Smiths, Steen Send Dartmouth Past Penn, 51-37

Friday, February 5

Philadelphia, Pa.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Penn

Smiths, Steen Send Dartmouth Past Penn, 51-37

2/5/2010 9:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

PHILADELPHIA - Three players in double figure scoring and stifling defense led the Dartmouth women's basketball team to a 51-37 win over Penn tonight at the Palestra.

Dartmouth 8-10, 3-1 Ivy picked up a much-needed win while Penn dropped to 1-17, 0-4 Ivy. The Big Green dominated the Quakers on the boards, outrebounding them 46-29.

Being pushed all night inside, Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) recorded her fourth straight double-double on 13 points and 15 rebounds along with five assists. Her sister, Margaret Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) had her second straight double-digit outing with 11 points and eight rebounds while rookie Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) asserted herself with a game-high 14 points, six rebounds and five steals.

Penn did not have a single player in double figures but Amy Donovan led her team with nine points. Penn shot 28.8 percent for the game and 12 percent, on 3-of-25 shooting, from three point range.

Dartmouth started the game on a tear, opening up a 9-0 lead by the 16:50 mark including four points from Brittney Smith and a big three from Steen. Penn finally got on the board at 16:28 when an Amy Donovan jumper made it 9-2. Steen answered a Caitlin Slover free throw with her second triple of the night to make it 12-3 before Penn opened up a 5-0 run, cutting the lead to 12-8 at 13:32.

The Quakers slowed the Big Green down significantly, and ultimately made it a 16-10 deficit at 9:24. Dartmouth went four minutes without a bucket before Steen extended the lead to 18-10 at 6:15 but Donovan answered to take it to 18-12 at 4:40.

The Big Green rallied down the stretch, closing the half on a 10-2 run, featuring five points from Margaret Smith in the final four minutes. Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) blocked a Penn three-point attempt on the final Quaker possession to cap a 28-14 halftime lead.

Dartmouth owned Penn on the boards, 27-11, and committed eight turnovers to the Quakers' seven.

Dartmouth opened the second on a 4-0 run with back-to-back buckets from Sasha Dosenko and Steen for its largest lead, 32-14, at 17:27. Penn responded with an impressive 9-0 run including a banked in three from Donovan to slice the lead to 32-23 after a Jess Knapp layup at 10:07.

Dartmouth finally stopped a more than seven-minute deficit with four free throws from Brittney Smith and Jalea Moses (Brooklyn, N.Y.) around a Sarah Bucar three to make it 36-26 at 9:09. The Quakers got to 28 points and trailed by just six points after a Knapp layup at 8:56.

Brittney Smith got to work inside and started a 9-2 Dartmouth run with a jumper at 8:31, capped by two free throws from Steen and Margaret Smith to make it 45-30 at 4:35. Margaret Smith got herself to double-figures and inflated the Dartmouth lead by scoring six straight from 4:34 to 2:11 when she took her seat for the night with her team up, 49-34.

Penn's Caroline Nicholson converted a three-point play to get her team to 37 but Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) nailed a jumper to pull it to the 51-37 final for the Big Green.

Dartmouth ultimately shot just 31 percent for the game, but hit 80 percent from the free throw line and outrebounded Penn by a staggering 46-29 margin.

The Big Green looks to assert itself tomorrow night at a streaking Princeton squad, tipping off at 6 p.m.