Women's Hoops Holds off Holy Cross for 67-62 Win

Saturday, January 2

Worcester, Mass.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Holy Cross

Dartmouth Women Top UNH in Thriller, 49-48

Women's Hoops Holds off Holy Cross for 67-62 Win

1/2/2010 3:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Worcester, Mass. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team started the new year with a victory, holding off a pesky Holy Cross squad for a 67-62 victory today.

Dartmouth (4-8) used a 21-2 first half run to build a 14 point lead in the first half and led Holy Cross (3-11) by 13 at halftime. Midway through the second half, a 13-1 run saw the Crusaders cut the lead to seven and they made a game of it for the entire second half. The Big Green steadied itself down the stretch, however, and hit key free throws to hold onto its lead and the critical win.

Dartmouth's junior class led the way throughout, with Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) recording 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Classmate Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) came off the bench to score 14 points off 4-of-5 shooting from three as did Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio), who drained three triples for a career-high nine points.

The Big Green shot a blazing 55.6 percent in the first half to go up 40-27, leading by as many as 17 during the period. Dartmouth cooled a bit in the second but still shot 44.6 percent for the game and had assists on 19 of 25 field goals. Holy Cross shot a steady 43.1 percent for the game.

Holy Cross held the upperhand in the early goings, breaking a close 4-3 game with a 7-0 run to go ahead 10-4 at 16:41 off a bucket by Whitney Fremeau. A McFee three stopped the run but Holy Cross responded to make it 12-7 at 15:34.

Dartmouth then rattled off a staggering 21-2 run started with four-straight points from Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine). The Big Green's run included 15 unanswered points to double up the Crusaders, 28-14 at 6:27 after a Michelle Meyer (Covington, Ohio) three. Bethany O'Dell stopped the bleeding with a jumper at 6:21 and Holy Cross pulled within 10, down 30-20 at 5:07. Dartmouth built its biggest lead of the game, up 17, after a McFee triple and layups by Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) and Brittney Smith for a 37-20 advantage at 2:26. Holy Cross closed the half on a 7-3 run to make it 40-27 at halftime.

Dartmouth opened the second half on an 11-3 run to build a 51-30 lead at 18:05 off a McFee three. Holy Cross answered with a 10-0 run to slice the lead to 51-40 and would keep pace with the Big Green. Brianna McFadden converted a conventional three-point play to cut it to single digits, down 52-45 at 10:26. Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) answered with one of her own to pull Dartmouth back up by 10, 57-47, at 8:32, but Holy Cross would not back down.

The Crusaders traded buckets with the Big Green and eventually made it a two possession game, down just four, 62-58, after an Amy Lepley three at 2:48. Brittney Smith scored three straight to put Dartmouth ahead 65-58 with 1:35 to play, but the Crusaders got to 60 with two free throws by Fremeau after a rebounding foul.

Smith missed the front end of a one-and-one on Dartmouth's next possession and the Green allowed McFadden to score two rather than giving up a three for a 65-62 lead with 14 seconds to play. Smith iced the win with her next trip to the line, hitting both to go up 67-62 for good.

Holy Cross finished with four players in double figures led by Lepley's 13. Dartmouth held both McFadden and O'Dell to just 10 points each, below their season averages.

Dartmouth has a short break before returning to Massachusetts this Thursday night to take on ACC power Boston College on Jan. 7 at 7 p.m.