Second Half Surge Sends Cornell Past Dartmouth, 66-55

Friday, January 28

Ithaca, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Second Half Surge Sends Cornell Past Dartmouth, 66-55

1/28/2011 8:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell came out determined to get a rare win over the Dartmouth women's basketball team and a late run sent the Big Red to a 66-55 triumph tonight.

Rookie Janelle Ross (Inglewood, Calif.) recorded her first career double-double with 12 points, 13 rebounds and four assists. Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) led Dartmouth in scoring with 15 points on 5-7 shooting. Cornell had four players in double-figures led by a game-high 20 from Allyson DiMagno.

The game was Dartmouth's first in 13 days.

Dartmouth (4-12, 0-2 Ivy) drops to 0-2 in Ivy play for the first time since the 2002-03 season, when that team finished 9-5. Cornell (5-12, 2-1 Ivy) picked up just its 12th win ever against Dartmouth, with the Green leading the series, 52-12.

The first half was anything but pretty as the teams traded long stretches of tough shooting, but also stayed neck and neck with each other. It too three minutes for either team to get a lead before Steen hit a three to put Dartmouth up 3-0 at 17:02. Cornell answered back to get a modest 8-5 lead after back-to-back buckets from Allyson DiMagno, but Kelsey Byrd (Saratoga, Calif.) knotted it up with a three at 12:00.

The teams traded buckets back and forth and were tied again at 7:35 a nice putback by Dartmouth's Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) to make it a 15-15 score. The Big Green went cold until a three from Dosenko cut a Cornell advantage to 19-18 at 4:22. Cornell responded with a 6-0 run with scores from three different players to take a seven point lead.

Dartmouth trailed 25-18 with just over a minute left in the half, but closed with all the momentum thanks to a 6-0 run. Dosenko started it with a big three before Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) got her first points of the game and then some, converting a three-point play to make it 25-24 at the half.

Dartmouth shot 36 percent from the floor in the first while Cornell hit close to that at 35.7 percent.

Cornell opened the second half with a 5-0 run to take a 30-24 lead after a Shelby Lyman bucket at 18:32. Dartmouth quickly closed the gap and the teams traded buckets, including six points from Ross, to make it a 40-39 Cornell lead with 12:51 to play. Ross gave the Big Green a modest 42-40 lead at 10:30, and Dartmouth held Cornell scoreless for more than four minutes, but was unable to capitalize on the offensive end.

Lyman closed the gap and gave Cornell the edge with one stroke, going up 43-42 with a big three at 9:52. The teams continued to go back and forth in a physical battle, and a Steen layup in traffic made it a tie game, 45-45, with 7:26 on the clock. Once again it was Lyman who answered for Cornell on the next trip down the court and her team never trailed again.

The Big Red pushed the tempo and got several fastbreak layups to build a 10 point lead, up 61-51, with just 2:03 to go. The Big Green could not slice into the lead as the seconds ticked off and Cornell increased its advantage to the final, 66-55 score.

Dartmouth shot 35.1 percent for the game and 25 percent from three point range. Cornell's 48 percent shooting in the second half was the difference maker in the game, hitting 42.1 percent overall. The Big Red controlled the boards a well, 40-37.

The Big Green will need to regroup quickly before heading to Columbia for a 7 p.m. tip in New York City tomorrow night.