Hanover -- Before Dartmouth women's basketball begins a 40-day fast from home games, it had to fend off some Crusaders with a similar history to its own. Yesterday's performance didn’t exactly part the Red Sea.

Holy Cross (4-10) tore off the first 10 points of the second half and slid by the Big Green 57-45 in Leede Arena. It was the Crusaders' first true road victory of the season and third in its last four games overall.

“I challenged my team,” Holy Cross coach Bill Gibbons said afterward. “We hadn't won in our purple uniforms; we had won two neutral(-site) games against Missouri and Drexel and at home against Maine. This was a good win.”

For Dartmouth (3-9), however, it was a rotten christening to a seven-game journey that opens at fellow 2007-08 Ivy League champion Harvard Saturday.

The Big Green turned the ball over 15 times in the first half and then shot an icy 25.9 percent (7-of-27) in the second half.

Brittney Smith was the sole Dartmouth player in double figures with 11 points; elder sister Margaret Smith contributed nine points and seven rebounds.

“It was not a good performance, and we didn't deserve to win,” Dartmouth coach Chris Wielgus said. “Holy Cross out-hustled us and I thought we didn't have enough leadership out there, calming people down.”

Briana McFadden, who finished with a game-high 18 points, sank two consecutive three-pointers right out of the halftime locker room to help swell the Crusader lead to 37-24 with 17 minutes to play.

Dartmouth never got closer than 10 the rest of the way, thanks to Holy Cross's knack for nipping a dying shot clock with one clutch shot after another.

Junior guard Bethany O'Dell piled up nine points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals for Holy Cross, thereby earning her coach's gold star for meritorious play.

“She got every loose rebound. She hit big shots. She made big passes,” Gibbons said. “I thought Bethany was the key in the second half.”

Although the Big Green cut its turnover rate down sharply in the second half, committing just four, the team's shot selection left much to be desired.

Dartmouth was 1-of-8 from three-point range and netted zero second-chance points after intermission. Leading scorer Koren Schram went 2-of-10 from the field (2-of-8 from long range) and wound up with six points.

“I thought they took too many quick shots on the left side of the court, and we didn't have enough touches of the ball by enough people,” Wielgus concluded. “There's a lot of negative dribbling, not in a positive manner. They were going too fast on offense and too slow on defense.”

The Crusaders “won” the first half 27-24, but turnovers were the real champions. The two teams combined for 27 miscues and no one on either sideline reached double figures in points. Holy Cross held an 18-8 edge in points in the paint.

“The turnovers were unacceptable,” said Big Green senior Darcy Rose, who finished with six points and four rebounds. “It's not OK to play like that. We should have refocused better at halftime. They got a bigger lead on us right off the bat, and we need to do a better job of responding.”

Back in November, Holy Cross lost to Ivy contenders Yale (65-63) and Harvard (73-57) on the Crusaders' home floor. Dartmouth and Holy Cross also fell earlier this year to common opponents Boston College and Vermont, although the Big Green pushed Vermont to triple overtime in Burlington.

“These were the (type of) games we were losing earlier in the year,” Gibbons said. “We were losing these games because we weren't playing that well in winnable games on the road or home. I feel us growing up as a team.”

Wielgus doesn't put any stock in comparing resumes, saying, “I don't pay any attention to that. Each game is different and unique to itself.”

But Margaret Smith was fully aware of Holy Cross's recent past and felt a winnable game eluded the Big Green yesterday.

“We were looking at it as we should have won, especially since the other two Ivies beat them,” she said. “They hustle like Yale. They remind me a lot of Yale -- scrappy.”

Dartmouth will need some scrap of its own to survive the forthcoming gauntlet. Not until the Columbia game on Feb. 13 does the Big Green inhabit Leede Arena again. By that time, Wielgus's crew will have five Ivy games in the books.

“We haven't been listening very well to Coach, and we really need to step it up and get refocused for Harvard coming up this weekend,” Rose said. “Ever since we've been back (from the Christmas break), we haven't been focused and had our game together.”

Tony Lane can be reached at alane@vnews.com or (603) 727-3227.