SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Dartmouth women's basketball played its first of two games in the Lone Star State on Monday, falling to UT San Antonio, 49-39.
Mia Curtis led with eight points, while
Grace Niekelski was right behind with seven.
Mekkena Boyd and
Doreen Ariik led with six rebounds each.
Dartmouth (0-10) at UTSA (2-6)
Back-to-back 3-pointers by
Grace Niekelski and
Mia Curtis gave Dartmouth a 6-0 lead 80 seconds into the first quarter. UTSA took control from there, going on a 12-2 run over the next five minutes to make it a 12-8 game. A free throw and jumper from
Rosie Jennings got the Big Green within one, but the Roadrunners ended the first quarter with a swisher (14-11).
After a UTSA layup 18 seconds in put the home team up by five, Dartmouth had a 7-2 run in less than three minutes, highlighted by another Curtis trey, to give the Big Green an 18-16 edge with six minutes remaining. The Roadrunners scored all but one of the next seven points to pull ahead by five (24-19). Two points on either side ended the first half with a UTSA lead, 26-21.
Play was relatively even over the first five minutes of the third quarter and the Roadrunners had a narrow 8-7 advantage (34-28).
Victoria Page's jumper with 3:36 to play kept Dartmouth within six, but a few too many fouls allowed UTSA to pull further ahead (39-30). Niekelski helped get the Green within catching distance before the Roadrunners added one more jumper with 65 seconds to go (41-32).
Curtis opened scoring for Dartmouth less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, and those two points turned out to be the last for either team for close to four minutes until
Emma Koch ended the drought with her shot in the paint (43-36). After being scoreless for five minutes, UTSA made it an 11-point game in the final two minutes with four straight points. Page added a shot from the charity stripe with 25 ticks remaining and
Allie Harland ended things with a layup (49-39).
The Big Green will have another game on Thursday, this time against Texas State at 3 p.m. EST, 2 p.m. CST.