Women Host Yale and Brown In Search of Another Ivy Sweep

Dartmouth Complete Game Notes (PDF)

The Dartmouth women's basketball team hosts Yale and Brown on Senior Weekend, though the Big Green will return home on March 8 to host Harvard. Fresh off an Ivy weekend sweep of Columbia and Cornell, Dartmouth looks to close out its four-game homestand on a positive note. The Big Green is currently 6-3 when playing at Leede Arena this season.

Friday night is the annual Pack the House attendance challenge when Dartmouth will try to break its attendance record. There are lots of opportunities for FREE or discounted tickets. This week, EBA's pizza boxes feature free ticket vouchers and the Dartmouth Bookstore is also distributing free vouchers. Also, look for an ad in THURSDAYS Valley News and bring it to the game for free admission.

All children who wear a youth basketball league jersey will be admitted for free and Dartmouth faculty and staff will receive half price admission.

Saturday is the Big Green's annual senior night celebration, when Dartmouth will honor its five seniors: Cassie Cooper, Brittney Smith, Meghan McFee, Louise Vanden Bosch and manager Fabeah Adu-Oppong.

The Big Green knocked off Columbia, 63-51, and Cornell, 59-51, last weekend at Leede Arena in very different fashion. Against Columbia, Dartmouth led from wire-to-wire, including a 14-1 start but against Cornell, it was the Big Green that trailed by 15 in the first half, ultimately using a 23-point swing to win by eight.

GAME 24: DARTMOUTH (7-16, 3-6 Ivy) vs. YALE (11-13, 7-3 Ivy)
Date: Friday, Feb. 25 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Yale Series: Dartmouth leads, 50-17
Streak: Yale +3
Last Meeting: Yale W, 63-51, 2/12/11, New Haven
Of Note: Yale took its third straight win over Dartmouth just two weeks ago, using a first half lead to ride out Dartmouth's second half surge. The Big Green has won nine of the last 13 over the Bulldogs.

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GAME 25: DARTMOUTH (7-16, 1-6 Ivy) vs. BROWN BEARS (7-17, 3-7 Ivy)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 26 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Brown Series: Dartmouth leads, 48-20
Streak: Brown +1
Last Meeting: Brown W, 56-48, 2/11/11, Providence
Of Note: Brown snapped a nine-game losing streak to Dartmouth two weeks ago in Providence, getting its first win over the Green since the 2005-06 season. Dartmouth has won 12 of the last 15 in the series.

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STARTING FIVE
1. This weekend's games are numbers 931 & 932 in the 39th season of varsity women's basketball at Dartmouth.

2. Dartmouth opened a four-game homestand at Leede Arena with an Ivy weekend sweep of Columbia and Cornell, moving to 6-3 on the season when playing at home. It was Dartmouth's first Ivy sweep since the 2008-09 championship season.

3. The Big Green outrebounded back-to-back opponents (Columbia & Cornell) for the first time this season. Dartmouth has matched or outrebounded four of its last five opponents.

4. Dartmouth only needed to get to 59 points to defeat Cornell, marking the Big Green's lowest offensive output in a win this season. Solid defense made that possible as the Big Green held the Big Red and Columbia the night before to an opponent season-low 51 points.

5. Coach Wielgus utilized her ninth different starting lineup of the season against Columbia, putting rookie Janelle Ross back in the starting five and retaining senior Louise Vanden Bosch.

SENIOR NIGHT ... BUT IT'S NOT OVER YET
Dartmouth will formally honor its seniors prior to the game against Brown although the Big Green still has another Ivy road weekend and a home game against Harvard on Tuesday, March 8.
The Big Green's senior class has won a pair of Ivy League Championships and features forwards and co-captains Cassie Cooper and Brittney Smith, guards Meghan McFee and Louise Vanden Bosch and manager Fabeah Adu-Oppong, who has served for four years.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore guard Faziah Steen earned some well-deserved recognition as the Ivy League Player of the Week on Feb. 21 after leading the Green to a sweep of Columbia and Cornell. Steen averaged 16.5 points, six rebounds and 2.5 steals per game while playing impressive defense. She continues to lead the conference in scoring (17.4 ppg) and threes made (3.0 pg) in Ivy play.

DIGGING DEEP ON DEFENSE
Dartmouth's defense has improved greatly in the last few weeks, culminating this past weekend when the Big Green held both Columbia and Cornell to just 51 points. Those games matched the previous season-low in scoring for a Dartmouth opponent as the Big Green held Vermont to 51 points back on Nov. 24. On Feb. 18, Dartmouth held Columbia down early, jumping out to a 14-1 lead while the Lions missed their first 14 shot attempts from the field.
Cornell shot just 30.5 percent from the floor and Columbia shot a woeful 23.7 percent, a season low for a Dartmouth opponent. The two teams combined to shoot just 6-of-42 from three-point range (.143 percent).

HITTING THREES & GUARDING AGAINST THEM
In conference play, Dartmouth is shooting 33.8 percent from three-point range, up from its overall mark of 32.7 percent. The Big Green is also holding Ivy opponents to just 24.4 percent from three, and overall opponents to 27.1 percent, both best in the League. Faziah Steen shoots 41 percent from three on the season and has improved that to 43.5 percent in conference play, leading league games with 3.0 threes made per game.

WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT THE STARTING LINEUP
Coach Wielgus debuted her ninth different starting lineup of the season against Columbia on Feb. 18, with Janelle Ross returning to the starting five and Louise Vanden Bosch remaining after getting the nod at Yale in the previous game. Much of the fluctuation in lineups has not been by choice as Dartmouth has yet to have all 13 of its players dressed in uniform for the same game this season. The Big Green is currently down to nine healthy players and has lost two starters this season.

A DOUBLY RARE SWEEP
Dartmouth was swept on the Brown-Yale weekend on Feb. 11-12, making for a few dubious distinctions for this year's team. First, Brown stopped a nine-game losing streak against the Big Green. Dartmouth lost to both Brown and Yale in the same weekend for the first time since the 1992-93 season. Additionally, Brown and Yale both beat Harvard, marking just the second time ever that both the Big Green and Crimson were swept by Brown and Yale. The last time? The very first Ivy round-robin season in 1983-84.

ALL ABOUT EVE
February has been quite a month for freshman Eve Zelinger, who earned her first career start at Yale on Feb. 12 and responded with seven points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals in 34 minutes of play. Though back on the bench against Columbia and Cornell, she kept it up with a team and career-high 14 points to lead the Big Green to victory over Columbia on Feb. 18.

THANKS FOR SHARING
Dartmouth put some kindergarten lessons to use against Columbia on Feb. 18, recording 13 assists on 18 made field goals. The Big Green is 6-0 this season when tallying more assists than its opponent.

QUITE A COMEBACK
Dartmouth used a 23-point swing to pick up its 59-51 win over Cornell on Feb. 19, refusing to back down after trailing by 15 points in the first half. The Big Green took it possession-by-possession, cutting the lead to eight at halftime before erasing it entirely in the first four minutes of the second half. Dartmouth ultimately won by eight to complete an impressive comeback victory.
Rebounding was a major factor in that win, as Cornell held a 27-20 advantage at halftime and Dartmouth finished with a 45-40 final edge, holding the Big Red to only 13 boards in the second half.

FAZIAH'S ON FIRE
Sophomore Faziah Steen has scored in double-figures in 14 of the last 16 games and the last seven straight. Averaging 17.4 points per game in conference play, Steen is the Ivy League's leading scorer and has topped 20 points five times.

Schedules