Hot-Shooting Wildcats Down Big Green, 65-52

Tuesday, November 16

Durham, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

11/16/2010 8:58:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire outhustled the Dartmouth women's basketball team and shot 52 percent en route to a 65-52 win at Lundholm Gym tonight.

After a tie in the first three minutes, Dartmouth (0-2) never tied or held a lead again the game as New Hampshire (1-1) commanded the boards, 38-28 and scored 32 points in the paint. The Big Green made things interesting late, getting to the free throw line and getting some key stops, but was unable to get off critical three-point attempts in the final two minutes.

The Wildcats succeeded in limiting touches for Dartmouth's Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas), who finished with six points though Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) led all scorers in the game with 17 points. The Big Green shot 37.3 percent for the game.

Dartmouth played a relatively uninspired first half and found itself down 37-27 at halftime as New Hampshire shot a sizzling 61.5 percent from the floor and scored 20 points in the paint. Dartmouth shot 44.0 percent but was unable to get many touches to Smith, who took only three shots in the half.

UNH jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead before Steen tied the game with a big three at 16:59. The Wildcats inflated their lead to 14-8 at 13:45 before a Smith score and two free throws by Cassie Cooper cut it to 14-12. Dartmouth would never tie or take the lead from that point on, however, and a Jill McDonald jumper made it a 25-18 UNH advantage at 7:41. That shot started an 8-2 Wildcats run that had them up 31-20 at 4:34.

Dartmouth got a shot in the arm with a bucket from Cooper and a nice layup by Nicola Zimmer (Chevy Chase, Md.) to make it 33-24 In the final minute, but UNH scored on its last two possessions to negate a Steen three, taking the 10-point halftime lead. Steen was able to get off a jumper just before the buzzer and was hit hard on the arm but no foul was called.

The Big Green came out hard in the second half and a Meghan Mc Fee (Manchester, Conn.) three made it a 39-32 game at 18:33. Just as in the first half, however, UNH had an answer for every single Dartmouth score. A back-breaking 10-0 run gave the Wildcats a 49-33 advantage at 14:59 and Dartmouth would never recover from that point.

Dartmouth held UNH off the board for the next three minutes, but managed to get just five points of its own to cut into the lead, down 49-38 at 12:23. New Hampshire rattled off another big run, this time 10-4, however, to build a 59-42 lead after a Kelsey Hogan triple answered a Zimmer drive at 9:08.

The Big Green allowed just two more field goals for UNH down the stretch and despite some big hustle plays in the last five minutes, Dartmouth missed critical free throws and struggled to get up three pointers. The lead was down to 11 with 2:33 to play but a Denise Beliveau layup brought it back up to 13 and seemed to seal Dartmouth's fate.

UNH's Jill McDonald had her way inside, finishing with a double-double on 15 points and 13 rebounds.

The schedule doesn't get any easier for Dartmouth, which heads to the TD Bank Classic at Vermont this weekend to face ACC foe Boston College, which is receiving top-25 votes, on Friday at 5 p.m.