Dartmouth Women Down Penn, 55-36, For Tenth Straight Win

Friday, February 20

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Penn

Dartmouth Women Down Penn, 55-36, For Tenth Straight Win

2/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. -- As the second round of Ivy play began, Dartmouth's defense continued to be an unsolvable riddle for the Ancient Eight as the women's basketball team defeated Penn, 55-36, in front of 1,450 at Leede Arena tonight.

Winner of its last 10 games, Dartmouth moves to 13-9, 8-0 Ivy and remains in first place while Penn drops to 6-16, 3-5 Ivy, snapping its three-game winning-streak. In addition to its balanced scoring and lockdown defense, the Big Green took care of the ball, committing a season-low nine turnovers while forcing Penn into 18 miscues.

The Big Green's post play proved a difference maker as sophomore Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) led all scorers with 17 points and five rebounds while senior Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) posted 13 points, eight boards. Penn had just one player in double-figures as Jerin Smith finished with 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Dartmouth again held the Ivy's top scorer, Carrie Biemer (18 ppg average) in check as she added nine points for the Quakers, but did score her 1,000th career point in the process.

Brittney Smith started the game off well, hitting two from the charity stripe to give the Big Green its first lead of the game on its first possession. Dartmouth got the ball inside on the next two trips down the court before Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) drained a three at 16:14 to give the Big Green a 9-4 lead.

The Quakers were not going to lie down, however, matching the Big Green and cutting the lead to three, down 13-10 at 14:00. A Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) three put Dartmouth back up by six before Biemer scored three-straight to make it 16-13 at 11:43.

Things stagnated from that point and the score was stuck for more than five minutes before a Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) jumper finally broke the drought and put Dartmouth up, 18-13, at 6:12. The Big Green allowed the Quakers to pull within four, 21-17, at 2:47 off an Erin Power jumper, but powered to halftime, scoring eight points in the final 1:07 of the half. After Brittney Smith missed the extra shot of an and-one play, Rose got the rebound and Dartmouth scored four points in two seconds. Schram and Rose went four-of-four from the line in the last 30 seconds to put the Big Green up, 29-17 at halftime.

Penn opened the second half with some confidence, outscoring Dartmouth, 6-3, in the first five minutes to cut the lead to 32-25 at 15:05. The Big Green rattled off a 7-2 run that included three points from Cooper to rebuild the lead to double-digits, up 39-27, at 11:18. Once again the Quakers would not go quietly and they cut the lead back down to eight after a Katarina Lackner layup at 9:09 to make it 39-31.

Then, Dartmouth got down to business. Six-straight points from Rose started a back-breaking 10-0 Dartmouth run that inflated the lead to an insurmountable, 49-31, at 5:28. All in all, Dartmouth outscored Penn, 16-5, in the final 8:36 of the game. The Quakers last points were scored with 4:13 on the clock as the Big Green buckled down to ice the win.

Every available Dartmouth player saw time in and contributed to the win.

In addition to being the Big Green's 10th-straight win, tonight's game marked the sixth-straight game in which its opponent was held below 50 points, with four of the last six held below 40. A Dartmouth opponent has not scored 60 points in regulation since Dec. 29.

The Big Green has another big test tomorrow night, Saturday, when it hosts Princeton at 7 p.m. at Leede Arena. Tonight. Harvard (6-2 Ivy) came back from a 19-point halftime deficit to defeat the Tigers (4-4 Ivy) and the Crimson remain firmly in second place, with every other Ivy team carrying at least four losses.