Women's Hoops Heads to Penn & Princeton for Big Ivy Weekend

Dartmouth Complete Game Notes

The Dartmouth women's basketball team heads south for its first Ivy League road trip at Penn and Princeton. The Big Green will look to extend its four game winning-streak against both foes.

GAMES 18 & 19: DARTMOUTH (7-10, 2-1 Ivy) at PENN & PRINCETON

GAME 18: DARTMOUTH (7-10, 2-1 Ivy) at PENN (1-16, 0-3 Ivy)
Date: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 • 7 PM
Location: The Palestra • Philadelphia, Pa.
Dartmouth-Penn Series: Dartmouth leads, 40-21
Last Meeting: 2/20/09 • Hanover, N.H.
Result: Dartmouth W, 55-36
Streak: Dartmouth +4
Dartmouth has won nine of the last 10 meetings, with a 56-53 Penn win in 2007 the lone loss. Other than Harvard, Penn is the only Ivy team with more than 20 wins against the Big Green.

GAME 19: DARTMOUTH (7-10, 2-1 Ivy) at PRINCETON (15-2, 3-0 Ivy)
Date: Saturay, Feb. 6, 2010 • 6 PM
Location: Jadwin Gym • Princeton, N.J.
Dartmouth-Princeton Series: Dartmouth leads, 43-19
Last Meeting: 2/21/09 • Hanover, N.H.
Result: Dartmouth W, 43-42
Streak: Dartmouth +4
Dartmouth has won its last four against Princeton and nine of the last 11. The Tigers last won in 2007 and did tie the Big Green along with Brown for the 2006 Ivy title.

MULTIMEDIA
Penn Livestats • Princeton Livestats
Penn Live Video ($) (NOTE: Penn video will play as part of your Dartmouth Big Green Insider subscription) • Princeton Live Video ($)
Dartmouth Radio (WUVR 1490 AM) (Both Games)

THIS TIME OUT
Games Number 901 & 902. Dartmouth heads to the Mid-Atlantic for its first Ivy League road weekend at Penn and Princeton. The Big Green has not lost to either of these teams since the 2006-07 season, but will be ready for a test this time out. A sweep would put the Big Green back into first place in the Ancient Eight while a split would drop the team to two losses and a sweep would be a blow to the team's title hopes.

DARTMOUTH PROBABLE STARTERS
*#10    Margaret Smith   G • SR • 6-1 • 5.4 ppg, 5.4 rgg, 76.7 FT Pct.
*#20    Brittney Smith    F • JR • 6-1 • 12.4 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 2.2 bpg
#25    Faziah Steen      G • FR • 5-8 • 7.9 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.9 spg
#32    Betsy Williams   G • SR • 6-0 • 6.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.3 apg
#34    Sasha Dosenko   F • SO • 6-3 • 6.7 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg
*Returning starter

QUICK TAKE ON THE BIG GREEN
• Six of Dartmouth's wins have come when either holding a lead at the half or tied, standing at 6-0 with a halftime advantage. The win over Cornell marked the first time this season that the Big Green has rebounded from a halftime deficit.

• Dartmouth committed a season-low of 12 turnovers in consecutive games against New Hampshire and Cornell.

• Dartmouth has won three of its last four games with defensive stops on the final possession. The Big Green iced two of them from the free throw line, but actually missed free-throws against UNH before getting a stop with a one-point lead.

• Brittney Smith recorded her fifth and sixth double-doubles of the season against Cornell and Columbia, reaching the mark in three straight games. Smith continues to lead Dartmouth in all but one statistical category this season.

• Dartmouth should look to decrease its turnovers (19.5 per game) as Ivy play begins, but the miscues have not been a dooming factor overall as the Big Green has forced 16.4 per game by its opponents.

IVY LEAGUE ELITE
Dartmouth has won 17 of a possible 33 Ivy League Championships since 1976-77. The Big Green owns at least a share of four of the last five Ivy Championships including the last two, with an outright title last season in 2009.
Dartmouth leads its all-time series against every Ivy team except Harvard, who holds a 35-31 edge. Only one other Ivy team, Penn, has more than 20 wins against the Green with 21.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Brittney Smith has turned it up of late and was rewarded with Ivy League Player of the Week accolades this Monday, Feb. 1. Smith had averaged 20 points and 11.5 rebounds in a split Ivy weekend for the Big Green. It marked the first time this season that she received the award and first since Jan. 26, 2009. Last season, Dartmouth swept all but one of its Ivy weekends but did so with balanced efforts and did not win a single weekly honor during that stretch.

KEEPING IT CLEAN
Dartmouth currently ranks first in the nation in fewest personal fouls committed per game, with an average of just 12.3. A big part of the Big Green's disciplined defense is not giving up points when the clock is stopped. Dartmouth was whistled for a season-low five fouls against Boston College and had only 10 in the win over Harvard on Jan. 16. Dartmouth has only had a player foul out once this season.

MS. JANUARY
Junior forward Brittney Smith has had a particularly strong January, averaging 14.7 points and 10.5 rebounds in 2010. Lately, Smith has pulled in 10+ rebounds in Dartmouth's last four games, and recorded double-doubles in the last three contests with an average of 18 points, 13 rebounds. She poured in 22 points against Cornell and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds against UNH.

POINT GUARD BY COMMITTEE
Dartmouth does not have one player as its standout point guard, with several players bringing the ball up at different times. As a result, four players have at least 23 assists which a fifth dishing out 19. Different players have also stood out at various points in the season in the assist category. Junior Meghan McFee, who ran the point last season, has filled in more at shooting guard but has a team-high 30 assists and led the team with four against Harvard and six against UNH. Rookie Faziah Steen, also not a point guard by trade, has 27 assists and tallied six helpers against Cornell.
As a team that makes a living at the free throw line, Dartmouth generally does not post gaudy assist numbers.

