In front of a Thursday matinee audience in San Marcos, the Dartmouth women entered the win column for the first time this since the last day of the 2020 Ivy League season by handily defeating Texas State, 62-39. In addition to ending a season-long 10-game losing streak, the wire-to-wire victory was the first-ever Division I win for new head coach Adrienne Shibles.
“The growth that I have witnessed in each of these women has been vast, but we won’t be satisfied,” the coach told Dartmouth Athletics. “Every day is an opportunity to get better and to prepare for conference play.”
Despite the rough start to the year, the Big Green came out hustling and overwhelmed the Bobcats over the first 20 minutes. Using a 9-3 run through the latter stages of the first quarter and a 10-0 stretch in the middle of the second quarter, Dartmouth opened up an 18-point lead. A short run by the hosts cut the lead to 14, 35-21, as the teams headed to the locker room.
The Big Green opened up the big lead thanks to its outside shooting. Despite entering the game averaging 4.9 threes a game and a 25% field-goal percentage, they hit eight baskets from downtown with 36% accuracy. On the defensive side, they held Texas State to 36% from two and 21% from three, while capturing six steals and forcing 12 turnovers.
Texas State’s Gabby Standifer hit three buckets over the first three minutes of the third quarter to bring the hosts within 11, 40-29, but Dartmouth finished the stanza on a 13-2 run. While they took the lead on the strength of their outside game in the first 20 minutes, they hit six of seven shots from inside the arch to put the game away.
The Big Green stretched their advantage to 26, 57-31, over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter and never let the Bobcats get any closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
Dartmouth only shot 38% for the afternoon but made 10 three pointers at 33%. On the other side of the ball, they limited Texas State to 25% from the field, including 23% (5-for-22) from downtown and held their top three scorers to 13 points. The Green, which entered the game averaging just under 10 less rebounds per game then their opponents, also managed to win the rebounding battle by two.
Senior guard Katie Douglas led a balanced scoring effort with 11 points and three triples. First-year guard Victoria Page added nine points on three first half triples and rookie forward Doreen Ariik had eight points on 4-for-6 shooting, as well as a game-high 10 rebounds and two blocks. Sophomore Rosie Jennings finished with eight points on 4-for-5 shooting from two.
While Standifer led the way for Texas State with eight points, Da’Nasia Hood, Kennedy Taylor, and Lauryn Thompson, the team’s three leading scorers, were held to a combined 13 points on 4-for-21 shooting.
The Green will look to make it two in a row, when they visit Maine on Sunday afternoon. Then they have nine days until they face UMass in their last nonconference game of the year.