at 13:31.

The Rams got the lead back up to 12, 48-36 at 9:24 before Dartmouth went on a big 7-0 run with four points from Brittney Smith capped by a huge three by Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) to slice it to 48-43 at 7:39. Following a called timeout by URI, Williams nailed another triple and Steen scored in the lane off a URI turnover to make it 50-48 with 5:59 to play.

In keeping with the tempo of the contest, Rhode Island extended its lead back to seven points with a 5-0 run capped by a Harris layup at 3:52 to make it 55-48. The teams traded buckets before Dartmouth got key stops and Williams drained another three to cut the lead to 58-56 with 1:07 to play, setting up the dramatic final minute.

The Big Green has another big test tomorrow when it takes on another Atlantic-10 foe in Dayton, who is just the second team out of the top-25 this week. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Leede Arena. Vermont faces Rhode Island at 5 p.m.