Women's Hoops Home for Penn and Princeton after Month Away

Dartmouth Complete Game Notes (PDF)

More than a month removed from its last home game, the Dartmouth women's basketball team returns to Leede Arena this weekend to host Ivy foes Penn and Princeton. The Big Green celebrates National Girls and Women in Sports Day against Princeton on Saturday. Youth teams may receive FREE admission to the game when they register with Dartmouth Athletics by calling 603-646-0418.

Dartmouth's last home game was also its last win, a 66-57 triumph over Holy Cross on Jan. 2. The Big Green has lost all four of its games since, all on the road, and starts the Ivy season at 0-3 for just the second time ever, with the other instance coming in 2002-03. That team went on to finish 9-5.

GAME 18: DARTMOUTH (4-13, 0-3 Ivy) vs PENN (7-10, 1-2 Ivy)
Date: Friday, Feb. 4 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Penn Series: Dartmouth leads, 41-22
Streak: Penn +1
Last Meeting: Penn W, 44-31, Hanover, N.H.
Of Note: With a win last season, Penn snapped a five-game losing streak to Dartmouth and got its lone Ivy win of the season. Overall Dartmouth has won 10 of the last 12 meetings.

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GAME 19: DARTMOUTH (4-13, 0-3 Ivy) vs PRINCETON (14-3, 3-0 Ivy)
Date: Saturday, Feb. 5 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Princeton Series: Dartmouth leads, 43-21
Streak: Princeton +2
Last Meeting: Princeton W, 64-43, Hanover, N.H.
Of Note: Princeton won two against Dartmouth last season, snapping a four-game Big Green winning streak in the series. Dartmouth has won nine of the last 13 over the Tigers.

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STARTING FIVE
1. This weekend's games are numbers 925 & 926 in the 39th season of varsity women's basketball at Dartmouth.

2. Dartmouth is back home at Leede Arena for its first home game since a Jan. 2 win over Holy Cross, though the Big Green has only played four games in that stretch. That was also Dartmouth's last victory so perhaps a return home could be just what the Green needs.

3. Faziah Steen scored a career-high 28 points last time out at Columbia, including 18 in the final eight minutes of the game. Her 28 points match the high for any Ivy player this season.

4. Rookie Janelle Ross scored in double-figures in each of her first four collegiate starts before having that streak snapped at Columbia. She did get her first career double-double the night before at Cornell, however, with 12 points, 13 rebounds.

5. Junior Sasha Dosenko has reached double-figures in five of the last six games, including a season-high 15 points against both Cornell and Columbia.

AND NOW THE STARTING LINEUP
Coach Wielgus has kept public address announcers on their toes and opposing coaches guessing with seven different starting lineups to date this season. Unfortunately, most of those changes have not been the coach's choice. Dartmouth has yet to have all 13 of its players dressed in uniform for the same game this season. The Big Green's low mark was 10 players dressed at Harvard, when an injury to Nicola Zimmer left the team with only nine available for much of the second half.
The Big Green debuted its seventh different starting lineup of the season last weekend at Cornell and Columbia.

YOU GOTTA HAVE THE BALL TO SCORE THE BALL
The Big Green didn't give itself much of a chance to score in a 67-61 loss at Columbia on Jan. 29. Dartmouth turned the ball over a pitiful 28 times, allowing its offense to only take 44 shots, while Columbia took 61 attempts from the field plus 36 free throws.

... AND TAKING THAT NEXT LEVEL
A look at the boxscore and some simple math shows that the Big Green could have easily won the game. Dartmouth also shot a solid 45.5 percent from the floor (Columbia shot just 32.8 percent). If the Big Green had given itself just eight more possessions (20 turnovers) and scored two-point baskets on 45.5 percent of those, it would have resulted in +7.28 more points, enough for a one-point win. Factor in the potential for three-pointers and the margin of victory could have been even higher.
If Dartmouth had been even more disciplined and cut the turnovers in half to 14 — Columbia had 15 — it could have resulted in a minimum of 12.74 more points.

HISTORICALLY SLOW START
Dartmouth sits at 0-3 in the Ivy League for the first time since the 2002-03 season. That team ultimately finished at a respectable 9-5 in Ivy play, including a six-game winning streak mid-season. Remarkably, that is the only other time the Big Green has ever been 0-3 in conference play since the Ivy began playing a regular schedule in 1980-81.

DEFLECTIONS
As a team, Dartmouth has shown a lot of hustle this season, already amassing 560 deflections. Last season the team had 740 for the season. The Big Green's team season-high of 47 was recorded against both Bryant (Nov. 28) and Rhode Island (Jan. 4), both overtime games. Faziah Steen leads the team with 118, followed by shot-swatter Sasha Dosenko with 80 and Cassie Cooper with 77.
A deflection is an imperfect hustle stat, but is recorded whenever a Big Green player alters the path of the ball, including tipped passes, altered shots, steals or blocks.

