Women Hit the Long Road to Cornell and Columbia this Weekend

Dartmouth Complete Game Notes (PDF)

Dartmouth begins the first of its six back-to-back Ivy weekends with the most grueling trip of all, making the trek to Cornell for Friday night's game before heading to Columbia for a a showdown on Saturday. The Big Green opened Ivy League play with a loss for the first time since 2006, falling at Harvard on Jan. 15. Dartmouth has not played since that game, however, and has taken advantage of the time off to fine tune its offense. With more than four hours separating the two opponents, the Big Green will have its mettle tested, but will look for a key early season sweep.

The Big Green lost both of its contests to Columbia last season, getting swept by the Lions for the first time since 1990-91. Columbia had its best season ever with 18 wins overall, but has just two wins this season. Cornell has four wins, though two have come against non-Division I opponents.

GAME 16: DARTMOUTH (4-11, 0-1 Ivy) at CORNELL (4-12, 1-1 Ivy)
Date: Friday, Jan. 28 • 7 PM
Location: Newman Arena • Ithaca, N.Y.
Dartmouth-Cornell Series: Dartmouth leads, 52-11
Streak: Dartmouth +2
Last Meeting: Dartmouth W, 67-64, 2/20/10, Ithaca, N.Y.
Of Note: Dartmouth is 16-3 against Cornell since 2002, including an 11-game win streak from 2002-07. After Dartmouth was upset by Cornell during the 2008-09 Ivy title season, the Big Green won both last season.

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GAME 17: DARTMOUTH (4-11, 0-1 Ivy) at COLUMBIA (2-14, 1-1 Ivy)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 29 • 7 PM
Location: Levien Gym • New York, N.Y.
Dartmouth-Columbia Series: Dartmouth leads, 44-9
Streak: Columbia +2
Last Meeting: Columbia W, 66-59 (OT), 2/19/10, New York, N.Y.
Of Note: Columbia swept the season series against Dartmouth in 2009-10 for just the second time and first since 1990-91. Dartmouth enjoyed an 11-game winning streak against the Lions from 2002-07.

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STARTING FIVE
1. This weekend's games are numbers 923 & 924 in the 39th season of varsity women's basketball at Dartmouth.

2. Dartmouth heads to Cornell and Columbia for its first back-to-back Ivy weekend of the season. The Big Green sports league-best 301-130 record all-time against Ivy opponents. With 17 Ivy Championships, the Big Green has won half of the 34 titles it has vied for.

3. The Big Green has only played three games in the month of January, with two long breaks, one coming between games on Jan. 4 and Jan. 15, and this most recent one, having not played since the 15th at Harvard.

4. Rookie Janelle Ross has scored in double-figures in each of the last three games since joining the starting lineup, including a career-best 15 points at Harvard.

5. Senior Cassie Cooper tallied her second double-double of the season with a hard-fought 15-points and 10 rebounds, matching her career high for scoring.

SUSTAINED IVY LEAGUE EXCELLENCE
Dartmouth opened its 35th season of Ivy League competition at Harvard on Jan. 15 and now heads to Cornell and Columbia for its first Ivy weekend of the campaign. The Ivy League has the distinction of being the lone NCAA Division I conference without a postseason tournament, and also the only to play on back-to-back nights (Friday-Saturday). This setup effectively makes every weekend into a de-facto championship weekend, with little room for error.
Dartmouth has won 17 of a possible 34 Ivy League Championships since 1976-77. The Big Green owns at least a share of four of the last six Ivy Championships including titles in 2008 and 2009. Dartmouth leads its all-time series against every Ivy team except Harvard, though the Big Green has 17 titles to the Crimson's 11.

JUMPIN' JANELLE
Freshman Janelle Ross has blossomed since being inserted into the starting lineup for the past three games, averaging 13 points and seven rebounds per game while shooting 60 percent from the floor. The 6-1 rookie forward, who can touch the rim, scored a career-high 15 points and matched her highs for rebounds with nine and minutes played with 35 at Harvard.

STEEN STEPPING UP
Sophomore shooting guard Faziah Steen has scored in double-figures in the last five games and overall in seven of the last eight. Since returning to school after the holiday break, Steen is averaging 13.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game and is shooting 40.7 percent from three-point range.

IVY TREND BUCKED
For the first time in four years, Dartmouth lost its Ivy League opener, with an uncharacteristically lopsided loss at Harvard on Jan. 15, 82-49. In the previous three seasons the Big Green opened the Ivy campaign with a win against Harvard, going 4-2 against the Crimson those years.

