Dartmouth Women Hold Off Yale for 61-51 Victory

Friday, March 6

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Yale

Dartmouth Women Hold Off Yale for 61-51 Victory

3/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? Yale would not go quietly but the Dartmouth women's basketball team closed out strong to get one step closer to the Ivy title with a 61-51 victory tonight.

The Big Green (16-10, 11-1 Ivy) needs one more win to clinch at least a share of the Ivy title. Yale (11-16, 4-9) hit some big shots midway through the second half, but Dartmouth went on a late 10-0 run to put the game out of reach. The two teams combined for 41 fouls and the Big Green took 32 free throws, but had it not uncharacteristically made just 17 of them, the game would not have been nearly as close.

Senior guard Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) scored a game-high 15 points including eight points in the final 2:25 to seal the win. She was joined in double figures by Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas), who had 14 points and seven boards in 28 minutes of work while frontcourt mate Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) added nine points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) stepped up to the plate when Rose and Smith were sidelined with foul trouble, coming up with eight points and six rebounds in an efficient 17 minutes.

Yale's Yoyo Greenfield contributed 15 points and Melissa Colborne added 13.

Dartmouth opened the game on a spirited 11-5 run that included six points from Brittney Smith and a big three from her sister, Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas). The teams started buckets but Dartmouth maintained a 16-7 lead after a Cooper layup at 12:54. The Bulldogs responded with a 6-0 run capped by a Mady Gobrecht backdoor cut to make it 16-13 at 11:02.

The teams kept pace with each other and Yale's Michelle Cashen took it to 20-17, Dartmouth, at 6:43 off a pair of free throws. Those points would prove to be Yale's last of the half, as Dartmouth closed on a 7-0 run including five points from Rose and capped with a Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) runner to make it 27-17 at the break. Schram hoisted up a 55 footer just as the buzzer sounded and it popped in off the backboard but she did not get the shot off before time expired.

Margaret Smith opened the half with a jumper to extend Dartmouth's lead to 12 before Yale sliced it in half with back-to-back threes by Greenfield and Brianna Segerson. It was a game of “anything you can do, I can do better” as Schram stepped up and hit two triples of her own just 32 seconds apart to rebuild the lead, up 35-23 at 15:26.

Yale outscored Dartmouth 11-5 during the next five minutes to cut the lead to 40-34 following a pair of free throws by Ashley Carter. Carter gave it right back on the other end, however, when she fouled Cooper who drained a pair to get the Big Green back in the right direction. The teams traded buckets and Brittney Smith and Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) had Dartmouth ahead, 49-39, by the 5:24 mark.

The Bulldogs had one more push left in them, however, going on an 8-1 run that sliced the lead to just three, 50-47, off a Greenfield triple at 3:45. Dartmouth remained calm and Schram took matters into her own hands, driving the lane on consecutive possessions, getting two free throws out of the first and a conventional three-point play on the second. McFee put Dartmouth ahead, 58-47, before Yale cut it back to nine with less than a minute left. The Big Green moved the ball around on its next trip down the court and fittingly, Schram put the exclamation point on the win with a dagger three and Dartmouth held on for the 61-51 win.

The Big Green committed only 12 turnovers in the loss while snagging nine steals including five by Meghan McFee. McFee did a number on Colborne, personally turning her over four times.

Dartmouth shot the ball well from the floor, 42.6 percent for the game and 66.7 percent from three, but hit only 17-of-32 at the line. Yale converted 34.8 percent of its shots and went just 5-of-18 from three-point range.

The Big Green hosts Brown tomorrow night on Senior Night for Schram and Rose. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.