Editor’s note: Here are Steve Silverman’s reactions to Ivy League All-Ivy awards for players and coaches for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season announced Tuesday. Ivy Hoops Online’s 2024-25 Men’s and Women’s All-Ivy Awards are soon to come.:
Victoria Page
Harvard women’s basketball downs Dartmouth, 74-40
HANOVER, N.H. – The Harvard women’s basketball team knew its Ivy League Tournament place was secure heading into Saturday’s regular season finale Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth.
But as much as they probably didn’t want to look too closely at it, the Crimson also knew their hopes of an NCAA Tournament at-large berth was in a very precarious spot, listed as one of the Last Four In or dreaded Last Four Out on most bracketologies in the last two weeks.
So, even though Dartmouth was banged up and coming in on an 11-game losing streak, Harvard left nothing to chance on Dartmouth’s Senior Day, using their pressure to dominate from the opening tip, eventually posting a 74-40 victory at Leede Arena.
“We just really wanted to finish the regular season on a high note,” Harvard coach Carrie Moore said. “We didn’t feel great about how we played last weekend, so we wanted to get back to how we know we can play, and I felt we did that, especially the upperclassmen who set the tone early.”
Princeton women’s basketball overcomes sluggish start to defeat Dartmouth, 67-55
Twenty-four hours after winning an emotional, high-stakes contest at Harvard, Princeton women’s basketball needed to be on guard against a letdown as they took the court at Leede Arena in Hanover for a Saturday showdown with the Dartmouth Big Green.
Despite being aware of the dangers of complacency, the Tigers came out flat against a motivated Dartmouth squad and made just enough plays to scrape out a 67-55 win over the last-place Big Green.
Penn women’s basketball trounces Dartmouth, 66-37
When the Dartmouth women went to West Philly to play some basketball in January, they were at their best and broke an 18-game losing streak against Penn.
On Friday, it was the Penn women at their best, playing in Hanover to keep their shot at the Ivy League Tournament alive, and they started a new winning streak over Dartmouth emphatically, 66-37.
Princeton women’s basketball shuts down Dartmouth, 63-39, for seventh straight win
Before tipping off against Dartmouth women’s basketball on Saturday afternoon, Princeton took the court at Jadwin Gymnasium wearing freshly minted warmup shirts with the team’s “Get Stops” slogan colorfully displayed on the front.
The Tigers forcefully delivered on their wardrobe messaging.
The hosts held the Big Green to under 40 points in a dominant 63-39 triumph.
Dartmouth women’s basketball tops Penn, 61-49
There was a time when Dartmouth dominated Ivy League basketball—when the Big Green would win 12 or 13 of their 14 conference games before dancing off to the NCAA Tournament (and, yes, losing to the likes of Purdue, Connecticut and Maryland—this isn’t a fairy tale).
More recently, Dartmouth would lose 12 or 13 or all 14 of those Ivy games. The postseason consisted of waiting (and waiting) for spring to come to New Hampshire.
On Saturday, the Big Green arrived in West Philly to explain to Penn that times have once again changed.
Dartmouth women’s basketball wins at Brown, 64-48, in Ivy League opener
The Dartmouth women used a stifling defense to rout favored Brown 64-48 in the Ivy League opener for both teams at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Going up against a Bears team (6-8, 0-1 Ivy) which tied for fourth last year and was picked for fifth in this year’s preseason media poll, the road win was a huge boost for a Big Green squad (7-7, 1-0) that was picked for the conference’s last spot.
Dartmouth women’s basketball notches first Division I win in nearly a year versus New Hampshire
Dartmouth women’s basketball bested New Hampshire, 43-40, in a nail-biter at Leede Arena Sunday afternoon for the Big Green’s first win against a Division I opponent in nearly 12 months.
It was also the first Division I win for Linda Cimino as Dartmouth’s coach. Cimino took over the reins of the Dartmouth women’s hoops program in May after a successful five-year tenure at St. Francis Brooklyn.
2023-24 Ivy women’s media day recap and season preview
With the season a few weeks away, the Ivy League hosted Women’s Basketball Media Day on Monday, the first of two media availabilities this week. The event was hosted over Zoom for media members and is available on the conference’s YouTube channel.
The preseason media poll was released last Thursday with Princeton earning all 16 first-place votes. Last year’s Ivy Tournament winner and regular season co-champions are the sixth unanimous pick in league history and the first since Penn in 2016-2017.
Davis’ triple-double leads Columbia women past Dartmouth
A career-first triple-double performance from senior forward Kaitlyn Davis helped ensure Columbia never trailed in a dominant 79-50 victory against Dartmouth Saturday at Levien Gym.
The Lions (17-3, 6-1 Ivy) entered the game as one of three teams in the country to use the same starting lineup all season. That changed against Dartmouth (2-19, 0-7) as coach Megan Griffith decided to rest sophomore guard Kitty Henderson due to a minor injury. Senior guard Carly Rivera made her first start of the season.
“Going into this week not knowing if she [Kitty] was going to be in or not, we just made sure everybody understood who’s going to take those points, who’s going to take those rebounds, who’s going to take those assists,” Griffith said. “And so them understanding the total team buy-in of, one of us falls down, we all pick it up as a group.”