Winning Streak Moves to Nine as Dartmouth Women Top Cornell, 55-36

Saturday, February 14

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Brittney Smith Named Ivy League Player of the Week

Winning Streak Moves to Nine as Dartmouth Women Top Cornell, 55-36

2/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? A monster rebounding effort and buckle down defense led the Dartmouth women's basketball team to a 55-36 win over Cornell at Leede Arena tonight.

The win was Dartmouth's ninth-straight and it moved the Big Green to 12-9 overall and 7-0 in the Ivy League, good for first place after the first go-around in Ivy play. Cornell dropped to 7-13, 3-5 and Dartmouth owns a two-game lead in the Ancient Eight after Columbia defeated second-place Harvard, dropping the Crimson to 5-2.

Dartmouth commanded the rebounding game with a 52-26 advantage while holding Cornell to just 21.4 percent shooting.

The Big Green had another balanced effort tonight, with senior Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) again leading the way with 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Sophomore Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) had her way inside, hauling in 14 rebounds and scoring nine points while her sister, Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) added nine points including a 7-of-7 effort from the line in 19 minutes. Sophomore guard Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) hauled in 11 boards and seven points.

Cornell had just one player in double figures with Allison Abt adding 11 points. The Big Red's top two scorers, Lauren Benson and Shannan Scarselletta were held in check, with Benson going scoreless and Scarselletta adding just four points and four boards.

Cornell scored the first bucket of the game off a long jumper by Abt but Brittney Smith scored inside and Schram nailed a big three to put Dartmouth up 5-2 for good at 17:16. Smith's opening bucket started a 13-2 Dartmouth run that extended the Big Green's lead to 13-4 off another Schram three at 12:21.

The Big Green got stuck at 13 for several minutes while the Big Red scored six unanswered to make it 13-8 at 8:23. Margaret Smith converted a conventional three-point play that ignited a 9-2 Dartmouth run capped by a pair of free throws by senior Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) to make it 22-10 at 4:14.

Cornell could not get anything to fall in the first half while Dartmouth closed on a late surge, scoring seven points in the final two minutes including two jumpers by Rose. Virginia McMunigal mustered Cornell's only three of the half late but the damage was done as Dartmouth led, 31-17, going into the break.

The Big Green took nearly five minutes to score in the second half, but only game up four points on the other half before Margaret Smith hit a pair of free throws at 15:28. Abt drained a three for the Big Red at 15:10 to cut the Dartmouth lead to 33-24 at 15:10 while the Green mustered only two free throws during the next four minutes. The Big Red got four-straight to make it a 35-28 game at the 11:10 mark before Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) went strong to the hoop to make it 39-28 Big Green at 9:30.

That bucket seemed to ignite Dartmoouth, starting a 9-0 run that ended with a back-breaking triple from Schram, her fourth of the night, to make it 44-28 at 8:36. The Big Red had one more run left, scoring five unanswered points to make it 44-33 at 7:28 but it could never get the lead back to single digits. Brittney Smith hit a pair of free throws at 5:32 to start an 11-3 Dartmouth run to close out the game.

Cornell managed just three points in the final 7:28 of the game and Dartmouth had its largest lead, up 22 points, 55-33 at 2:34. Both teams went to their benches and every available player on both squads saw action in the contest. Dartmouth's reserves kept the pressure steady and the Big Green cruised to the 55-36 win.

Dartmouth only shot 34 percent from the floor but was above its average from the charity stripe, hitting 18-of-21 free throws for an 85.7 percent effort.

The Big Green is home at Leede Arena again next weekend, first taking on Penn on Friday night at 7 p.m.