Articles

Vermont Falls to Dartmouth in Women's Basketball

Details: Created on Wednesday, 23 November 2011 03:46; Written by George Commo

28-4 First Half Run By Big Green Dooms Catamounts to First Loss of Season

Courtesy Vermont Sports Information

BURLINGTON – Junior Faziah Steen scored a career-high 32 points and added 11 rebounds to lead the Dartmouth Big Green past the Vermont Catamounts, 72-62, in women's basketball action at Patrick Gymnasium on Tuesday evening.

Dartmouth improves to 2-2 on the year, while Vermont suffers its first loss of the season and falls to 4-1.

"Tonight was disappointing but Dartmouth deserves the credit for coming ready to play. I don't know if it was residual fatigue from the tournament or something else, but we lacked focus and intensity and really didn't match Dartmouth's effort. With that said, it is a long season and we know we need to keep working and bounce back from this," said Vermont head coach Lori Gear McBride.

The Catamounts built a six-point lead, 10-4, with 13:29 showing on the clock, but then went cold from the field. UVM converted just two of its next 17 shots from the floor over the next nine minutes, while the Big Green climbed out of the deficit and put together a 28-4 run to take a 32-14 lead with 3:14 remaining in the half.

Dartmouth went into the locker room with a 37-19 lead behind a 50 percent shooting effort from the field. UVM converted just 21.1 percent of its shots (8-for-38) in the half.

Dartmouth's lead grew to 22 in the second half on a 3-pointer by Steen at the 11:58 mark, but the Catamounts rallied with a 13-4 run to cut the advantage to 13 with 6:49 remaining. The Big Green pushed their lead back to 17 on a layup by Janelle Ross with just over five minutes remaining. The Catamounts put together another run, slicing the lead to eight on a 3-pointer by Lauren Wheeler to make the score 66-58 with just over a minute remaining, but that would be as close as Vermont could get.

Vermont finished the game shooting 25.8 percent from the field, while Dartmouth shot 46.7 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from three-point range.

"We had a lot of high percentage shots that didn't fall and we gave up too many points on the defensive end. Thankfully, we have a couple of days of practice and a chance to refocus before our games in Texas. There is a lot to take from tonight's game that will serve us well the rest of the season," continued Gear McBride.

"I thought our effort was better in the second half but it is really tough to come back from such a large halftime deficit. Dartmouth is very well coached and never really gave us an opportunity to truly get back in the game."

Junior Lauren Buschmann scored a career-high 28 points and added 11 rebounds for her seventh career double-double, and second in three games, to lead the Catamounts. Sam Simononis added 13 points and Wheeler finished the game with 10 points off the bench for Vermont.

Vermont will hit the road for eight straight games. The Catamounts will travel to Houston, Texas to compete in the Husky Classic hosted by Houston Baptist on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, UVM takes on the hosts, Houston Baptist, at 8:30 p.m. (EST). That game can be heard on WJOY-1230 AM and online at SportsJuice.com. Saturday, the Catamounts face Texas Southern at 4 p.m. (EST) and that game will be broadcast on WVMT-620 AM and online at SportsJuice.com.