Hanover
Freshman Annie McKenna, all 5-foot-5 of her, scored only 11 points, but that she did so from the point is something of a revelation. Amber Mixon, a junior who’s played in every contest the past two seasons and started all but four of them, averages fewer than three points per game in that role.
So averse to shooting is Mixon that by the latter half of last season, Ivy League opponents would back her defender off almost to the free-throw line. There was no need to do otherwise.
Mixon entered the season averaging 2.3 assists per game and has clearly held up her end of the bargain when it comes to defense and hustle. But it’s difficult to be a winning team when the person who handles the ball the most is unwilling to shoot more than three or four times per contest. Dartmouth last finished above .500 during the 2008-09 campaign.
Mixon played 18 minutes Wednesday, but McKenna logged 26 and spent the final 10 minutes in the fray. Mixon, who had no fouls, watched from the bench as the Big Green improved to 2-1 while dropping Holy Cross to 1-4.
“My role is to push the tempo and get people to score,” said McKenna, who chose Dartmouth last February over a scholarship offer from the University of California and interest from Seton Hall and Wake Forest.
McKenna is averaging 20.7 minutes, six points and two turnovers per game at Dartmouth thus far. She’s not likely to draw attention in warmups, but challenges such casual assessment the minute the ball is in play.
Relentless, intense, savvy and schooled in fundamental execution, she’s what old-timers might describe as a bulldog.
“She’s got some moxie,” Dartmouth athletic director Harry Sheehy said admiringly as McKenna successfully drove the lane late in the first half.
McKenna, who hails from the western Chicago suburb of Elmwood Park, didn’t lose a game for four consecutive years during elementary school.
Her village is only two miles square, but has a population of roughly 25,000. At nearby Holy Trinity High, she became a first-team all-state performer, starting for four years and leading the Blazers to the state playoffs for the first time in a decade.
“She makes everybody on the court better,” Trinity coach Mike Valente told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year. “She’s a complete point guard. Her court vision is phenomenal… her basketball IQ is off the charts.”
So how long before McKenna starts? Not so fast, said fourth-year Dartmouth coach Bell Koclanes, pointing out that Mixon hit her only attempted shot Wednesday, a 3-point bucket.
“Amber’s still working on her shot and she brings a lot to the defensive side,” said the coach, whose team hosts Army at noon on Saturday. “We’re going to do what we need to do (at point guard) to earn victories.”
Leading the Big Green against Holy Cross was junior guard Kate Letkewicz, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore forward Isalys Quinones, a 6-foot-3 Californian who competed in only nine games last winter, played 34 minutes and produced 10 points, six rebounds, five assists and four turnovers. She averaged just 0.4 points and 0.6 boards as a freshman.
Junior center Olivia Smith connected on 1 of 11 shots and had two points and five rebounds. The 6-2 Maine native didn’t attempt a free throw in 19 minutes. Reserve Emily Dryden had four points and six rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench and starting guard Fanni Szabo, the team’s lone senior, had five points and seven rebounds.
The game was tied eight times, the last deadlock occurring with 9:23 to play. A McKenna jump shot put Dartmouth up, 48-44 with three minutes remaining and Quinones delivered an emphatic block a minute later that seemed to weaken the Crusaders’ resolve.
The Big Green led, 51-46, with a minute remaining, withstanding a 3-point bucket with 17 seconds to go.
“You put the ball in the basket with your offense, but it’s your defensive effort that maintains those leads,” Koclanes said.
Notes: Szabo is the lone remaining member of a freshman class that also included Lebanon High’s Moriah Morton, Chay Fuller and Katie Vereika. … Some of the Dartmouth players continue to wear circular decals on their sneakers that feature the initials JES over a pink ribbon. They’re in memory of Jane Ellen Slagle, the late mother of Big Green guard Emily Slagle, who died of breast cancer last season. … Dartmouth leads the teams’ series, 9-5 overall and 5-2 in Hanover. … Holy Cross coach Bill Gibbons is in his 32nd season and is 582-365. He took the job only four years after graduating from Clark University, also in Worcester, Mass. … The Crusaders played without starting guard Tricia Byrne, who took ill at the team hotel before the game.