First Half Lead Carries Dartmouth Past Brown, 51-29

Saturday, February 27

Providence, R.I.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Brown

First Half Lead Carries Dartmouth Past Brown, 51-29

2/27/2010 9:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Providence, R.I. - Dartmouth women's basketball used a dominant first half performance to put away Brown early tonight, picking up a 51-29 win.

Dartmouth (11-14, 6-5 Ivy) built a 35-8 halftime cushion over Brown (7-19, 4-8 Ivy) and though the Big Green did not shoot well in the second, Coach Wielgus was able to use a variety of lineups and got every player in the game.

The Big Green got a balanced effort, with four players in double figures led by 12 points and 10 rebounds by Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas). Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) also added 12 points, seven boards while Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) had 11 and Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas), who played a game-high 36 minutes, had 10 points and seven boards.

Brown scored the first bucket of the game, but the lead would be very short lived. Dosenko started a dominant 18-0 Dartmouth run, which was started off by five-straight inside scores between herself and Brittney Smith. With Dartmouth up, 10-2, Brown called a timeout to regroup, but it was of little use for the Bears, as the Big Green nailed back-to-back threes from Margaret Smith and Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) to go up, 16-2 at 11:46.

Brown would not get on the board again until an Aileen Daniels bucket at 7:43 made it 18-4. The Big Green answered right back with another three from Margaret Smith to go up 21-4, jumpstarting a 17-4 run to close the half. Steen contributed nine points in the final 5:20 of the half to help the Big Green go up 35-8 on the Bears.

Dartmouth shot a sizzling 54.2 percent to Brown's 10.7 percent in the first half.

The second half was slightly less exciting for the Big Green, scoring only 16 points, but rotating lineups freely. Dartmouth opened on a 4-0 run thanks to Dosenko and Williams and Brown did not get on the board until a Natalie Bonds bucket at 16:30 made it 39-10.

The teams traded buckets throughout the second half, but Dartmouth still led by 30 points, up 48-18 at 6:18 after a Dosenko bucket and one of two free throws by Brown's Caroline King. Brown actually outscored Dartmouth, 10-3 in the final five minutes, with all three Green points coming fro Brittney Smith. That took the final to 51-29.

Brown shot just 19.5 percent for the game to Dartmouth's 41.3 percent and despite an improved second-half effort on the boards - which got them valuable possession time - Dartmouth outrebounded 51-34.

The Big Green is back in action for its final home weekend of the season when it hosts Princeton on Friday and Penn on Saturday.