Women's Hoops Opens Ivy Title Defense Against Harvard on Saturday

Dartmouth Game Notes

The Dartmouth women's basketball team begins the defense of its Ivy crown this Saturday night when it hosts rival Harvard at 7 p.m. for "Pack the House" night at Leede Arena, with a variety of free admission opportunities and in-game promotions.

There will be giveaways of shaker poms and rally towels as well as a drawing for a basketball signed by the entire women's basketball team.

Dartmouth will be granting FREE ADMISSION to educators at all levels including teachers and any educational personnel. All Town of Hanover employees will also receive FREE ADMISSION. Tickets must be reserved in advance by contacting Josh Hartman at 603-646-1486 or Joshua.Hartman@dartmouth.edu.

Dartmouth Athletics is also trying to better last season's student attendance record of 220, set at the Ivy Championship-clinching win over Harvard.

Pack the House is an NCAA-sponsored initiative to promote women's college basketball. Dartmouth is part of both a nation and league-wide challenge to have the highest percentage increase in single-game attendance from last season and to sell-out Leede Arena.

GAME 14: DARTMOUTH (4-9) vs. HARVARD (9-4)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 7, 2010 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Harvard Series: Harvard leads, 35-30
Last Meeting: 3/10/09 • Hanover, N.H.
Result: Dartmouth W, 64-51
Streak: Dartmouth +3
Dartmouth and Harvard get together on the court for the 66th time in one of the most storied rivalries in all of women's college basketball. The two programs have won a combined total of 28 Ivy League Championships since 1976, with Dartmouth taking 17 to Harvard's 11. The pair forms the most formidable travel partner duo in the Ivy League. The two head coaches are 20-20 against each other heading into today's match-up. Dartmouth has won the last three meetings against Harvard and four of the last five, including a sweep en route to the Ivy title in 2008-09.

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THIS TIME OUT
Game Number 897. Dartmouth opens its Ivy League title defense with a bang against rival Harvard. It marks the start of the 34th season of Ivy play for the Big Green. Today's game starts a four-game homestand for Dartmouth.

LAST TIME OUT
Dartmouth took a tough loss at ACC foe Boston College on Jan. 7. Despite some stretches of solid defense, the Big Green had little answer for the Eagles' potent inside attack.

NEXT TIME OUT
Dartmouth has a quick turnaround before hosting instate rival New Hampshire on Tuesday, Jan. 19 and then a 10-day lay-off before its first Ivy weekend when Cornell and Columbia come to town.

Dartmouth Probable Starters:
*#10    Margaret Smith   G • SR • 6-1 • 5.1 ppg, 5.3 rgg, 71.9 FT Pct.
*#20    Brittney Smith    F • JR • 6-1 • 11.5 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.0 bpg
#25    Faziah Steen      G • FR • 5-8 • 7.5 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.6 spg
#32    Betsy Williams   G • SR • 6-0 • 6.3 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 38.7 3-FG Pct.
#34    Sasha Dosenko   F • SO • 6-3 • 6.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg
*Returning starter

QUICK TAKE ON THE BIG GREEN
• Sophomore forward Jalea Moses gave Dartmouth a second-half boost off the bench at Boston College on Jan. 7. Moses scored seven points on 3-of-3 shooting and grabbed a block and a steal in an efficient 13 minutes.

• Dartmouth took only 13 free throws in the loss at Boston College while BC had just five attempts. It was a loosely officiated game, with the teams combining for only 16 fouls including a season-low of five for Dartmouth.

• Dartmouth should look to decrease its turnovers (20.1 per game) as Ivy play begins, but the miscues have not been a dooming factor overall as the Big Green has forced 17 per game by its opponents.

• Meghan McFee came off the bench for just the second time this year against Holy Cross, scoring 14 points including four triples. There's been something about that sixth man spot that Dartmouth's guards have taken to, as Betsy Williams averaged 8.8 points per game coming off the bench in the previous five games.

• Junior Brittney Smith leads Dartmouth in every statistical category including 11.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 26 blocks, 24 steals, 23 assists.

OPENING THE IVY SEASON
While tonight's Dartmouth-Harvard match-up is not the first game of the 2009-10 Ivy season, it is undoubtedly the early marquee matchup. Dartmouth has won 17 of a possible 33 Ivy League Championships since 1976-77 while Harvard has owned an impressive 11 titles. Dartmouth has won at least a share of four of the last five Ivy Championships including the last two, with an outright title last season in 2009.
At least one of the two teams has finished first or second in the Ivy League in the last 24 seasons — you have to go back to 1984-85 to not find either team in the top two. Many years, the two have finished first and second including sharing the title in 2005, a Dartmouth title (three-way, with Harvard fourth) in 2006, Harvard first and Dartmouth second in 2007, a three-way tie including both in 2008 and Dartmouth first and Harvard second in 2009.

READY FOR A HOMESTAND
Dartmouth is back at Leede Arena for its longest homestand of the season, with four games at home during the next two weeks. The Big Green hosts Harvard tonight before a quick turnaround to face instate rival New Hampshire on Tuesday. Then it's 10 days off before welcoming Cornell and Columbia for Dartmouth's first back-to-back Ivy weekend on Jan. 29-30.

