Bulldogs Outgun Big Green in Tough Ivy Loss

Friday, February 25

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

YALE

2/25/2011 9:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

BOXSCORE

HANOVER N.H. - The Dartmouth women's basketball team hoped to carry the momentum from last weekend into tonight's game against Yale, but came up well short in a 70-45 loss.

Dartmouth (7-17, 3-7 Ivy) shot just 27.8 percent for the game and Faziah Steen (Kalamazoo, Mich.), the Ivy's leading scorer, led the Green with 12 points but that was five below her Ivy average. Senior Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) finished with 10 points and a team-best seven rebounds while classmate Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) added nine points, six boards and two steals in 36 minutes of hard work.

Yale (12-13, 8-3 Ivy) was led by Mady Gobrecht with 13 points and six assists and her team shot 42.2 percent from the floor. The Bulldogs also won the battle of the boards, 49-32.

Dartmouth was absolutely stone cold in the early goings and Yale jumped out to a 9-0 lead, all on three-pointers, before Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) hit a free throw to make it 9-1 at 12:53. Cooper made it an 11-3 game with free throws at 11:49 but the Big Green still did not record its first field goal of the game until 10:15 McFee scored a layup off a steal in the backcourt, making it 15-5.

Cooper got a quick bucket inside after that but Yale rattled off nine unanswered points to go up 24-7 with 5:37 to play. Steen struggled to even get the ball in her hands on offense and took only four shots in the first 15 minutes.

The Big Green got things going offensively and went on a 9-4 run including a big three from McFee to cut the Yale lead to 28-16 at 2:42 but gave the momentum right back to the Bulldogs when Yoyo Greenfield hit back-to-back three to put her team up 34-16 with 1:20 in the half. That ultimately led to a 10- 4 Yale run to end the half with the visitors ahead 38-20 after Cooper hit a late layup.

Dartmouth shot just 26.9 percent from the field in the half compared to 45.5 percent for Yale and the Bulldogs held a 23-15 rebounding advantage.

The Big Green started the second half with some momentum, cutting into the Yale lead to make it a 40-24 game after a nice drive by Steen at 18:06. The Bulldogs got hot again, however, and rattled off a 9-2 run to go ahead 49-26 after a three from Gobrecht a 15:35.

Steen scored four unanswered points to get the lead back down under 20, 49-30, at 12:48, but Gobrecht gave it right back to Yale after a tough foul call, hitting two free throws for a 51-30 lead. Eve Zelinger (Palo Alto, Calif.) hit a three on the next possession, but Yale scored four unanswered by pounding it inside to go up 55-33 at 10:23.

The Big Green kept hustling and improved its rebounding vastly, but really struggled offensively to put the ball in the basket and Yale capitalized on the other end with fast break points to go up 59-35 at 8:39 after an Erika VanKaeppler layup. McFee hit a long jumper at the buzzer of the shot clock to make it 59-37 at 7:46, but Yale kept its foot on the gas, inflating the lead to 69-39 after a three from Aarica West at 5:08.

Both teams went cold offensively, but the Big Green at least got some points from the free throw line to cut the lead to 69-43 at 1:34. Dartmouth ultimately outscored Yale, 6-1 in the final five minutes for the final, 70-45, in favor of Yale.

Dartmouth will look to rebound and do a better job for its seniors tomorrow night at Leede Arena, hosting Brown at 7 p.m.