Dartmouth Uses 16-Point Swing to Top Cornell, 59-51

Saturday, February 19

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

CORNELL

Dartmouth Uses 16-Point Swing to Top Cornell, 59-51

2/19/2011 9:20:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

BOXSCORE

HANOVER, N.H. - After trailing by 15 points late in the first half, the Dartmouth women's basketball team cut the lead to eight at the half and ultimately won, 59-51 over Cornell tonight.

Sophomore Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.) led Dartmouth with 21 points, seven rebounds in an efficient 27 minutes. Steen continues to lead the Ivy League in scoring in conference play with 17.5 points per game. Rookies Eve Zelinger (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Janelle Ross (Inglewood, Calif.) each had eight points and senior Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) was the game's top rebounder with 11.

Dartmouth earned its first Ivy weekend sweep since the 2008-09 Ivy Championship season.

Cornell's Maka Anywanu scored 21 points off the bench to pace the Big Red.

Both squads took good care of the basketball with Dartmouth (7-16, 3-6 Ivy) turning it over only 10 times and Cornell (5-19, 2-8) just seven.

Rebounding made all the difference in the game and the second half in particular. After Dartmouth was outrebounded 27-20 in the first half, the Big Green stormed to take control in the second, grabbing 25 rebounds and allowing only 13 by Cornell. Dartmouth held a 45-40 advantage for the game. Dartmouth shot 36.5 percent for the game thanks to a 46.2 percent effort in the second half.

Both teams struggled offensively in the early goings of the first half but Steen scored the Big Green's first five points for a 5-2 lead at 15:51 after an offensive putback. Cornell caught fire with a spark from Anywanu who came off the bench to lead a 12-0 run for a 12-5 Big Red lead at 9:41, scoring seven points in the stretch. The biggest advantage for Cornell in the run was a host of offensive rebounds surrendered by the Big Green.

Zelinger finally stopped a seven minute scoring drought for Dartmouth with a layup at 8:51 to make it a 12-7 deficit. The energy was short-lived for Dartmouth, however, as Cornell scored four unanswered points and sent starters Ross and Steen to the bench with two fouls each by the 8:07 mark. Anywanu, a rare junior college transfer, continued to drive and get to the line making it a 16-7 lead for Cornell at 7:15.

The Big Green's shooting got colder as the Big Red got hotter and Cornell surged to a 23-9 lead at 5:40, putting Dartmouth on the flipside of the same margin it had held the night before against Columbia. Coach Wielgus put Steen back in the game with two fouls and she responded with a jumper to make it 24-11 at 4:30. The Big Red got its last field goal of the half on the next possession and Dartmouth closed on a 7-0 run capped by a three from Steen to make it just a 26-18 deficit at the half.

Dartmouth shot only 26.9 percent from the floor to Cornell's 31.3 percent and despite being outrebounded by seven, survived to trail by only eight at the half.

The Big Green opened the second half on an absolute tear, outscoring the Big Red 12-4 to make it a tie game, 30-30 after a Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) jumper at 16:47. Both McFee and Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) hit threes during the stretch to pull Dartmouth right back into the game.

The teams traded buckets before Steen hit a jumper at 14:22 for a 34-32 Dartmouth advantage, its first lead since the 14:18 mark in the first half. After the Big Red tied it up, the Big Green went on a quick 5-0 run to go ahead 39-34 after a big three from Zelinger at 12:46. Dartmouth shook off a pair of free throws from Cornell's Stephanie Long to go on a 5-0 run capped by a Vanden Bosch triple to go up 44-36 at 9:59.

As to be expected, Cornell had a run in it, rattling off seven unanswered points again fueled by Anywanu to pull within one, down 44-43 with 8:00 to play in a very fast second half. Dartmouth answered right back with a 7-0 run of its own started off by five points from Steen and ultimately stretching to a 9-2 run after Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) put in a contested layup for a 53-45 lead at 5:14.

Both teams went cold as Dartmouth played stifling defense but also tried to slow the pace of its own offense. Neither team scored until Cornell's Long hit a jumper at 1:10 to cut the lead to 53-47. After one free throw from Cooper, Cornell's Anywanu made it a five-point game, 54-49 but Zelinger earned a trip to the free throw line on the next play. After missing both, she got the rebound for her second miss and made a gutsy play to go back up with a jumper, was fouled and converted the three-point play to go up 57-49.

Steen iced the game on the next play with two free throws to negate two more from Cornell taking the final to 59-51, Dartmouth. McFee finished the game with seven points - all in the second half - and nine rebounds in a solid 38-minute effort.

Dartmouth is back at Leede Arena next Friday night to host Yale at 7 p.m.