Dartmouth Picks Up Pink Zone Win over Columbia, 63-51

Friday, February 18

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

COLUMBIA

Dartmouth Picks Up Pink Zone Win over Columbia, 63-51

2/18/2011 9:13:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. - The shorthanded Dartmouth women's basketball team got a much-needed Ivy win tonight, topping Columbia 63-51 on Pink Zone Breast Cancer Awareness night at Leede Arena.

Leading 57-38 with just over seven minutes to play, Dartmouth (6-16, 2-6 Ivy) went stone cold and turned the ball over late, but still withstood a 13-4 Columbia (5-18, 4-5 Ivy) run to take the win.

Rookie Eve Zelinger (Palo Alto, Calif.) led Dartmouth with 14 points, five rebounds and two blocks and sophomore Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) had 12 points, five rebounds and four steals. Columbia's Melisa Shafer led all scorers with 18 points.

Dartmouth shot 40 percent for the game to Columbia's 23.7 percent and held a 44-39 rebounding advantage.

Dartmouth opened the game with a dominating defensive effort, holding Columbia without its first point of the game until a Tyler Simpson free throw at 13:52. On the other hand the Big Green shot the bell well en route to a 14-1 lead after a big three from Zelinger at 10:58. The Lions did not score a field goal until a Briana Orlich contested layup made it a 14-3 game on the next possession at 10:10. Columbia missed its first 13 shots from the field.

Dartmouth got a balanced offensive effort in its opening run including five three pointers, with two each from Steen and Zelinger. After the 14-1 run Columbia answered with a modest 7-6 run of its own including two layups from Simpson to make it 20-7, Dartmouth at 8:06. Dartmouth responded with a 5-2 run to go back up 25-9 after a nice move late in the shot clock by Janelle Ross (Inglewood, Calif.) at 4:08. The Big Green was without the services of Steen from the 4:38 mark in the half when she picked up her second foul.

Dartmouth inflated the lead to as many as 18 points thanks to a six-point run by Ross and led 30-13 with just 1:25 to play. The Big Green gave Columbia breathing room with ill-advised fouls late in the half, allowing the Lions to have some confidence. Columbia ultimately closed the half on a 9-2 run fueled by five points off the bench from Melissa Shafer who hit the Lions lone three of the half to cut the Dartmouth lead to 32-22.

The Big Green led at halftime for the first time since a 30-29 halftime margin against Penn on Feb. 4 after shooting 47.4 percent and holding Columbia to just 23.3 percent. Dartmouth did commit 14 costly turnovers especially during the Lions' late run.

Columbia got the first point of the half but Dartmouth answered with a 9-2 run including five points from Steen and capped by two McFee free throws to go up 41-24 at 15:35. The Big Green would face another setback however, when both Cooper and Ross were sent to the bench with their third fouls at the 16:06 mark with questionably light fouls while the Lions were allowed to play very physical defense.

The teams traded buckets before Shafer gave the Lions a shot in the arm with a big three to make it 46-31 at 11:57. Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) got the hot hand for the Big Green, however, scoring four-straight for a 19-point lead, 50-31, at 10:48. Shafer would not go down quietly, however, hitting another three before Zelinger made it 52-34 with a nice take and then blocked her next attempt from downtown.

Zelinger kept the hot hand hitting a big three before a Vanden Bosch gritty putback to help Columbia from gaining any momentum as Dartmouth led 57-38 with 7:22 to play.

Dartmouth led Columbia get within striking distance during the next stretch, however, as the Lions drove and got to the free throw line to go on an 11-3 run, cutting the lead to 60-49 after a Shafer three-point play and Diana Lee layup at 3:15. The Big Green fouled on four consecutive possessions, putting the Lions in the double-bonus with more than four minutes to play.

The Lions kept capitalizing on trips to the line and their full court press, giving themselves new life after two Orlich free throws made it 61-51 with two to play.

Cooper helped the Big Green at the line herself, however, hitting a pair to go ahead 63-51 with 1:24 on the clock and neither team scored again in the contest.

Dartmouth is back at Leede Arena to host Cornell at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.