Opening the second half of the Ivy League campaign on the road, the Dartmouth women's basketball team fell short in overtime to Columbia University, 66-59, on Friday night before battling past Cornell University, 67-64, on Saturday.
The loss to the Lions (15-9, 6-4 Ivy) on Friday was the second of the year for the Big Green, marking the first time that Columbia has swept a season series against Dartmouth (10-13, 5-4 Ivy) in 19 years.
"We had a couple of opportunities late in the game to increase our lead in overtime, but we didn't knock down the shots," Brittney Smith '11 said. "We also should have played better transition defense."
The Lions powered past Dartmouth earlier in the season at Leede Arena with a convincing 72-59 win.
After the weekend action, the Big Green remains locked in fifth place in the league standings. Columbia settled for a split decision over the weekend with a loss to Harvard on Saturday, while Cornell (6-17, 1-9 Ivy) dropped its third straight at home after being swept by the Crimson and Dartmouth.
All Ivy teams are chasing powerhouse Princeton University (21-2, 9-0 Ivy), which currently boasts the only undefeated record in the League.
In order to claim a share of the Ivy crown, the Big Green will need to win all five of its remaining conference games and have the Tigers drop at least four of its last five.
"We will get in the gym this week and get a lot of shots up so we will knock down our shots when we need to late in the game," Smith said. "We will also continue to work on our defense."
The Big Green, however, found neither momentum nor redemption against Columbia, as the squad was unable to hold a late lead in regulation and struggled down the stretch in overtime en route to the seven-point loss.
In the first half, the Lions rattled off nine straight points to take a 12-4 lead.
An 11-0 Big Green rally led by Meghan McFee '11, however, slowed Columbia's momentum. Dartmouth kept pace with the Lions' potent offense to trail by 26-23 after the first 20 minutes.
The two teams opened the second half with scoring runs on both sides, with the Big Green coming out on top at 42-39 about halfway through the period.
After warding off a late Columbia charge, Dartmouth eked ahead with a 4-1 run to take a two point advantage with a minute and a half remaining.
The Big Green came up empty-handed in a frantic last-minute possession, allowing Columbia to tie the score at 53-53 in its ensuing drive.
"We should have been stronger with the ball and not allowed Columbia's pressure defense to make us turn over the ball," Smith said. In overtime, an early 57-54 Dartmouth lead was quickly overturned, as a three-point shot from senior Sara Yee sparked a 10-0 Lions run that put the score out of reach for the Big Green.
Sasha Dosenko '12 had nine rebounds and a team-high 19 points, which also marks her career-high point total. Faziah Steen-Ngalamulume '13 and Betsy Williams '10 each added 11 points.
On Saturday, Dartmouth looked to avoid a weekend sweep.
Despite a slow start shooting just 29.6 percent from the field in the first half the Big Green pulled ahead late behind clutch free throws by Margaret Smith '10 to clinch its fifth Ivy League victory, 67-64.
"We were getting great looks at the basket against Cornell and we simply didn't make the shots," Brittney Smith said. "We had more assists in the Cornell game so we were still trying to get the ball to the open players."
After falling behind by six early in the first half, a late 7-0 run capped off an 18-9 Big Green push that gave Dartmouth a 29-24 advantage at halftime.
The women's squad is 7-0 this season when playing with the lead at the half.
The Big Red, however, rallied in the second half to take the lead at 40-37 and nursed a one-point lead at 53-52 with under five minutes remaining.
The Cornell advantage was short-lived, as Brittney Smith and Williams led a 10-4 surge that put Dartmouth up by five with about a minute left.
A final Big Red run did not faze Margaret Smith, who closed the deal with two free throws in a career-high 14-point effort.
Brittney Smith was equally impressive with 14 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists, while Steen-Ngalamulume and Dosenko each added 10.
The women's squad will look to extend its momentum on the road against Yale University in New Haven, Conn., on Friday and against Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday. Both games are slated for 7 p.m. tipoffs.