SUSTAINED IVY LEAGUE EXCELLENCE
Dartmouth opened its 35th season of Ivy League competition at Harvard on Jan. 15. The Big Green has won 17 of a possible 34 Ivy League Championships since 1976-77. The Big Green owns at least a share of four of the last six Ivy Championships including titles in 2008 and 2009. Dartmouth leads its all-time series against every Ivy team except Harvard, though the Big Green has 17 titles to the Crimson's 11. The Ivy League has the distinction of being the lone NCAA Division I conference without a postseason tournament, and also the only to play on back-to-back nights (Friday-Saturday). This setup effectively makes every weekend into a de-facto championship weekend, with little room for error.

JUMPIN' JANELLE
Freshman Janelle Ross has blossomed since being inserted into the starting lineup against Holy Cross on Jan. 2, averaging 10.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 51.2 percent from the floor. The 6-1 rookie forward, who can touch the rim, scored in double-figures for her first four starts, scored a career-high 15 points at Harvard on Jan. 15 and recorded her first career double-double with 12 points, 13 rebounds at Cornell on Jan. 28.

STEEN STEPPING UP
Sophomore shooting guard Faziah Steen has scored in double-figures in nine of the last 10 games, including exploding for 28 points at Columbia on Jan. 29. In conference play, Steen is the Ivy's second-leading scorer, averaging 16.3 points per game and shooting 40 percent from the floor. She also ranks fourth in the league in steals, assists and three-pointers made and leads the league in minutes played.

IVY TREND BUCKED
For the first time in four years, Dartmouth lost its Ivy League opener, with an uncharacteristically lopsided loss at Harvard on Jan. 15, 82-49. In the previous three seasons the Big Green opened the Ivy campaign with a win against Harvard, going 4-2 against the Crimson those years.

BIT BY THE INJURY BUG
Dartmouth has struggled with injuries throughout this season and is yet to dress all 13 players for a game. The Big Green was down to 10 players in uniform against Harvard in its Ivy opener. Only five players have seen action in all 17 games, with Cassie Cooper and Faziah Steen as the only two that have started every contest.

GO BIG OR GO HOME
In the last five games, Coach Wielgus has gone with a “big” lineup featuring three post players - ironically all of Dartmouth's healthy forwards. Freshman Janelle Ross, 6-1, currently joins 6-3 junior Sasha Dosenko and 6-2 senior Cassie Cooper in the starting lineup and it has been paying off. The trio is scoring 31.8 points per game and grabbing 23.6 rebounds. Cassie Cooper nearly averages a double-double in the last five, with 9.8 points and 9.2 rebounds pre game.
Sophomore guard Faziah Steen has benefitted from them filling up the key, leading the team in scoring with 16.4 points per game in the last three contests.

MISSING OUT ON GETTING TO THE LINE
Though Dartmouth is only shooting 63.2 percent from the free throw line, the Big Green relies on getting to the stripe as a big part of its offense. Despite playing 50 minutes of basketball, the officials did not see eye to eye with the Big Green at Rhode Island on Jan. 4, when Dartmouth took only six free throws — albeit making five of those. In contrast, Rhode Island took 22 free throws.
Ironically, Dartmouth's best free throw shooting nights have been futile efforts when the team did not get to the line often. The Big Green has taken 12 or fewer free throws just four times and has shot better than 80 percent in three of those games, all losses. Dartmouth went 9-of-10 at #14 Michigan State and 10-of-12 at Oakland.

NOT IN MY HOUSE
Junior Sasha Dosenko doubled her season total for blocked shots (now at 37) in the span of just two games and leads the Ivy League. Despite her 6-3 height, Dosenko is not known as a shot blocker and entered the Blue Sky Classic with just 10 blocks on the season. She broke out with five blocks against Kansas State on Dec. 29 and then amassed eight against Wagner on Dec. 30. Her 13 blocks broke Gail Koziara's '82 previous tournament record of 10 and her eight blocks in a game were also a tournament record. Dartmouth's overall single-game record for blocked shots is 11, held by Elise Morrison '07 and Ilsa Webeck '95. Dosenko's eight blocks rank in a tie for fourth all-time in a single game.
Dosenko has kept up that pace, also recording five blocks against Columbia on Jan. 29.

HERE, LET ME HELP
Senior forward Cassie Cooper has always been known as one of the Big Green's best passers, with great court vision and an unselfish attitude. Currently, the 6-2 Cooper leads the team in assists with 41 and she dished out a career-high five assists against both Kansas State on Dec. 29 and Wagner on Dec. 30.

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