Women's Basketball Falls to Cornell, 66-46

Friday, February 13

Ithaca, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

10-11, 1-6

Cornell

14-7, 5-2

Dartmouth

Cornell

2/13/2015 9:16:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell finished with three player in double figures and scored the first 12 points of the game en route to a 66 46 win over the Dartmouth women's basketball team on Friday evening at Newman Arena.

Sophomore Fanni Szabo led Dartmouth (10-11, 1-6 Ivy) offensively with 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting and grabbed two rebounds and had two steals. Classmate Katie Vareika added 10 points off the bench. Senior Tia Dawson had 11 rebounds and was a big contributor on the offensive glass pulling down seven caroms.

Cornell's Nia Marshall led all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-12 from the field and 8-of-9 from the line. Marshall also had seven rebounds. Nicholle Aston added 13 points and seven rebounds and Kerri Moran had 11 points. Cornell shot 46 percent in the contest and outrebounded the Big Green, 43-34. The Big Red scored 30 of 66 points in the paint and had 17 off turnover.

Dartmouth finished the game shooting 25.8 percent overall and 10-of-14 from the charity stripe. Of Dartmouth's 34 rebounds, 14 came on the offensive side that contributed to 14 second chance points.

Cornell (14-7, 5-2 Ivy) came out on fire to begin the contest scoring the first 12 points before the game was three minutes old. Szabo broke the run with an inside basket at the 17-minute mark. A Kate Letkewicz jumper lessened the deficit to 13-4 at 16:18, but the hosts kept control with a three-pointer on the next possession by Megan LeDuc.

The Big Red made 10 of their first 11 field goals and led 24-10 halfway through the period. Dartmouth fell into foul trouble the rest of the half and although Cornell slowed down a bit fromuz the field, the Big Red connected on eight free throws and took a 35-18 lead with 4:54 left after Marshall added her 16th point of the frame.

The Big Green went into the locker room trailing, 39-24. Szabo led the Big Green with 10 points. Senior Tia Dawson grabbed seven boards with three points in 15 minutes. Marshall had a half-best 18 points on 5-of-6 from the floor and made 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Cornell shot 62 percent from the floor and added four more from the charity stripe.

Dartmouth was held to 11-of-35 overall. Both sides collected 17 rebounds, but the Big Red made the most of Dartmouth's nine turnovers with 13 points in the transition. Dartmouth answered with 11 offensive rebounds and 11 second-chance points.

In the second half, Cornell's lead stood in the mid-teens as Dartmouth's offensive woes continued to hold back any kind of a potential comeback. After trailing by 22 (61-39) with 5:17 left, the Big Green went on a 7-0 run with a three and free throws by sophomore Katie Vareika that were sandwiched between a pair of free throws by Letkewicz.

Cornell ended the contest with five consecutive points to push the lead to 20 (66-46).

Dartmouth will conclude the weekend with a meeting in New York City against Columbia on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.

Notes: Senior Nicole Beresford played in her first game of the season after missing the first 20 games with an injury. She last played on Jan. 11, 2014 at home against Harvard. In total, Beresford missed the last 34 games overall due to injuries.