Dartmouth Drops Heartbreaker to Brown on Senior Night

Saturday, February 26

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

BROWN

Dartmouth Drops Heartbreaker to Brown on Senior Night

2/26/2011 9:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

BOXSCORE

HANOVER, N.H. - Senior guard Meghan McFee (Manchester, Conn.) recorded her second career double-double but it was not enough as the Dartmouth women's basketball team took a 56-55 loss to Brown at Leede Arena tonight.

McFee capped an inspired 19 point, 12 rebound night with a buzzer-beating three-pointer and was hit on the play but no foul was called and the Big Green fell by one. Classmate Cassie Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) neared a triple-double herself with 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists and no turnovers

Brown's Sheila Dixon did work, however, for the Bears, finishing with 22 points and 14 rebounds and hit two late buckets to give her team the win.

Prior to the game, Dartmouth honored the five members of its senior class: co-captains Cooper and Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas), McFee and Louise Vanden Bosch (Kettering, Ohio) and manager Fabeah Adu Oppong.

The team will still play another home game on Tuesday March 8 against Harvard.

The first half was slow goings for the most part as the teams combined for just 16 points - an 8-8 tie - by the 9:24 mark after a Sasha Dosenko (Kiev, Ukraine) jumper. Yale got a quick 11-8 lead when Dixon hit one of two at the line and scored after on offensive rebound on her second miss at 8:12.

Steen scored four straight to put the Big Green up 12-11 at 6:35 but Dixon and Hannah Passafiume gave the Bears an 18-14 lead, the largest of the half, at 5:06. Dartmouth locked in, however, and a Steen three started an 8-0 run including a triple from McFee to go up 22-18 at 1:37. Brown controlled possession for nearly the entire rest of the half but fortunately for Dartmouth the Bears got just one point and the Green led 22-19 at the break.

Dartmouth shot just 30 percent from the field in the first but Brown was worse, shooting 23.3 percent. The Bears held a 27-19 rebounding advantage and had nine turnovers to the Big Green's six.

The teams traded buckets early in the second half before Brown rattled off 10 unanswered points in the span of just one minute including five straight points from rookie Lauren Clarke to go up 30-24 at 16:55. The Big Green pulled within two after Cooper and Ross scored inside but Dixon hit a big three to put Brown back up 33-28 at 15:25.

Led by its seniors, Dartmouth stormed back to go on a 9-0 run capped by a floater in the lane from McFee to go up 37-33 at 10:39. Brown responded with five unanswered points including a big three from Hannah Passafiume to go up 38-37 at 9:23. It soon turned into a possession game, however, as the teams went back-and-forth until Dartmouth went back up 42-40 after a Steen jumper at 7:41.

The teams were literally trading buckets as McFee scored five straight for Dartmouth but the Bears got back-to-back threes to keep pace and the game was tied 47-47 with 6:03 on the clock. Dixon scored four straight, however, including a bucket after a blatant travel, to put Brown ahead 51-47 with 4:12 to play.

Dartmouth got the lead back after Dosenko hit a pair of free throws and McFee lit up Leede Arena with a big three to ho ahead 52-51 with 1:33 on the clock. The momentum was short-lived, however, as Dixon hit one on the other end and then got a steal and fastbreak layup to put Brown up 56-52 with 35 seconds to play.

McFee hit her buzzer-beating three after Lindsay Nickel missed the front end of a one-and-one but it was not enough in the one-point heartbreaker.

Dartmouth shot 54 percent in the second half to improve to 41 percent for the game and Brown shot only 31 percent.

Dartmouth is back on the road next weekend with the long trip to Princeton and Penn on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.