Getting Their Money's Worth

Well, no one can say we aren't making the ticket price worth it these days.

We had our third straight close game - though this one was by 2 points, so that's big by our standards. :) We beat Cornell, 55-53 last night at Leede Arena on the strength of a tremendous defensive effort led by Betsy Williams coupled with a 22-point, 12-rebound effort from Brittney Smith.

But it was Margaret Smith who got it done for us AGAIN. She went three-of-four at the free throw line in the last 45 seconds to bring us back from a 1-point deficit and put us up by 2 with 0.9 seconds to play. In between those trips to the line, we got another big defensive stop to keep Cornell from scoring a game-winning basket. She's come up big at the line in both of our Ivy wins.

We had been down by 8 at halftime after a less than stellar defensive performance. Our players came out blazing, opening on an 11-0 run to erase the deficit and go up three, and ultimately went on an 18-3 run to start the half. Our defense paced our offense during that stretch and it really showed how good we can be. It was exciting!

We play Columbia tonight in a game that is really hard to predict. Columbia had defeated Cornell by 20+ points in both of their meetings this year, while Harvard defeated Columbia by 18 last night - of course we beat Harvard by one earlier this month. So, as usual, the Ivy League remains unpredictable and unique every single night.

Looking forward to tipoff tonight at 7! Hope to see you there or hope you'll watch the video stream or listen on the radio at DartmouthSports.com

- Dara