FAMILIAR FOES MEET AGAIN
Dartmouth and Harvard are battling on the hardwood for the 66th time today with Harvard holding a 35-30 lead in the series. Dartmouth has played against Harvard more times than any other Ivy opponent and the Crimson is the only Ivy team to lead an all-time series against the Big Green. Only one other Ivy team, Penn, has more than 20 wins against Dartmouth with 21.

DEANS OF THE IVY LEAGUE
The two coaches for today's game, Dartmouth's Chris Wielgus and Harvard's Kathy Delaney-Smith are the longest-tenured coaches in Ivy women's basketball. Wielgus is in her 27th year as a head coach and 25th at Dartmouth while Delaney Smith has spent her entire 27-year career at Harvard. Wielgus began at Dartmouth in 1976 and coached through the 1983-84 season, overlapping just two years with Delaney-Smith, who began at Harvard in 1982. The rivalry was renewed in earnest when Wielgus returned to Hanover in 1993-94, winning her first four against the Crimson. The two 400-win coaches are facing each other for the 41st time, each with 20 wins in the series.

WE'D LIKE TO SCORE SOME MORE
The Big Green needs to put some more points on the board as it enters Ivy play averaging just 50 points per game with a season-high of 77 points. Brittney Smith is the only player averaging double-figures with 11.5 points per game. In recent years, Dartmouth's teams have not been the most offensively potent, including last season when the team went 18-11 averaging 56.6 points per game. The team traditionally builds up its scoring average as the season goes on and the motion offense develops.

... BUT DEFENSE GETS IT DONE
Conversely, Dartmouth has been a defense-first team in the last several seasons and this year is shaping up to be more of the same. Dartmouth is allowing 63.4 points per game but that average drops below 60 if the two 80-point games are taken out of the statistics. Dartmouth has 104 steals on the season and 53 blocked shots - getting blocked just 33 times. Despite a high number of turnovers at 268, the Big Green has forced nearly as many of its opponents at 220. The Big Green expects that having played one of the nation's most challenging and diverse schedules will have the defense prepared for the rigors of Ivy play.

GETTING TO THE LINE ...
And keeping opponents off it. The Big Green has picked up where it left off last season by getting to the free throw line often and keeping its opponents away from it. In just 13 games, Dartmouth has taken 250 free throws to its opponents 164. Each game, the Big Green tries to make more free throws than its opponents take and on the season is also nearly at that point, making 160. The Green could stand to improve on its 64.0 percentage but opponents are also only connecting on 62.2 percent. Last season, Dartmouth nearly doubled up its opponents by taking 602 free throws to others 345 on the season.

MIXING UP THE LINEUP
Head coach Chris Wielgus used her sixth different starting lineup of the season against Holy Cross, though no lineup has involved a change of more than one player from the previous game. Overall, nine players have started at least one game this season. Dartmouth has seen multiple combinations in its last three games, including some four-guard fronts, giving many players a chance to prove themselves.
Uncharacteristically, Dartmouth has just two players averaging more than 30 minutes per game with Brittney Smith at 35.1 and Margaret Smith at 30.4. They are also the only players to start all 13 games. Betsy Williams and Faziah Steen are the only other two players averaging more than 25 minutes per game, and 11 players average at least 10+ minutes.

SCHEDULING UP
Don't let the 4-9 record fool you. Dartmouth is playing the most challenging non-conference schedule in the Ivy League to prepare itself for a run at the Ivy title. The Big Green's strength of schedule ranked as high as eighth in the nation in the Sagarin ratings and 14th in Jerry Palm's. The teams that Dartmouth has lost to have a staggering combined record of 97-44 overall this season.
Dartmouth has played five teams in the RPI top-55 and eight in the top 105. In addition to #25 Syracuse, three of the first four opponents on the schedule were receiving top-25 votes and Dayton ranked as high as 20th and was just the second (AP)/third (Coaches) team out of the top-25 when it played Dartmouth.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE
To replace a shooter. So far, Dartmouth is struggling to find a go-to three-point shooter to replace graduated senior Koren Schram. Last season, Schram hit 64 threes for more than half of the team's total 124 and also scored more than half for the team in 2007-08 (70 of 120). So far this year, the Big Green has seven players that have hit at least five treys with three hitting at least 10. Betsy Williams and Meghan McFee lead the charge with 12 each.

SHOOTERS GETTING ON TRACK
Dartmouth's long-range shooters have been cranking out three-pointers of late, producing a season-high of eight against both Holy Cross (1/2) and Rhode Island (12/29). In the win over Holy Cross, Dartmouth shot a season-high 43.1 percent from the floor overall to go along with 8-of-21 three-point shooting.

SHE PLAYS DEFENSE & PASSES TOO
Junior Brittney Smith isn't just the Big Green's top scorer and rebounder at 11.5 points, 9.2 boards per game. She also leads the team in blocks (26), steals (24) and assists (23). Smith has displayed her diversity recently with six blocks against Delaware State, five steals against Rhode Island, four blocks against Dayton and six assists at Holy Cross.

NOT OFTEN ALLOWING 80
Dartmouth gave up 84 points to Boston College on Jan. 7, marking just the fifth time since 2006 that the Big Green has allowed that many points, with two of those coming in overtime and triple overtime games. Earlier this season, the Big Green gave up 83 points at Vermont on Nov. 25 and also surrendered 82 to the Catamounts last year in triple overtime. Dartmouth allowed 82 points to #1 Maryland in the NCAA Tournament last season and to UConn (95) in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

Schedules