Dartmouth Pushes Past Cornell for Key Road Win, 67-64

Saturday, February 20

Ithaca, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Dartmouth Outplayed by Columbia in First Ivy Loss

Dartmouth Pushes Past Cornell for Key Road Win, 67-64

2/20/2010 9:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

ITHACA, N.Y. - Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) once again hit the game-sealing free throws with six seconds to play to ice a 67-64 win for the Dartmouth women's basketball team at Cornell tonight, the 300th Ivy win in program history.

Smith was one of four Dartmouth (10-13, 5-4 Ivy) players in double-figures with a career-high 14 points, while her sister Brittney Smith (Fort, Worth, Texas) matched that with 14 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists. Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) picked up a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards and Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) also added 10.

Dartmouth committed a season low seven turnovers and had 17 assists on 22 field goals. The Big Green also hit 16-of-18 at the free throw line.

Cornell's (6-17, 1-9 Ivy) Virginia McMunigal did all she could with 19 points including five threes.

Dartmouth opened the game with a quick 5-0 lead after a threeball from Steen, but Cornell answered with a 13-2 run featuring buckets from five different players to go up 13-7 at 12:07.

The Big Green stopped the bleeding with a three from Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) to make it 13-10, Cornell, at 11:57. The Big Red answered back at was up 17-12 at 7:55 after a Kristina Danielak layup. Dosenko jumpstarted a 10-4 Dartmouth run with four unanswered points, while Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) added four points to give the Big Green a 22-21 advantage at 1:35.

Virginia McMunigal snapped a two and a half minute drought for Cornell with a three at 1:35, but Steen answered right back with a three of her own on the next possession. Brittney Smith ultimately hit four-of-four at the line to close the half on a 7-0 Dartmouth run in the last minute, up 29-24 at the break.

The Big Green shot only 29.6 percent from the floor, struggling to get calls inside, but had just three turnovers in the half. Cornell shot 37.5 percent and had an 18-17 edge on the boards.

After a slow start to the first half, Dartmouth outscored Cornell 18-9 in the last eight minutes to take a 29-24 halftime lead.

The Big Green started the second half on a 4-0 run to go up 33-24 at 18:37 but Cornell answered right back with a 16-4 run to erase the deficit and take a 40-37 advantage at 12:00.

Rookie Kylie Kufeld (Billings, Mont.) hit a huge three to tie the game at 42-42 with 9:58 to play. Two Margaret Smith free throws gave the Big Green a lead, up 44-42 off at 9:12.

The teams traded buckets and Cornell eventually took a 53-52 lead at 4:26 after a Danielak layup. Dartmouth buckled down and went on a 10-4 run, started by Brittney Smith. Betsy Williams drove the length of the court and hit a huge bucket at 1:12 to put her team up 62-57 at 1:11.

Cornell managed a 4-0 run of its own to slice the deficit to one point off a Clare Fitzpatrick layup with six seconds to play. Smith hit two at the line and Dartmouth slowed the Cornell offense on its trip up the court. Ultimately, Williams would tip a Cornell inbound pass from under its own basket to take valuable seconds off the clock and steal the win.

Dartmouth shot 48.3 percent in the second to finish the game hitting 39.3 percent of its shots.

The Big Green is back in action at Yale next Friday night, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.