Dartmouth Drops Heartbreaker at Columbia, 67-61

Saturday, January 29

New York, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Columbia

Dartmouth Drops Heartbreaker at Columbia, 67-61

1/29/2011 9:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

BOXSCORE

NEW YORK CITY - Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) scored a career-high 28 points including twice putting her team within a possession late, but it was not enough as the Dartmouth women's basketball team fell at Columbia, 67-61.

Steen scored 18 points in the last 7:28 of the game to pull Dartmouth (4-13, 0-3 Ivy) out of a 13-point hole, twice hitting a three to pull her team within three points. Columbia hit its free throws down the stretch, however, putting a complete comeback out of reach for the Big Green.

Steen was joined in double-figures by Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) with 15 points, while Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) was just shy of a double-double with 11 rebounds and nine points. Lauren Dwyer led Columbia with 19 points.

It was purely a defensive battle in the early goings and Columbia held a modest 7-6 lead after a Dosenko bucket at 16:03. Dartmouth had success breaking Columbia's full-court press, but struggled to score once it got on offense. Buckets continued to be hard to come by and Columbia maintained its lead, up 13-10 after Barry hit an off balance shot with the shot clock winding down at 12:33.

That bucket started a 10-0 run for Columbia, which led 21-10 at 7:20 after Melissa Shafer banked in a three. Dartmouth committed five straight turnovers and did not score for almost six minutes before Janelle Ross (Inglewood, Calif.) converted a three-point play to make it 21-13 at 7:05. The teams traded buckets and Columbia got the lead back up to 10 before a Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) three made it a 25-19 game at 4:25.

Columbia kept the pressure on, however, and four straight points from Shafer resulted in a 33-22 Lions lead with 2:00 to play in the half. The Big Green finally put its free throws in late, however, and four points from Dosenko spurred a 6-0 run to cut the game to 33-28 with 15 seconds to play. Dartmouth forced Columbia into a bad shot on the last possession and Dosenko blocked it, but Barry managed to pick off the free ball and pop in a layup at the buzzer for a 35-28 Lions lead at the half.

Despite the slow start, both teams shot better than 40 percent from the floor in the half, but also combined for 25 turnovers - 15 by Dartmouth.

Columbia opened the second half on a 5-0 run before Steen hit a pair of free throws and a Dosenko three-point play made it a 40-33 Lions lead at 17:27. Kathleen Barry hit a jumper for a 42-33 advantage at 17:03, but Columbia would not record another field goal for nine minutes.

While the Lions struggled from the field, they got buckets at the line to keep a lead on Dartmoth and a Blaine Frohlich jumper made it a 50-37 lead at 8:28. That's when Steen went to work, hitting a huge three to jumpstart a 10-2 Dartmouth run, scoring eight of those points herself to make it a 52-47 game at 3:51 after a conventional three-point play.

The teams kept pace with each other but Steen was again the difference maker, hitting a three with 39 seconds to go to make it a possession game, trailing 58-55. The Lions did work at the charity stripe, however, and hit 8-of-10 at the line in the final minute. Steen kept making it interesting including pulling the Big Green within three again, down 64-61 with 10 seconds to play, but big free throws from Melissa Shafer built the final, 67-61 advantage.

Dartmouth shot 45 percent from the floor, but hurt itself immeasurably with 28 turnovers. Columbia shot a tough 32.8 percent but hit 24-of-36 free throws for the difference.

The Big Green returns to Leede Arena for the first time in more than a month, hosting Penn on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 at 7 p.m.