Big Green Upsets W. Hoops, 78-67 in Ivy Finale

Hanover, N.H.--For the Harvard women's basketball team, everything is over now but the waiting. Unfortunately for the Crimson, the final chapter of its regular season did not go as planned.

Harvard (22-4, 12-2 Ivy) dropped its season finale to Dartmouth (15-11, 9-5) last night at Leede Arena, 78-67, in a loss that could hurt the Crimson's seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

"I don't think [we] came ready to play--period," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "I don't think [we] were mentally ready to play. The last thing in the world I expected was this team to come out on the floor so unready to play."

"I don't know how this loss is going to affect our chances [in the NCAA Tournament]. I don't think we deserve a 16th seed, but we have no one to blame but ourselves if we get it. The lesson you learn is you have to prepare much better, regardless of the set of circumstances."

Dartmouth used excellent ball movement on offense and relentless pressure on the defensive end of the floor to rattle the Ivy League champions and eventually record the upset. A sloppy Harvard squad committed 24 turnovers on the night, which the Big Green converted into 27 points.

Five Dartmouth players scored in double figures. Junior guard Nicci Rinaldi played an outstanding game, finishing with 13 points and 10 assists. Senior Bess Tortolani, playing her final game for the Big Green, led Dartmouth with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

"It hasn't been the season that we wanted it to be or that we all expected it to be," Tortolani said, referring to Dartmouth's third-place league finish. "To go out on a good note is definitely what we were looking for, and that's what we got."

Freshman Jackie Lippe turned in a fine performance, scoring 13 points in the game. Junior Erin Rewalt and freshman Samantha Berdinka each chipped in 11 points and five boards.

Harvard co-captain Allison Feaster led all scorers with 21 points, hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds and tied a school record for steals in a game with eight. Junior Suzie Miller added 16 points and eight rebounds in a losing cause.

"I think we were a little too relaxed; I don't think we came prepared to attack Dartmouth," Feaster said. "We just didn't put a team effort together. I think at certain times certain people stepped up, and at other times other people stepped up, but it just wasn't a team effort."

Dartmouth soundly out-played Harvard in nearly all facets of the game. The Big Green shot 47.2 percent from the field for the game compared to the Crimson's paltry 31.4 percent shooting. Dartmouth also hit an impressive 91.7 percent of its free throws in the first half.

"I think we came into the game maybe too confident," Harvard co-captain Megan Basil said. "It seemed when things weren't going our way people just got really frantic. We were a step slow to everything; it was like we were helpless. It was just mass chaos. It was just terrible."

Harvard led 39-34 at halftime, but Dartmouth used a 19-6 run at the start of the second half to take an eight-point lead, and the Big Green sat on that advantage the rest of the way.

Tortolani led the way for Dartmouth during the scoring stretch, notching eight points, three of them on wonderful assists from Rinaldi.

The surge began when Rinaldi laced a pass to a wide-open Tortolani under the hoop for an easy lay-up. After a Harvard turnover, Rinaldi leapt toward a rebound of her own missed shot and tipped the ball to Tortolani for another lay-in that pulled Dartmouth to within one.

Harvard senior Alison Seanor responded with a three-point play, but Lippe did the same at the other end of the floor and then knocked down a jumper to put Dartmouth ahead for the duration. Tortolani then hit a jumper of her own, and Berdinka sliced through the lane for a deuce to increase the Big Green's lead to 47-42.

The Crimson pulled to within a bucket on a free throw by sophomore forward Laela Sturdy and a lay-up by junior forward Sarah Russell with 13:10 remaining in the second half, but Dartmouth then scored six unanswered points over the next two minutes and controlled the game the rest of the way.

Notes

The NCAA Tournament selection show will air this Sunday evening on ESPN. The men's seeds will be announced at 6:30 p.m with the women's immediately following at 7:00 p.m.

In the run for the national scoring title, Feaster closed out the season averaging 28.2 points per game. The national scoring champion will be determined after all conference tournaments are completed later this week.

Feaster broke the 300 mark in career steals with her outstanding defensive performance. She now has 303 steals in her career.

Harvard sophomore forward Laela Sturdy went down early in the second half with an injury to her knee. Preliminary indications were that she tore her medial collateral ligament, but a confirmed diagnosis will be available today.

Harvard's five seniors will graduate with a four-year Ivy League record of 50-6. They are the winningest class in Harvard basketball history, men's or women's.

DARTMOUTH, 78-67 at Leede Arena Harvard  39  28  --  67 Dartmouth  34  44  --  78

HARVARD: Miller 5-11 2-2 16; Feaster 6-20 8-9 21; Seanor 2-6 3-3 7; Basil 2-11 0-0 5; Janowski 3-4 0-0 6; Grossman 0-3 0-0 0; Sturdy 0-1 1-2 1; Kowal 1-5 0-0 2; Brandt 1-3 0-2 2; Russell 1-4 2-2 4; Zitnik 1-2 0-0 3; TOTALS: 22-70 16-18 67.

DARTMOUTH: Rinaldi 4-10 5-8 13; Berdinka 3-9 5-7 11; Rewalt 3-7 5-5 11; Tortolani 3-7 8-10 14; O'Connor 1-1 0-0 2; Freeman 2-3 1-2 5; Kinnear 0-0 0-0 0; Lippe 6-9 1-3 13; Pinkston 2-4 2-3 6; Banghart 1-3 0-0 3. TOTALS 25-53 27-38 78.