Qui?ones Scores 18, Dartmouth Falls to Harvard at Home

Saturday, January 21

Hanover, N.H.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-10, 0-2Ivy

Harvard

14-1, 2-0Ivy

Harvard

Dartmouth

Qui?ones Scores 18, Dartmouth Falls to Harvard at Home

1/21/2017 6:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Belle Koclanes Kate Letkewicz Olivia Smith Amber Mixon Cy Lippold Highlights: Dartmouth women's basketball vs. Harvard, Jan. 21, 2017 Box score: Harvard 70, Dartmouth 61 PDF Box score

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth women's basketball team hung close with a tough Harvard team for a second consecutive meeting, but the Big Green fell to the Crimson, 70-61 at Leede Arena on Saturday night.

With the loss the loss, Dartmouth is now 5-10 overall, 0-2 in Ivy League play, while Harvard improved to 14-1 overall, 2-0 in conference play.

Sophomore Isalys “Ice” Quiñones set a new career-high with a team-high 18 points. She also grabbed 11 rebounds for her fourth career double double. Junior Olivia Smith was the only other Big Green player to finish the night in double digits in scoring with 14 points. On the other side of the floor, Crimson freshman Katie Benzan led her team with 17 points and eight rebounds.

“We've had two weeks to prepare for Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League slate,” said Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82 and Family Head Coach of Dartmouth Women's Basketball, Belle Koclanes. “Coming out of game one in Boston it was clear the name of the game would be rebounding. We put a major emphasis on defense and doing our best to limit what Harvard could do.”

After struggling in the first quarter of games for most of the season, the Big Green got the start they wanted, trailing by just one point after one. The second went the Crimson's way after Harvard outscored Dartmouth, 16-8, taking a 29-20 lead into the locker room at the break.

After halftime, the Big Green came charging back with an 8-5 run where Quinones scored on four consecutive Dartmouth possessions.

“Ice and Olivia Smith were the story of the game for us today in my opinion,” Koclanes said. “Our post play was able to attack Harvard with Ice and Olivia and they need to do that consistently for us to earn victories.”

A layup by Amber Mixon gave the Big Green their first lead of the night about halfway through the third, but the Crimson responded by coming away with points on three consecutive trips to the basket, taking a 44-39 lead into the final stanza.

Harvard opened up a 9-0 run in the opening five minutes of the fourth, but Dartmouth remained in the game thanks to the play of sophomore Cy Lippold, who drained back-to-back layups after hitting one of two free throws.

With just over a minute to play, junior Kate Letkewicz hit a wide open three to bring the Big Green within five points of Harvard's of lead. In the contest's final minutes, Dartmouth was forced to foul, as the Crimson made nearly all of their foul shots to clinch their 14th consecutive victory.

The Big Green return to action next weekend when they host Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday. Both games can be seen live in HD on the Ivy League Digital Network for subscribers.