Big Green Women's Basketball Falters at Kansas State

Saturday, November 12

Manhattan, Kan.

9:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Kansas State

Big Green Women's Basketball Falters at Kansas State

11/13/2011 12:08:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Despite forcing Kanas State into 28 turnovers on the night the Dartmouth women's basketball team couldn't find any offense in a 54-20 loss to the Wildcats on Saturday night at Kansas State's Bramlage Coliseum.

Junior captain Faziah Steen (Detroit, Mich.) led the Dartmouth offense with a team-best nine points on 3-of-16 shooting from the floor. Freshman Tia Dawson (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) tallied four points in her first collegiate start, while sophomore guard Eve Zelinger (Palo Alto, Calif.) also added four points.

Dartmouth (0-1, 0-0 Ivy League) played good defense on the Wildcats, but couldn't find anything on the offensive end of the floor, shooting 13.2 percent (7-of-53) and going 0-of-16 from three point range but on the flip side the Big Green held Kansas State's leading scorer from last season Jalana Childs to just four points and held the Wildcats as a team to just 33.3 percent from the floor (20-of-60) and to just 17.4 percent (4-of-23) from long range.

Out of the halftime break, Dartmouth opened with a jumper from Zelinger and two free throws from Steen to cut the lead to 21 points in the first five minutes of action but that was as close as they would get dropping the season-opener to the Wildcats.

The Big Green and Wildcats both showing a little opening game rust in the opening minutes of the contest, with neither team scoring a buckets until the 17:12 mark of the first half. Kansas State (1-0, 0-0 Big 12) jumped out to a 10- lead behind efficient free throw shooting from Tasha Dickey who was 4-of-4 from the stripe in the first half.

Dartmouth was able to cut into the lead behind the play of Steen. Trailing 10-0, Steen cut to the basket for a layup and was fouled and completed the old fashioned three-point play to get Dartmouth on the board. The Big Green defense forced Kansas State into 14 first half turnovers, but the Wildcats pulled away late in the half, closing on a 23- 4 run over the final 6:43 to take a 33-10 lead into the lockerroom.

The Big Green continues its season-opening road swing with the TD Bank Classic hosted by Vermont on Friday (Nov. 18) and Saturday (Nov. 19). Dartmouth opens tournament action against St. Joseph's (Pa.) on Friday at 5 p.m.

Big Green Sidelines
Freshman Milica Toskovic (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Tia Dawson (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) made their first collegiate starts tonight. Toskovic and Dawson's starts mark the second consecutive season the Big Green have had a freshman start on opening day. Last season, Nicola Zimmer (Chevy Chase, Md.) started against Northwestern.

Dartmouth moves to 20-20 in season openers and 7-13 in season openers played on the road.

Freshman guard Kamala Thompson (Seldon, N.Y) also made her collegiate debut in tonight's contest.