Women's Basketball Hosts Harvard in Season Finale

Dartmouth Complete Game Notes (PDF)

The Dartmouth women's basketball team will close out the 2010-11 campaign against archrival Harvard this Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Leede Arena. This concludes a rare season in which neither Dartmouth (17 Ivy titles) or Harvard (11) will compete in the postseason. The Crimson can clinch a share of second place with a win over Dartmouth, but would tie Yale who won the season series and gets the Ivy's autobid to the WNIT.

While Dartmouth held its formal senior day ceremony prior to the Brown game on Feb. 26, Tuesday's game will conclude the home and overall Dartmouth careers for seniors Cassie Cooper, Meghan McFee, Brittney Smith and Louise Vanden Bosch. The four seniors have helped Dartmouth to two Ivy League Championships, an NCAA Tournament bid in 2009 and a WNIT appearance in 2008.

GAME 28: DARTMOUTH (7-20, 3-10 Ivy) vs HARVARD (17-10, 9-4 Ivy)
Date: Tuesday, March 8 • 7 PM
Location: Leede Arena • Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth-Harvard Series: Dartmouth leads, 43-22
Streak: Harvard +3
Last Meeting: Harvard W, 82-49, 1/15/11, Cambridge, Mass.
Of Note: Dartmouth has dropped two straight to Harvard after having won four in a row. The Crimson snapped a three-year streak in which Dartmouth had won the Ivy season-opener between the two this past January. Lately, the Big Green has won 9 of the last 15 meetings and four of the last six.

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STARTING FIVE
1. Dartmouth closes out the 39th season of varsity women's basketball with game number 935 against archrival Harvard. With the Big Green and Crimson having amassed 17 and 12 Ivy Championships, respectively, it is rare for this season-ending matchup to have no Ivy title or postseason implications.

2. The Big Green already celebrated senior day against Brown on Feb. 26 but its four seniors will play their final game at Leede Arena on Tuesday night while trying to end the 2010-11 campaign on a positive note.

3. Princeton was one of the two Ivy League schools that rookie Janelle Ross turned down in favor of Dartmouth and despite the loss, she gave the Tigers a bit of “what might have been” with 17 points on March 4.

4. Junior Sasha Dosenko was the only Dartmouth player to reach double-figures at both Princeton and Penn, including a solid 12-point, seven rebound effort in 27 minutes at Penn.

5. Prior to the loss to Princeton, Dartmouth was 5-0 when outrebounding its opponent, but despite a 34-33 rebounding edge, dropped to 5-1 in that category with the lopsided loss to the Tigers.

A SEASON WE DON'T WANT TO RELIVE
Dartmouth is going to finish the 2010-11 season with at least 20 losses for the first time ever in program history. Down to nine healthy players for the last month of the seaon, the Big Green was never able to recover from the loss of starters Brittney Smith and Nicola Zimmer by the start of ivy play.
The Big Green is also a lock to finish either tied or alone in seventh place in the Ivy League, it's worst finish since Coach Wielgus' first year when the team went 1-4 back when the Ancient Eight title was decided by a tournament. This year's finish will be the lowest since the start of round-robin play in 1982-83.
Dartmouth finished fifth in 2009-10 which was previously its worst finish since Wielgus' return in 1993-94. Since that season, Wielgus' teams have finished top-three in the league all but four times, including four of five Ivy titles from 2005-09.

STEEN SHOWS HER VERSATILITY
With Dartmouth's small numbers, it has been easier for opponents to key in on leading-scorer Faziah Steen and prevent her from getting the ball. Prior to the Princeton-Penn weekend, she had scored in double-figures for nine straight games and 15 of the previous 17 contests.
Last weekend she was held to just eight points at Princeton and six at Penn, but she showed her skill in other ways. The guard matched her career high with seven rebounds at Princeton and dished out a career-high six assists along with four steals at Penn.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES
Against Princeton, hot shooting by the Tigers and a stone-cold night for the Big Green had just the effect you'd expect. Princeton shot 54.5 percent from the floor, best by a Dartmouth opponent this season. Conversely, Dartmouth shot just 24.1 percent and was 0-13 from three-point range for its worst shooting night of the year.

NOT THE KIND OF HISTORY WE'RE USED TO MAKING
With its losses to Yale and Brown on Feb. 25-26, coupled with the road losses earlier this season, Dartmouth was swept in the season series by both Brown and Yale for the first time ever. Since Ivy round-robin play began in 1982-83, Dartmouth has never before taken two losses to both of those opponents.
Earlier this season the losses at Brown and Yale on Feb. 11-12 marked just the third time ever that Dartmouth was swept by the pair in a single weekend (1983-84, 1992-93). Dartmouth lost two on the road in both of those seasons but picked up two wins in 1984 and split at home in 1993.
Brown and Yale also beat Harvard on Feb. 11-12, marking just the second time the Big Green and Crimson were swept by the Bears and Bulldogs. The last time? Just the second Ivy round-robin season in 1983-84.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
Dartmouth recorded assists on 15 of its 22 made field goals in the 56-55 loss to Brown on Feb. 26, marking the first time this season that the Big Green has lost when tallying more assists than its opponent (6-1). Senior forward Cassie Cooper did her part with a career-high seven assists, most in a game by a Dartmouth player this season, and zero turnovers.
The Big Green tallied 13 assists on 18 field goals made in the win over Columbia on Feb. 18 and also had 13 assists on 18 made buckets at Penn on March 5.

SENIORS GOING STRONG
Though Dartmouth hosts Harvard tonight, the team honored its seniors prior to the game versus Brown on Feb. 26. Senior guard Meghan McFee put on a show in the heartbreaker, tallying her second career double-double with 19 points, 12 rebounds and two steals and even hit a buzzer-beating three. She appeared to be fouled on the play and could have tied it with a trip to the line but there was no call made. Classmate Cassie Cooper flirted with triple-double territory, totaling 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
McFee has been solid in the last six outings, averaging 10 points and 6.7 rebounds during this final stretch of her career.

RARELY TOGETHER ON THE FLOOR
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.
Traditionally, program's will start all of their seniors on senior night, though with the injury to Brittney Smith, that was not possible. Given various injuries and other circumstances, Dartmouth's four seniors have never all started the same game, though each has started games in her career and three share the starting lineup now. It's even been rare to see all four of them on the court at any given point in a game during the past four years.

STOP THAT THIEF!
Actually, we'd prefer that you let her go. Sophomore guard Faziah Steen picked up her 100th career steal against Brown on Feb. 26. The program record list extends to 12 spots, the last of which is occupied by Koren Schram '09 with 166. With 108 steals less than halfway through her career, Steen should be on pace to enter that list and eventually reach 200.

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 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).

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.

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