Big Green Stay Alive, Defeat Columbia, 60-48

Friday, March 8

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

13-13

Columbia

8-18

Columbia

Dartmouth

Photo by: Bryan LaFountaine

3/8/2019 8:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Dartmouth will play for a chance to make the Ivy League Tournament on Saturday

By: Mike Miezejeski

HANOVER, N.H. – With its season on the line Friday night at Leede Arena, the Dartmouth women's basketball team stayed alive in the Ivy league tournament hunt by defeating Columbia, 60-48. The win, along with a Yale loss to Penn earlier in the night, sets up a decisive final day of the Ivy League regular season. The Big Green improve to 13-13 and 6-7 in Ivy play, while the Lions fall to 8-18 and 4-9 in the conference.

If the Big Green take down Cornell Saturday night and Yale loses to Princeton, Dartmouth will make the Ivy League tournament for the first time in program history.

Isalys Quinones posted a double-double and led all players with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Anna Luce finished with 11 points and six boards, while Annie McKenna had 10, five rebounds and four assists. Elle Louie had a strong performance with six points, four rebounds and four assists, while Katie Douglas finished with seven points and three boards.

"Friday night at Leede Arena in March and we've been talking to the team about staying the course, each day is the same for us," said Belle Koclanes, the Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82 and Family Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "This is the first time it has felt like March for DWB in a long time. The team came out and performed well. We just finished up classes and we are in finals and they stayed focused. We played a solid game, it was tied in the first and we outscored them the rest of the way. Ice with a double-double and Elle Louie on the defensive end led us, but as a whole we played really well."

It was a low scoring first quarter of basketball at Leede Arena. Quinones scored the first four points for Dartmouth to put the Big Green ahead 4-3 in the opening minutes. Neither team could find the basket for the next three minutes until McKenna made two free throws to give Dartmouth a 6-3 lead with 5:29 to go. Columbia quickly tied the game with a triple, but Kealy Brown responded with a 3-pointer of her own. After the first media timeout, Cy Lippold checked in for the first time since February 16^th and scored a breakaway layup to extend the lead to 11-8. Columbia closed the quarter on a 5-2 run to tie the game at 13 at the end of one.

The game remained tied through the first two minutes of the second until Quinones scored five consecutive points to make it a 20-15 advantage with 6:46 on the clock. The Big Green maintained a slim lead as Columbia scored four straight points. That was until Luce made a free throw and Douglas drilled a triple to extend the score to 26-19. Both teams traded baskets in the final minutes of the half and Dartmouth took a 30-25 lead into the break.

Dartmouth used a 7-0 run with five points by Louie and two from Quinones to race out to a 37-25 lead in the first two minutes of the third. After the run, the Big Green did not score for the next six minutes and Columbia outscored Dartmouth, 10-0, closing the gap to two points with 3:22 on the clock. Douglas finally put an end to the run with two at the line and Quinones scored five straight to keep the Big Green on top, 44-37, at the end of the third.

The Big Green controlled the pace in the fourth and outscored the Lions 9-4 to build their lead to 53-41 with 2:43 to go. Dartmouth held off Columbia in the final minutes and secured the much-needed victory.

Dartmouth closes the regular season with its most important game of the year. The Big Green host Cornell at 5 p.m. with a chance to make the Ivy League Tournament.