Slow Second Half Dooms Big Green in Loss to Wagner

Thursday, December 30

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

WAGNER

Slow Second Half Dooms Big Green in Loss to Wagner

12/30/2010 9:48:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team let a five-point halftime lead slip away in a tough 69-52 loss to Wagner in the finale of the 34th annual Blue Sky Classic.

Dartmouth (3-8) was winless in its own tournament while Wagner (7-5) went 2-0 along with Kansas State, who defeated Vermont earlier today.

Dartmouth led by as many as 11 points in the first half and held a 31-26 halftime lead, but saw it all melt away with a 14-0 Wagner run midway through the second half, putting the Seahawks up for good.

Freshman guard Nicola Zimmer (Chevy Chase, Md.) scored 14 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Junior forward Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) also added 14 points and recorded eight blocked shots, tournament single-game record. She swatted 13 total shots on the weekend, shattering the former record of 10 held by the great Gail Koziara '82. Eight blocked shots in a game ranks third all-time in Dartmouth history.

Wagner had four players in double-figures led by an impressive 15 point, 13 rebound double-double by senior guard Megan Mahoney. The Seahawks handled Dartmouth on the boards, holding a 48-36 rebounding advantage.

Dartmouth opened the game on a big 10-2 run and was firing on all cylinders, fueled by four points each from Dosenko and Zimmer. Mahoney got Wagner on the board again at 16:15, but senior Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) scored three straight to build the lead back to 13-4.

The rookies continued to fuel the Big Green as a three from Zimmer and a layup by Janelle Ross (Inglewood, Calif.) put Dartmouth up 20-9 at 10:21, its largest lead of the game. Wagner chipped away and got the lead down to seven, but Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) and Zimmer pushed it right back up to 11, up 26-15 with 6:10 to play.

Foul trouble for the Big Green's guard corps and Dosenko allowed Wagner to make a late push in the second and five straight points from Marie-Laurance Archambault made it just a 26-20 lead at 2:04. Steen hit a big three with 1:11 to play, but Wagner closed with four unanswered points to make it a 31-26 Dartmouth lead at the half.

Wagner took little time to erase the deficit in the second half as Veronick Fournier fueled an early run to give the Seahawks a 34-33 lead at 17:29. Dosenko gave Dartmouth the lead back briefly on the next play before Wagner's Fournier matched her with a layup of her own. The teams traded buckets before a Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) three at 12:12 gave Dartmouth a 42-40 lead and what appeared to be all the momentum it would need.

The Seahawks had other ideas. Wagner responded by going on a 14-0 run capped by a Mahoney jumper at 5:46 to lead, 54-42. Dartmouth did not score for more than seven minutes before Dosenko hit a three at 4:57 to make it a 54-45 game.

That still was not enough to get the Big Green going, as Wagner pushed the lead back up to double-digits on the next play off an Ashley Olsen putback and never looked back. A Zimmer three with 1:52 cut the Wagner lead to 13, down 63-50, but Dartmouth could not foul the Seahawks quickly enough late and valuable seconds ticked off with each possession, leading to the 69-52 final.

The Big Green has a quick turnaround before hosting Holy Cross on Sunday, Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. at Leede Arena.