Women's Basketball Hosts Cornell, Columbia for First Ivy Weekend

Dartmouth Game Notes (PDF)

The Dartmouth women's basketball team looks to extend its two-game winning-streak and 1-0 Ivy record this Friday and Saturday when it welcomes Cornell and Columbia for the first full Ivy weekend of the season.

GAMES 16 & 17: DARTMOUTH (6-9, 1-0 Ivy) vs. CORNELL & COLUMBIA

GAME 16: DARTMOUTH (6-9, 1-0 Ivy) vs. CORNELL (5-10, 0-2 Ivy)
Date: Friday, Jan. 29, 2010 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Cornell Series: Dartmouth leads, 50-11
Last Meeting: 2/27/09 • Ithaca, N.Y.
Result: Cornell W, 66-61 (OT)
Streak: Cornell +1
The Big Red was the only Ivy team to defeat Dartmouth last season, keeping the Green an overtime loss away from a perfect Ivy campaign, The Big Green is 13-3 against Cornell since 2002, including an 11-game winning streak from 2002-07.

GAME 17: DARTMOUTH (6-9, 1-0 Ivy) vs. COLUMBIA (11-5, 2-0 Ivy)
Date: Saturay, Jan. 30, 2010 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Cornell Series: Dartmouth leads, 44-7
Last Meeting: 2/28/09 • New York, N.Y.
Result: Dartmouth W, 55-53
Streak: Dartmouth +3
Dartmouth enjoyed an 11-game winning streak against Columbia from 2002-07 before the Lions won, 58-55, in 2008. The Big Green has won the last three meetings between the teams since.

MULTIMEDIA
Cornell Livestats • Columbia Livestats
Cornell Live Video ($) • Columbia Live Video ($)
Dartmouth Radio (WUVR 1490 AM) (Both Games)

THIS TIME OUT
Games Number 899 & 900. Dartmouth approaches a milestone number with its showdown against Columbia as the 900th game in program history. Closing out a four-game homestand, the Big Green also opens its two-time Ivy Title defense in earnest against Cornell, who shared the title in 2008 and Columbia, who is off to a fast start this winter. Cornell was the only Ivy team to defeat Dartmouth last season, an overtime victory in Ithaca.

LAST TIME OUT
Dartmouth defeated instate rival New Hampshire, 49-48, getting a defensive stop on the opponent's last possession for the second straight game. Meghan McFee came up with the game-winning steal with just seven seconds to play. Brittney Smith powered her way to 14 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks.

NEXT TIME OUT
Dartmouth heads south for its first Ivy road trip at Penn and Princeton next weekend.

DARTMOUTH PROBABLE STARTERS
*#10    Margaret Smith   G • SR • 6-1 • 4.9 ppg, 5.2 rgg, 74.3 FT Pct.
*#20    Brittney Smith    F • JR • 6-1 • 11.3 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 2.2 bpg
#25    Faziah Steen      G • FR • 5-8 • 7.8 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.8 spg
#32    Betsy Williams   G • SR • 6-0 • 6.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.2 apg
#34    Sasha Dosenko   F • SO • 6-3 • 7.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.3 bpg
*Returning starter

QUICK TAKE ON THE BIG GREEN
• Albeit a modest one, the Big Green is on its first winning streak of the season with two games won in a row.

• All six of Dartmouth's wins have come when either holding a lead at the half or tied, standing at 5-0 with a halftime advantage. Last season, Dartmouth was 12-1 with a halftime lead.

• Dartmouth committed just two turnovers in the first half against New Hampshire and ultimately had a season-low of just 12 for the game. It was a defensive battle, however, and the Big Green had six of those miscues in the last seven minutes as the team started to wear down.

• Brittney Smith recorded her fourth double-double of the season on 14 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in the win over New Hampshire. Smith continues to lead Dartmouth in every statistical category this season.

• 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 16.5 per game by its opponents.

ONE DOWN, 13 TO GO
Dartmouth opened its quest for a third straight Ivy League Championship with a victory over archrival Harvard, 45-44, on Jan. 16. It marked the third time in the last three years that the Big Green has beaten the Crimson in the opener and was Dartmouth's fourth straight win in the series. While one victory ensures nothing in the 14-game marathon, it's a good start as the league has no postseason tournament, and the regular season champion earns the NCAA Tournament bid.

IVY LEAGUE ELITE
Dartmouth has won 17 of a possible 33 Ivy League Championships since 1976-77. The Big Green owns at least a share of four of the last five Ivy Championships including the last two, with an outright title last season in 2009.
Dartmouth leads its all-time series against every Ivy team except Harvard, who holds a 35-31 edge. Only one other Ivy team, Penn, has more than 20 wins against the Green with 21.

