Dartmouth Defeats Columbia for Fourth Straight Win

Saturday, February 20

Hanover, N.H.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

11-15, 6-4Ivy

Columbia

12-13, 1-9Ivy

Columbia

Dartmouth

Dartmouth Defeats Columbia for Fourth Straight Win

2/20/2016 6:51:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Lakin Roland Belle Koclanes Kate Letkewicz Amber Mixon PDF Boxscore

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Behind a 20-plus point performance from Lakin Roland and Kate Letkewicz, the Dartmouth women's basketball team defeated Columbia 63-53 at Leede Arena in the team's annual Pink Game for breast cancer awareness.

The win improves the Big Green to 11-15 overall, 6-4 in the Ivy League, while the Lions fall to 12-13, 1-9 in the conference.

For the first time this season Dartmouth recorded its fourth-straight victory thanks in part to a solid defense effort from sophomore guard Amber Mixon.

This defensive pressure opened the door for the Big Green's top scoring threats Roland and Letkewicz. Roland finished the evening with team-high 24 points, while Letkewicz scored 20 points and grabbed 10 boards for her fourth double-double of the season.

“We're focused on progress and developing each individual player and their skillsets every single day,” head coach Belle Koclanes said. “When we ask them to execute our offense at the highest level that's our focus. It's constant teaching day to day and within the game. They have been so coachable and we're getting better.”

After a Columbia layup with 1:24 to play in the game, Dartmouth found itself up by just three points. A Mixon steal gave the Big Green possession back as the Woodbridge, Virginia native went to the line where she made one of two free throws.

With less than 30 seconds to play, Letkewicz drained two more from the charity stripe to make it a two possession game.

Dartmouth dominated the first quarter after the Big Green went up 17-7. However, in the the second Columbia unleashed a 13-4 run before taking a, 29-25 lead into the locker room at the half.

Dartmouth, ever resilient, took the lead back after Letkewicz hit a trey out of the third quarter media timeout. A long jumper by Mixon at the buzzer gave the Big Green a 40-38 advantage heading into the pivotal fourth quarter.

“Today we had several people in the right place,” Koclanes said. “One of these people was Amber Mixon. We go as Amber goes. When she is defending and she's pushing tempo the team follows her and they want more of it.”

Dartmouth returns to action for it's final home weekend of the season next week, hosting Brown on Friday and Yale on Saturday.