Dartmouth Women Falter in Season Opener at Northwestern

Friday, November 12

Evanston, Ill.

8:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Northwestern

Dartmouth Women Falter in Season Opener at Northwestern

11/12/2010 9:49:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

EVANSTON, ILL. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team battled but Northwestern's inside presence proved too strong in a 66-37 season-opening defeat for the Big Green.

Big 10 country continued to be unkind to Dartmouth, which fell to 1-7 all-time against the conference, meeting Northwestern for the first time tonight.

All-Big 10 center Amy Jaeschke used every bit of her 6-5 presence to exploit the Big Green inside, finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds and defensively limiting inside touches for Dartmouth.

Senior Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) was solid for Dartmouth, finishing with 12 points and 14 rebounds for her 25^th career double-double. Sophomore Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) was the second leading scorer with nine points, spurring a second-half comeback.

Dartmouth trailed 35-14 at halftime, but stormed back in the second half to cut the lead to only 14, but was unable to get any closer and the Wildcats flexed their muscles to pull away.

Northwestern came out strong, opening the game on a 7-1 run to take that lead at just the 18:26 mark. The Big Green responded with an 8-5 run started by a Smith jumper and capped by a free throw by Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) to make it 12-9 at 13:47. Northwestern got four quick points but Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) hit a long jumper and blocked the 6-5 Jaeschke to give her team a shot in the arm, down 16-11 at an 11:49 media timeout.

It was all Northwestern from that point, however, as the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run to build a 23-11 lead before Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) had a great take, driving the lane to make it 23-13 at 9:23.

Dartmouth's defense kept it in the game for the next three minutes, as it managed to keep Northwestern off the scoreboard for 3:40 to offset its own scoring drought. Northwestern's Brittany Orban got things going with a layup at 5:07 to go up 27-13 while the Big Green stayed cold. The Wildcats used a full court press and it paid off as Dartmouth did not have another field goal for the half and scored just one point, a Dosenko free throw, in the final 9:23. Dartmouth trailed, 35-14 at the half after shooting just 20.8 percent.

Dartmouth took to its halftime adjustments and stormed to a 7-0 run to open the second half, starting with a big three from Steen, to cut it to 35-21 at 18:01. The Wildcats responded in turn with a 7-0 run of their own to make it 42-21 at 16:22, but the Big Green would not be broken. Dartmouth answered right back with a 9-2 run including five points from Steen to make a game of it, down 44-30 at the 13:20 mark.

Just as in the first half, however, the Big Green's shooting cooled off and Northwestern took advantage, going on a 12-1 run to go up 56-31 a 6:07. Despite the scoring drought, Dartmouth scrapped on every single possession, but struggled to get good looks against the Wildcats' pressure. Smith finally lit up the Big Green's side of the scoreboard at 3:31 with a nice reverse layup.

Dartmouth substituted freely in the final three minutes as did the Wildcats, who continued to fire three-pointers that helped inflate the led to 64-35 with 1:04 to play. Smith hit a pair of free throws before Northwestern's Hale put in a layup for the final, 66-37.

The Big Green takes on another set of Wildcats on Tuesday night, Nov. 16, when it travels to instate rival New Hampshire for a 7 p.m. tip.