Dartmouth Continues Road Swing at Yale and Brown

Game 22
Dartmouth Big Green (12-9, 4-4 Ivy) vs
Yale Bulldogs (12-9, 5-3 Ivy)
Date: Friday, February 16 at 6 PM
Location: New Haven, Connecticut – John J. Lee Amphitheater

Game 23
Dartmouth Big Green (12-9, 4-4 Ivy) vs.
Brown Bears (14-7, 2-6 Ivy)
Date: Saturday, February 17 at 4 PM
Location: Providence, Rhode Island – Pizzitola Sports Center

THIS WEEKEND'S GAMES
The Dartmouth women's basketball team continues its four-game road trip this weekend, heading to Connecticut to face Yale on Friday and Rhode Island to take on Brown on Saturday.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Yale is coming off a weekend sweep in New York, after taking down Columbia last Friday and Cornell on Saturday, 65-55, the Bulldogs first win at Cornell in five years. Senior forward Jen Berkowitz continues to lead the offense with her 15.3 point-per-game average, while fellow senior Tamara Simpson averages 15.2 points and Roxy Barahman averages 13.2 to round out the players posting double figures each night. Berkowitz also leads the Ivy League, and is 25th in the nation, in field goal percentage with 57.1, and the team is first in the conference in turnover margin. Following last weekend's sweep, Yale is currently tied for third in the league with Harvard.

LAST TIME AGAINST YALE
At the end of January, the Big Green took its second conference loss of the season to the Bulldogs at home, 57-39. Junior Isalys Quiñones led the effort for Dartmouth with a double-double 13 points and 10 rebounds, as the only player who scored double digits, but that was not enough to take down Yale.

SCOUTING THE BEARS
Brown most recently took down Columbia, last weekend in New York, 84-80. Senior Janie White posted a career-high 21 points against the Lions. The Bears have four players currently averaging 10 or more points per game: junior Shayna Mehta with 18.9, sophomore Justine Gaziano with 18, juniors Taylor Will with 17 and Erika Steeves with 12.4. Brown leads the Ancient Eight in scoring offense, averaging 78.1 points per game, and defensive rebounds with 30.1 per game, the Bears also rank seventh in the nation in defensive rebounds.

LAST TIME AGAINST BROWN
Almost four weeks ago, the Big Green scored 70 or more points for the sixth time this season, taking down Brown at home 78-73. Dartmouth had five players drop double digits in scoring and two players with a double-double, as junior Cy Lippold scored 19 points with 10 assists, and senior Olivia Smith posted 15 points with 12 rebounds. The Bears' leading scorer, Mehta, scored a team-high 25 points and the road team had two other players score 18 and 16 points respectively, but that was not enough when it came down to the final 10 minutes. The Big Green scored 24 points in the third quarter and 21 in the fourth to solidify the win.

LAST TIME OUT
Dartmouth is coming off a road trip to the two top teams in the league right now, Penn and Princeton. Playing on both teams' home courts over the weekend proved to be a challenge as the Big Green fell to Penn 65-47 and Princeton 82-63. In Saturday's loss to Princeton, senior Emily Slagle led the road team with 18 points while fellow senior Kate Letkewicz scored 12. The Tigers made five more baskets from the floor, two more from beyond the arc and seven more from the free throw line, and that made the difference.

THE ROAD AHEAD
As the 2018 Ivy League Tournament quickly approaches, the standings in the conference are changing every week. The top four schools are, in order, Princeton, Penn, Harvard and Yale, as the last two are tied for third place. Dartmouth is in fourth place, but having the Bulldogs and Crimson tied for third means that fourth place isn't good enough to get into the tournament, the Big Green needs to either be tied for third or be the fourth best team in the conference. This weekend Harvard and Dartmouth both play Yale and Brown, while Princeton and Penn both face Cornell and Columbia. The results of the Dartmouth and Harvard games at Brown and Yale will even out the middle standings in the Ancient Eight for the time being. Only six games remain in the regular season.

SHOOTING WELL, BUT NOT OFTEN ENOUGH
The Big Green continues to lead the Ivy League in field goal shooting percentage with 43 percent, and three-point shooting percentage with 36 percent. Dartmouth has also remained extremely strong at the free throw line all season, is second in the league and 21st in the nation in free throw shooting percentage with 76.3 percent. All of this being said, the team averages 64.7 points per game, which is sixth in the conference, and might need to pull a few more points out to beat the top teams and remain in the discussion for the Ivy League tournament in March.

LETKEWICZ LEGACY
Senior Kate Letkewicz has at least six games remaining to play wearing green and white, and she will no doubt make the most of them. Following last weekend's games, and a slight correction from the stats in last week's game preview, the guard is 17th all time in scoring with 991 points, 15th all time in rebounds with 566, third all time in three-point field goals made with 172 and seventh all time in three's attempted with 449.

MIND ON A CURE
As the month of February continues on, National Cancer Prevention Month, so continue the playing of “pink” games where teams where pink headbands, socks, shoes, or even jerseys, to support breast cancer awareness, the survivors, and those we remember who lost their battle to cancer. This weekend Yale is hosting “Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend” for both of the Bulldogs' games, and the Saturday game at Brown will also be a “Think Pink” game.

IVYMADNESS
The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments return to Philadelphia, where they will take place Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11, 2018. The top four teams will earn berths to the tournament, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championships on Sunday. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For tickets and more information please visit IvyMadness.com.

FOLLOW ALONG
Both games this weekend will be broadcast on the Ivy League Network for subscribers, the ILN is also available on Apple TV, Roku and the ILN app for Android and Apple devices. Live stats will be available for Friday's game on YaleBulldogs.com and Saturday's game on BrownBears.com.

UP NEXT
Next weekend the Big Green return home for their final home weekend of the season, hosting Princeton on Friday, February 23 and Penn on Saturday, February 24. Next Saturday's game against Penn will be Senior Night, honoring Kate Letkewicz, Andi Norman, Emily Slagle and Olivia Smith as the four members of the class of 2018.

Schedules