Women's Basketball Set to Renew Dartmouth Rivalry

After a second-place finish in the Ivy League last season, the Harvard women's basketball team will open its conference season on Saturday against Dartmouth after posting one of its best starts since the 1997-98 season.

The Crimson (9-5) will look to extend its win streak against the Big Green (2-12) to six. The Dartmouth squad earned its second victory of the season during its last outing, a win at Massachusetts on Jan. 6, 57-55, snapping a 12-game losing streak in the process. By comparison, Harvard routed the Minutemen four days earlier, 86-59.

“Overall we're just extremely excited to be starting Ivy League play,” sophomore guard Ali Curtis said. “We always open up with Dartmouth and I feel like they'll give us a good game, regardless of their losing streak, because it's Ivy League play and everyone's out there to win.”

The Big Green has been held to just 34.4 percent shooting from the field, sixth in the Ivy League, while Harvard tops the standings at 45 percent.

Dartmouth is led in scoring by captain Faziah Steen. The 5'8” guard has put up 11.2 points per game and has grabbed 24 steals, a team-high. She is second on the team at the charity stripe, having missed just six of her 35 free throws this season.  At least one member of the Crimson squad knows how good Steen can be, as the Detroit native played high school basketball at Detroit Country Day School with Harvard co-captain Emma Golen.

“Me and Faziah go way back—we've known each other since seventh grade and she's a very dangerous player,” Golen said. “She's heated up and gotten in her zone on us in the past so our goal tomorrow is just to try and not to let her get good shots and make everything tough for her.... If she heats up she's very difficult to stop.”

Steen is the only senior on a team with eleven underclassmen on its 14-woman roster. In the backcourt she is joined by sophomore Kamala Thompson and junior Nicola Zimmer. Zimmer has shot 40 percent from behind the arc, a team-high, and leads the squad in assists, with an average of 2.1 per game.

The Big Green frontcourt has been led by sophomores Tia Dawson and Abbey Schmitt. At 6'2” and starting as center, Dawson has dominated the glass, grabbing a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game, and has provided defensive pressure, with 13 blocked shots to show for it. Dawson, who averages 5.2 points per contest, put up a double-double against Massachusetts, her first of the season and seventh of her career, with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Schmitt, a 6'0” forward who missed her entire freshman season with a torn ACL, is both second on the team in points per game, at 8.9, and rebounds, with 6.7.

Dartmouth and Harvard have had three common non-conference opponents this year: Massachusetts, Holy Cross and Brigham Young. The Crimson defeated all three while the Big Green fell to the latter two.

“As far as Dartmouth goes, that's kind of happened in the past, where they have a weaker out-of-league record but it's always a close game with them,” Golen said. “The Harvard-Dartmouth rivalry is as big as they get. Even though their record isn't the best, it's always a great game with them and they come ready to play.”

In Harvard’s last outing, scoring from junior Christine Clark propelled her team to a win over Rhode Island on Jan. 6, 63-56. Clark recently joined the 1,000-point club during the win over the Minutemen. Against the Rams, Clark contributed a game-high 21 points, four more than her average of 16.6, while senior Victoria Lippert followed with 11, just under her average of 12.6.

Sophomore forward Temi Fagbenle, the team's third leading scorer, brought down 10 rebounds versus Rhode Island. While her season average is a team-high 7.1 per game, her average over the past five games has been 9.6.

Harvard will seek a third straight win against the Big Green as the team hopes to start conference play on the right foot.

“It's really a big hello to both teams that the Ivy League is here,” Golen said. “It's a fight every night and anyone can win.... We're just excited to get league play started because we know that's what it's all about.”

--Staff writer Cordelia Mendez can be reached at cordeliamendez@college.harvard.edu.