HANOVER — The Dartmouth College women’s basketball team was in good shape to pick up its first Ivy League win on Saturday evening, scoring 27 points in the third quarter to take a two-point lead over visiting Brown.

And then the Big Green’s offense ground to a screeching halt, scoring just three points over the final 10 minutes as the Bears handed Dartmouth (2-15, 0-3) a 66-58 defeat.

“So frustrating. I don’t know what else to say,” Big Green coach Adrienne Shibles said. “Our women are really hard on themselves, so it’s my job to continue to believe in them, to coach them up, to try to facilitate better looks offensively. I thought we got some and we passed them up. We were over-passing and that got us into trouble with turnovers.”

The previous night, Dartmouth had fallen, 57-47, against Yale after trailing by just one at halftime. The Bulldogs scored the last 10 points of the third quarter to pull away. Junior guards Mia Curtis and Mekkena Boyd led the Big Green with 15 and 11 points, respectively, and freshman forward Olivia Lawlor had eight points and pulled down eight rebounds.

Curtis again had the hot hand against Brown, setting a season high and tying a career high with 20 points. Freshman forward Clare Meyer also tied a career high with 10 points — all in that third quarter — in 16 minutes off the bench. But once the Big Green took the lead, the Bears’ defense stiffened and Dartmouth struggled to break the press. Shibles said her team looked timid down the stretch.

“We got tight,” Shibles said. “We stopped looking to be aggressive offensively, and it bit us.”

Brown also attempted 31 free throws to the Big Green’s 14.

Dartmouth travels to first-place Penn, the only unbeaten team in Ivy League play, on Saturday.

MEN’S BASKETBALL Big Green upsets Yale, then falls to Brown

Dartmouth opened the weekend Friday night with an 81-77 road victory over the Bulldogs, who represented the Ivy League in last year’s NCAA Tournament. The Big Green scored 47 second-half points and withstood every late Yale run, becoming just the third team this season to out-rebound the Bulldogs.

Junior forward Dusan Neskovic led Dartmouth with 24 points, knocking down all four of his 3-point attempts. Sophomore guard Ryan Cornish added 18 points and senior forward Dame Adelekun chipped in with 13. Yale tied the game with seven minutes left but never led again.

Playing the second night of a road back-to-back, the Big Green came up short Saturday against the Bears, 77-70. Adelekun’s 17 points paced Dartmouth, which got 12 each from Cornish and junior guard Izaiah Robinson, who set a career high. Neskovic added 10.

The Big Green (5-12, 1-2 Ivy League) rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half but never got closer than six points behind. They return to Leede Arena on Saturday to host Penn.

WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY Dartmouth drops two on the road

The Big Green gave up four first-period goals in Friday’s 5-2 loss at Princeton, then again failed to overcome a slow start in Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Quinnipiac.

Dartmouth’s four-goal deficit lasted nearly all of the second period against the Tigers before junior Jenna Donohue’s goal in the final minute of the middle stanza put the Big Green on the board. Sophomore Laura Fuoco delivered the assist. Dartmouth got another goal back in the third, this one courtesy of senior Currie Putrah with assists from senior CC Bowlby and junior Sophie Robinson, but Princeton’s response less than two minutes later put the game out of reach.

Against the Bobcats the following day, the Big Green fell behind, 2-0, after a period and did not break through until the third. Robinson assisted Fuoco to halve the deficit, but Quinnipiac restored its two-goal lead with a shorthanded strike barely a minute later. Dartmouth again pulled within one just two minutes after that, with sophomore Kenzie Bachelor setting up fellow sophomore Caroline Appleyard for her first goal of the season, but could not find an equalizer.

Despite allowing five goals, sophomore goaltender Maggie Emerson made 36 saves against Princeton, then came up with 29 against Quinnipiac.

The Big Green (5-13-0, 1-10-0 ECAC Hockey) are back at Thompson Arena on Friday against rival Harvard.

MEN’S ICE HOCKEY Dartmouth falls at Quinnipiac and Princeton

The Big Green were stymied, 3-0, by the No. 2 Bobcats on Friday, then dropped a back-and-forth, 4-2 battle Saturday against the Tigers.

Quinnipiac struck for two goals just 17 seconds apart in the first period, then added a third early in the second. It could have been worse for Dartmouth had freshman netminder Cooper Black not made 40 saves. The Big Green, meanwhile, put just 14 shots on target.

Dartmouth struck first the following evening on sophomore John Fusco’s power-play goal late in the opening period, assisted by freshman Luke Haymes and sophomore Braiden Dorfman. But the lead lasted a mere 49 seconds before Princeton evened things, and the Tigers took their first lead early in the second.

The Big Green had an answer in the form of sophomore Matt Hubbarde, who tied the game midway through the second on assists from senior Sean Keohan and Dorfman. A shorthanded Princeton goal later in the period put the hosts back in front, though, and the Tigers added an insurance tally in the third on an empty net. Black made 25 saves.

Dartmouth (2-13-1, 1-7-1 ECAC Hockey) is home this weekend, taking on St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.

SQUASH Big Green dominate in return to action

Competing for the first time in more than a month, both Dartmouth squash teams enjoyed successful weekends in Maine. The men’s and women’s squads each defeated Bowdoin on Friday and Colby on Saturday, and the women added a victory over Stanford later Saturday.

Neither team dropped a match against Bowdoin. On the men’s side, every match except the No. 1 position ended in straight sets. Fifth-year Jack Bell had to grind out a five-set victory at the top spot. The women, meanwhile, did not drop a set.

The men posted a 7-2 victory the next day at Colby, with Bell and sophomore Quintin Campbell (No. 4) dropping their matches in four sets. Six of the Big Green’s seven wins came in straight sets, with senior Lucan White battling to a five-set win at No. 6.

The women recorded their second shutout of the weekend against Colby, and only the top two slots — senior Claire Aube at No. 1 and junior Emily Schuster at No. 2 — had to play a fourth set.

Against Stanford, the women’s team completed a perfect weekend with a 6-3 win despite their top three players all dropping their matches. Dartmouth was victorious everywhere else, and sophomore Aubrey Lennon, at No. 6, earned a straight-sets win over the Cardinal’s Isabella Rolfe, who transferred from Dartmouth before this school year.

Both Big Green squads are now 4-2 and will be at Trinity in Hartford, Conn. on Friday before hosting Yale on Sunday.

SWIMMING AND DIVING Dartmouth victorious at Bates

LEWISTON, Maine — Both Big Green teams cruised to victories in their first meet of 2023.

The Dartmouth women won 10 events, with freshmen Sydney Rawie, Julianne Jones, Lindsey Drumm and Lane Murray and sophomore Alyssa Palacios each contributing to multiple first-place finishes. Rawie won the 1,000-yard and 100-yard freestyle, showcasing her distance and sprinting abilities. Jones took first in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard breaststroke.

Drumm touched in first in the 200-yard butterfly and was also part of the victorious 200 free relay team. Palacios won both the 1- and 3-meter diving events.

The men recorded 11 first-place finishes, led by fifth-year Joe Moll in the 200 IM and 200 backstroke. Senior Tim Park won the 200 fly and the 500 free, and freshman Yan Dvoretskiy took first in the 200 free.

Other individual wins came from freshman Eddy Chen in the 200 breast, sophomore Alexander Ye in the 1,000 free, freshman Colton Rasmussen in the 100 free and freshman Everett Tai in both diving events.

The Big Green will head to New Haven, Conn. this weekend to take on Yale and Penn in Ivy League action.

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