BIT BY THE INJURY BUG
Dartmouth has struggled with injuries throughout this season and is yet to dress all 13 players for a game. The Big Green was down to 10 players in uniform against Harvard in its Ivy opener. Only five players have seen action in all 15 games, with Cassie Cooper and Faziah Steen as the only two that have started every contest.

GO BIG OR GO HOME
In the last three games, Coach Wielgus has gone with a “big” lineup featuring three post players - ironically all of Dartmouth's healthy forwards. Freshman Janelle Ross, 6-1, currently joins 6-3 junior Sasha Dosenko and 6-2 senior Cassie Cooper in the starting lineup and it has been paying off. Dartmouth is averaging 60.3 points per game (above its season average of 53.7) and has just a -1.7 rebounding margin with 42 boards per game instead of its season average of 36.8 (-7.1 margin).
Sophomore guard Faziah Steen has benefitted, leading the team in scoring with 15 points per game in the last three contests. Cooper nearly averages a double-double (10.7 points, 9.7 rebounds).

MISSING OUT ON GETTING TO THE LINE
Though Dartmouth is only shooting 60.3 percent from the free throw line, the Big Green relies on getting to the stripe as a big part of its offense. Despite playing 50 minutes of basketball, the officials did not see eye to eye with the Big Green at Rhode Island, when Dartmouth took only six free throws — albeit making five of those. In contrast, Rhode Island took 22 free throws.
Ironically, Dartmouth's best free throw shooting nights have been futile efforts when the team did not get to the line often. The Big Green has taken 12 or fewer free throws just four times and has shot better than 80 percent in three of those games, all losses. Dartmouth went 9-of-10 at #14 Michigan State and 10-of-12 at Oakland.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
Clearly a balanced offense is the key to success for Dartmouth, which had four players score in double figures for just the second time this season in its win over Holy Cross.
Faziah Steen led all scorers with 15 points, all in the second half, followed by Sasha Dosenko with 14, Janelle Ross with 12 and Cassie Cooper with 11. Dartmouth also had four players reach double-figures in the win over Vermont, when three of those four were also involved. It was the first time reaching double-digits for Ross. Dartmouth also had 15 assists on the day and five different players had at least two assists.

BIG SECOND HALF
After being tied 26-26 at halftime against Holy Cross on Jan. 2, two of Dartmouth's starters who struggled in the first 20 stepped it up in the second half. Senior Cassie Cooper battled to finish with 11 points and 12 rebounds after having just two points and one rebound in the first half. Sophomore Faziah Steen was a scoreless 0-6 in the first half, but shot 5-8 in the second en route to 15 points along with five rebounds, four steals and three assists.

LONG DECEMBER
It was indeed a long December for Dartmouth, which opened the month with a win over Northeastern on Dec. 1 before losing its next five. The Big Green has been without the services of Brittney Smith in all five of those losses. Yet like the song says, there's reason to believe maybe this year, 2011, will be better than the last. Dartmouth's perennially tough non-conference schedule and complicated offense often result in a slow start to the season but the Big Green is known for turning it around. The 2007-08 Ivy Champions went 3-11 in non-league play before going 11-3 in conference and tying for the crown. In 2008-09, Dartmouth was 5-9 before going a near-perfect 13-1 in Ivy play, winning 11 straight and 16 of its last 18 games.

NOT IN MY HOUSE
Junior Sasha Dosenko doubled her season total for blocked shots (now at 30) in the span of just two games and leads the Ivy League. Despite her 6-3 height, Dosenko is not known as a shot blocker and entered the Blue Sky Classic with just 10 blocks on the season. She broke out with five blocks against Kansas State on Dec. 29 and then amassed eight against Wagner on Dec. 30. Her 13 blocks broke Gail Koziara's '82 previous tournament record of 10 and her eight blocks in a game were also a tournament record. Dartmouth's overall single-game record for blocked shots is 11, held by Elise Morrison '07 and Ilsa Webeck '95. Dosenko's eight blocks rank in a tie for fourth all-time in a single game.

HERE, LET ME HELP
Senior forward Cassie Cooper has always been known as one of the Big Green's best passers, with great court vision and an unselfish attitude. Currently, the 6-2 Cooper leads the team in assists with 34 and she dished out a career-high five assists against both Kansas State on Dec. 29 and Wagner on Dec. 30.

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