BACK TO BACK CHAMPS - Dartmouth Women Clinch 17th Ivy Championship

Saturday, March 7

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Brown

BACK TO BACK CHAMPS - Dartmouth Women Clinch 17th Ivy Championship

3/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? The Dartmouth women's basketball team clinched at least a share of its 17th Ivy Championship with a 64-43 win over Brown tonight. The Big Green is one game ahead of Harvard and hosts the Crimson on Tuesday with the NCAA Tournament bid on the line.

The championship is Dartmouth's league-leading 17th overall and 12th under current head coach Chris Wielgus. Dartmouth has won at least a share of four of the last five Ivy titles.

With a one-game lead, should Dartmouth (17-10, 12-1 Ivy) lose to Harvard (11-2 Ivy) on Tuesday the teams would be co-champions and would meet in a one-game playoff for the NCAA automatic bid.

The Big Green shook off an early Brown (3-25, 1-13 Ivy) lead by closing the first half on a 13-2 run to take a 29-19 lead at halftime. It was all Dartmouth in the second as the Big Green built its lead and held on tight. Every Dartmouth player saw action in the win and nine of 11 scored. Dartmouth held a commanding advantage on the glass, outrebounding Brown 50-21.

Sophomore Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) led all scorers with 20 points and 11 rebounds while Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) added her third double-double in the last four games with 11 points and 11 rebounds. She was joined in double figures by fellow senior Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) who had 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) also added 10.

Dartmouth controlled the pace of the game and held Brown to just 30.6 percent shooting and no Bear player scored in double-figures or had more than three rebounds. Christina Johnson added nine points off the bench for Brown.

The Big Green opened up an 14-6 lead in the first half capped by back-to-back threes from Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) and Schram at 11:48. Brown responded, however, with 9-0 run to take a 15-14 lead off a conventional three-point play by Amy Ehrhart at 7:57. Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) regained the lead with a layup before Ehrhart put Brown back up, 17-16, at 7:11.

Dartmouth bucked down for the remainder of the half, going on a 13-0 run featuring four different scorers to go up 29-17 at 2:06. Brown scored once more before the half for the 29-19 halftime score.

The teams kept pace with each other early in the second and Dartmouth was up 39-28 at 12:35 off Johnson triple. A pair of Schram free throws on the next possession started a 14-6 Big Green run, inflating the lead to 19, up 53-34 after a Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) layup and a Schram triple at 5:39.

McFee got the Dartmouth lead above 20 with a three at 3:50, up 57-36, and the Big Green put it on cruise control from there. The teams were even in the final three minutes with Dartmouth's last points coming on a putback by Jacky Nikic (Longwood, Fla.) for the 64-43 final.

Dartmouth hosts Harvard a 7 p.m. this Tuesday night March 10 at Leede Arena. ��