HANOVER — The makings of a Dartmouth College women’s basketball Cinderella story were in place on Saturday when the Big Green hosted Cornell at Leede Arena.
Needing a victory and a Yale loss to visiting Princeton to reach the Ivy League’s four-team postseason tournament for the first time in the event’s three-year history, Dartmouth was unable to uphold its end of the bargain. While the Bulldogs were losing to the Tigers, 80-68, the Big Green fell, 57-47, to the Big Red, allowing a four-point halftime lead to evaporate by the end of the third quarter.
Not even the measured return of point guard Cy Lippold was enough to spark the hosts, who had lost their senior leader to a seemingly season-ending knee injury last month. Lippold played 19 minutes, produced two points and three assists and was clearly limited in her ability to cut and drive to the basket.
Dartmouth post players Isalys Quinones and Paula Lenart were hampered by fouls from the first quarter on. Quinones scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds in her final game, Katie Douglas had a team-high 10 points and Kealey Brown had nine points. Anna Luce had eight points, eight rebounds and three steals.
Cornell (12-13, 6-8), which finished in fourth place thanks to tiebreakers over Dartmouth and Yale, will play top-seeded Princeton next weekend in New Haven, Conn. The Big Red received 15 points each from Samantha Widmann and Laura Bagwell-Katalinich.
Coach Belle Koclanes’ team committed 18 turnovers and finished 13-14 overall and 6-8 in league play.
Cornell trailed, 37-36, early in the fourth quarter but went on a 12-0 run that all but erased Dartmouth’s tournament hopes. The Big Green hasn’t posted a winning league record since going 13-1 and winning its 17th Ivy title during the 2008-09 season but has twice gone 7-7, most recently last winter.
Notes: Koclanes is 67-99 overall and 31-53 in Ivy play during her six seasons. … Quinones, Elle Louie, Annie McKenna and Lenart each committed six turnovers, the latter in just six minutes of play. … Dartmouth sank 16 of 48 field-goal attempts, a 33 percent success rate. …
Attendance was announced at 757. … Dartmouth honored senior players Emily Dryden, Lippold and Quinones, who were joined at center court by their families. The former’s female siblings wore sweatshirts that read “Favorite Sister” and “Other Favorite Sister.” … Cornell freshman guard Samantha Will is a Bishop Brady High graduate from Loudon, N.H.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.