Harvard Slips Past Dartmouth Women in Season Finale

Tuesday, March 9

Cambridge, Mass.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Harvard Slips Past Dartmouth Women in Season Finale

3/9/2010 9:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Cambridge, Mass. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team battled until the final whistle, but ultimately could not overcome an early deficit, dropping a heartbreaker, 64-59 at rival Harvard tonight.

Dartmouth ends the season at 11-17, 6-8 Ivy while Harvard moves to 20-8, 11-3 Ivy.

The Big Green looked dead in the water after two huge threes gave the Crimson an 11 point lead with 3:03 to play. Dartmouth continued to battle, and as they did all night, senior Betsy Williams (Norwich, Vt.) and freshman Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) sparked the offense on an 8-0 run to make it a 62-59 game with 1:12 to play.

Harvard got some key defensive tops down the stretch, however, and hit two at the line to hold onto the five-point margin.

Steen shot a sizzling 9-of-14 from the field including three triples for a career-high 23 points along with a career-best seven rebounds, four assists and two steals to close out a tremendous freshman campaign. Williams bookended it fittingly, with 16 points including four threes and 75 percent shooting in her final collegiate game. Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) also reached double-figures for Dartmouth with 10 points.

Harvard boasted a balanced attack with five players in double-figures led by 17 points from junior sniper Christine Matera and a surprising 11-point outing by freshman Miriam Rutzen.

The Crimson opened the game with a three by Jackie Alemany but would not score again until another three by Matera at 14:53, after a Brittney Smith jumper, and an Emma Markley bucket built an 8-2 lead at 14:09.

Dartmouth answered with a 6-0 run off back-to-back threes by Williams to tie it at 8-8 at 13:46. Harvard did not take kindly to that, and went on a crippling 9-0 run to go ahead 17-8 after a Brogan Berry jumper at 11:53. Williams scored her eighth straight points to stop the run and a Steen three after a Harvard jumper made it 19-13 at 9:56.

Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) was whistled for two straight fouls inside, the first of which was questionable, resulting in four free throws to start an 8-0 Crimson run, capped by a Matera jumper to go up 27-15 at 5:28.

Freshman Faziah Steen

The teams traded buckets down the stretch, and Steen paced Dartmouth on a 7-3 run
to make it a 30-22 deficit at 1:59. Head coach Chris Wielgus took a gamble and put
Dosenko in the game with two fouls at 3:08 and she got two clean blocks on her first
two trips down the court, followed by a Brittney Smith block on a third-straight Crimson
possession.

Matera hit another dagger of a three with 1:00 to play to give Harvard a 10-point lead
and each team scored one more bucket to make it a 35-25 Crimson lead at the half.

Harvard opened the second half as it ended the first, with yet another three by Matera
to build a 38-25 lead on the first possession. Dartmouth answered with five straight
points to cut the lead to eight, and ultimately went on an 8-2 run to cut the lead to
40-33 at 16:08 off a Dosenko free throw.

The Crimson got the lead right back up with a 5-0 capped by a lucky bounce for a
three by Matera to go ahead 45-33 at 15:02. Dartmouth answered with a 6-0
run capped by a nice take by Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) at 11:49,
down 45-39. It was still a six-point game, 47-41, when Harvard went on a 5-0 run to
take a 52-41 lead at 8:29.

Steen snapped the run with a big three at 8:09 but Harvard went on a 4-0 run to go
back up by 12, 56-44 at 6:21. The Big Green answered with a run of its own, however,
to make it 56-48 with 4:37 on the clock. Harvard's Victoria Lippert came up big, with
two huge threes to give her team what looked like a back-breaking lead, up 62-51 at
3:03.

Dartmouth never gave up, however, and went on an inspired 8-0 run fueled, as it was
all night, by Williams and Steen to slice the lead to a very manageable 62-59 with just
1:12 to play. Harvard's Berry hit two at the line to give her team a five point edge with
41 seconds to play, but Dartmouth could not connect on the other end, down 64-59.

The Crimson ultimately missed the front end of one-and-ones on the next two
possessions, but the Big Green was stifled offensively and couldn't convert on that gift,
taking the 64-59 loss.

Dartmouth shot 44.9 percent from the floor to Harvard's 39.7 percent and had a 39-29
rebounding advantage. Ultimately, it was 21 turnovers - that led to 22 Crimson points
- that doomed the Big Green.