STREAK SNAPPED
Dartmouth's loss to Columbia marked the end of a 15-game Ivy home winning-streak. The Big Green had not lost an Ivy game at Leede Arena in more than two years, including a perfect 7-0 mark at home last season. The school record is an impressive 20 straight home league games.

CLOSE CALLS AT LEEDE ARENA
Three of Dartmouth's last four contests have been won on the final possession, all ending with a defensive stop by the Big Green. Dartmouth defeated both Harvard, 45-44, and New Hampshire, 49-48, by one-point margins marking the first time in history that the Big Green has won consecutive one-point games. The Big Green doubled its margin with a two-point victory over Cornell, winning 55-53 after another defensive stop and late free throws by Margaret Smith, who also iced the Harvard win.

LOCKDOWN DEFENSE
The Big Green has played some tough, gritty defense of late, holding three of its last four opponents to an average of just 48.3 points per game, including just 44 by Harvard. Both Harvard and UNH were also held below 32 percent shooting.

GLASS CLEANERS
Dartmouth outrebounded its opponent in each of the last two contests, holding a 37-35 edge over Cornell and a 40-36 advantage over Columbia. In each of those games the Big Green had three players with six or more rebounds and seven players with at least two caroms.

DOMINATING ON BOTH ENDS
In addition to leading Dartmouth in scoring and rebounding, Brittney Smith plays solid defense too. Smith already has 38 blocks this season, 15th on the single-season list and just three shy of last year's total. She also has 32 steals, bringing her career tally to 115.

MIXING UP THE LINEUP
Head coach Chris Wielgus used her seventh different starting lineup of the season against New Hampshire, though no lineup has involved a change of more than one player from the previous game. Overall, nine players have started at least one game this season.
Uncharacteristically, Dartmouth has just two players averaging more than 30 minutes per game with Brittney Smith at 35.8 and Margaret Smith at 30.4. They are also the only players to start all 17 games. Betsy Williams and Faziah Steen are the only other two players averaging more than 25 minutes per game.

MARGARET MAKES IT HAPPEN
Senior guard Margaret Smith is often in the shadow of her younger sister, Brittney, but not lately. In two Ivy wins, Smith has sealed the deal from the free throw line and she is averaging 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in League play. Against Harvard on Jan. 16, Smith stole a late inbound pass and hit two free throws to ice the 45-44 win. Against Cornell, she went 3-of-4 from the line in the last 46 minutes and played lockdown defense for a 55-53 victory.

CAREER DAYS
Several Dartmouth players turned in career-highs during the 49-48 win over New Hampshire on Jan. 19. Junior Brittney Smith used a career-high 16 rebounds to garner a double-double along with 14 points. Classmate Meghan McFee had a full statline that included a career-best six assists to go along with seven points and three steals. Senior Michelle Meyer turned in career-bests for both minutes played with 23 and steals with three.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Freshman guard Faziah Steen earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for her role in the Big Green's win over Harvard in its Ivy opener. Steen started early, hitting the Green's first shot of the game - a three pointer - and went on to lead Dartmouth in scoring with 11 points. The rookie came up big throughout the game, adding three steals, three assists and two rebounds to her 30-minute effort.

SCHEDULING UP
Don't let the 7-10 record fool you. Dartmouth is playing the most challenging non-conference schedule in the Ivy League to prepare itself for a run at the Ivy title. The Big Green's strength of schedule ranked as high as eighth in the nation this season and has maintained in the top-100 even as Ivy play began. The teams that Dartmouth has lost to have a staggering combined record of 134-68 overall this season.
Dartmouth has played six teams in the RPI top-60 and nine in the top 120. In addition to #25 Syracuse, three of the first four opponents on the schedule were receiving top-25 votes and Dayton ranked as high as 20th and was just the second team out of the top-25 when it played Dartmouth.

GETTING TO THE LINE ...
And keeping opponents off it. The Big Green has picked up where it left off last season by getting to the free throw line often and keeping its opponents away from it. In 17 games, Dartmouth has taken 326 free throws to its opponents 210. Each game, the Big Green tries to make more free throws than its opponents take and on the season is also nearly at that point, making 207. The Green could stand to improve on its 63.5 percentage but opponents are also only connecting on 62.9 percent. Last season, Dartmouth nearly doubled up its opponents by taking 602 free throws to others 345 on the season.

WE'd LIKE TO SCORE SOME MORE
The Big Green needs to put some more points on the board as it is averaging just 50.5 points per game with a season-high of 77 points. Brittney Smith is the only player averaging double-figures with 12.4 points per game. In recent years, Dartmouth's teams have not been the most offensively potent, including last season when the team went 18-11 averaging 56.6 points per game. The team traditionally builds up its scoring average as the season goes on and the motion offense develops.

... BUT DEFENSE GETS IT DONE
Conversely, Dartmouth has been a defense-first team in the last several seasons and this year is shaping up to be more of the same. Four times, the Big Green has kept its opponent below 50 points and on the season allows 61.2 points per game but that average drops below 60 if the two 80-point games are taken out of the statistics. Dartmouth has 135 steals on the season and 76 blocked shots - getting blocked just 41 times. The Big Green expects that having played one of the nation's most challenging and diverse schedules will have the defense prepared for the rigors of Ivy play.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE
To replace a shooter. So far, Dartmouth is struggling to find a go-to three-point shooter to replace graduated senior Koren Schram. Last season, Schram hit 64 threes for more than half of the team's total 124 and also scored more than half for the team in 2007-08 (70 of 120). So far this year, the Big Green has seven players that have hit at least five treys with three hitting at least 10. Meghan McFee leads the charge off the bench with 15 triples this season.

Schedules