ANOTHER THRILLER AT LEEDE
Dartmouth's 49-48 victory over UNH ended just as its win over Harvard did, with a defensive stop on the last possession of the game. Meghan McFee picked a UNH player's pocket as she came around to try a drive to the lane.
That win marked the first time in program history that the Big Green has won consecutive one-point games. Between the two women's games, the Dartmouth men won a one-point thriller, making it the first time that Leede Arena had ever been the site of three straight one-point Dartmouth wins.

KEEPING IT CLEAN
Dartmouth currently ranks first in the nation in fewest personal fouls committed per game, with an average of just 12.2. A big part of the Big Green's disciplined defense is not giving up points when the clock is stopped. Dartmouth was whistled for a season-low five fouls against Boston College and had only 10 in the win over Harvard on Jan. 16. Dartmouth has only had a player foul out once this season.

LOCKDOWN DEFENSE
The Big Green has played some tough, gritty defense of late, holding its last two opponents to just 44 and 48 points, respectively. Both Harvard and UNH were also held below 32 percent shooting.

SPREAD OFFENSE
Though Dartmouth was also held below 50 points in its last two games, the Big Green has gotten its scoring from a variety of sources. Against Harvard, four different players scored at least eight points with freshman Faziah Steen scoring 11 and sophomore Sasha Dosenko scoring 10, the first career Ivy start for both. Brittney Smith led the way with 14 points against UNH but four others scored at least five points, including Betsy Williams with nine.

MIXING UP THE LINEUP
Head coach Chris Wielgus used her seventh different starting lineup of the season against New Hampshire, 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.
Uncharacteristically, Dartmouth has just two players averaging more than 30 minutes per game with Brittney Smith at 35.5 and Margaret Smith at 30.5. They are also the only players to start all 15 games. Betsy Williams and Faziah Steen are the only other two players averaging more than 25 minutes per game.

CAREER DAYS
Several Dartmouth players turned in career-highs during the 49-48 win over New Hampshire on Jan. 19. Junior Brittney Smith used a career-high 16 rebounds to garner a double-double along with 14 points. Classmate Meghan McFee had a full statline that included a career-best six assists to go along with seven points and three steals. Senior Michelle Meyer turned in career-bests for both minutes played with 23 and steals with three.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Freshman guard Faziah Steen earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for her role in the Big Green's win over Harvard in its Ivy opener. Steen started early, hitting the Green's first shot of the game - a three pointer - and went on to lead Dartmouth in scoring with 11 points. The rookie came up big throughout the game, adding three steals, three assists and two rebounds to her 30-minute effort.

MARGARET MAKES IT HAPPEN
Senior guard Margaret Smith is often in the shadow of her younger sister, Brittney, but not against Harvard on Jan. 16. Up 44-43, Harvard had the ball under Dartmouth's basket with seven seconds to play and Smith made an amazing defensive play, tipping the inbound pass and then somehow tracking the ball down. She was fouled hard and coolly made both attempts in a one-and-one situation to put the Green up one, 45-44. Dartmouth held the Crimson on its final possession, with five seconds to play, to ice the victory. The two free-throws were the only points of the game for the elder Smith, who had led the defensive effort for 31 minutes.

WON'T HOLD BRITTNEY DOWN LONG
Harvard managed to hold reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Brittney Smith to just six points, though she hauled in 12 rebounds. It marked just the eighth time in 29 career Ivy games that Smith was held to single-digit scoring. Of those times, two were nine-point efforts and two involved her grabbing 10+ rebounds. Smith had scored 10+ points in seven consecutive Ivy League games leading up.

READY FOR A HOMESTAND
Dartmouth is in the midst of its longest homestand of the season, with four games at home during a two-week span. This is the first back-to-back Ivy weekend before the Big Green heads to Penn-Princeton next week and then is back home to host Brown and Yale.

SCHEDULING UP
Don't let the 6-9 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 this season and has maintained in the top-75. The teams that Dartmouth has lost to have a staggering combined record of 115-55 overall this season.
Dartmouth has played six teams in the RPI top-50 and nine in the top 120. 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 team out of the top-25 when it played Dartmouth.

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 15 games, Dartmouth has taken 274 free throws to its opponents 181. 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 175. The Green could stand to improve on its 63.9 percentage but opponents are also only connecting on 61.9 percent. Last season, Dartmouth nearly doubled up its opponents by taking 602 free throws to others 345 on the season.

WE'D LIKE TO SCORE SOME MORE
The Big Green needs to put some more points on the board as it is averaging just 49.6 points per game with a season-high of 77 points. Brittney Smith is the only player averaging double-figures with 11.3 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. In its last two games, the Big Green has kept its opponent below 50 points and on the season allows 61.1 points per game but that average drops below 60 if the two 80-point games are taken out of the statistics. Dartmouth has 118 steals on the season and 66 blocked shots - getting blocked just 38 times. 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.

Schedules