Women’s basketball: Big Green rally but fall short

Dartmouth women's basketball guard Tahira Muhammad (3) dribbles down the floor during a game against Albany at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. Muhammad hit all four of her 3s and scored 14 points in the Big Green's 58-53 loss. (Dartmouth Athletics - Cayla Fernandes)

Dartmouth women's basketball guard Tahira Muhammad (3) dribbles down the floor during a game against Albany at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. Muhammad hit all four of her 3s and scored 14 points in the Big Green's 58-53 loss. (Dartmouth Athletics - Cayla Fernandes) Dartmouth Athletics — Cayla Fernandes

By ALEX CERVANTES

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 11-15-2024 1:43 PM

Modified: 11-15-2024 3:39 PM


 

HANOVER — Dartmouth women’s basketball first-year guard Tahira Muhammad held her right hand in the cookie jar for an extra second or two, hopping backward on her left leg as she watched her 3-point attempt arc toward the hoop Wednesday against UAlbany. She drilled it.

Muhammad’s 3, her fourth of the night, had tied the game, 51-51, with just over 3 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. As she began to backpedal toward midcourt, Muhammed flashed a trademark 3-point gesture, her thumb and index finger locking to form a circle as her other three fingers pointed upward to the Leede Arena rafters. The nearside referee deemed this celebration too much, blowing his whistle and handing Muhammad a technical foul for “taunting.”

The Big Green had engineered a 10-0, two-minute run to draw level with the Great Danes. Now, Dartmouth was once again trailing after Albany guard Lilly Phillips converted the pair of technical free throws. The Great Danes would ultimately outscore the Big Green 7-2 over the final three minutes, securing a 58-53 victory and handing Dartmouth (1-1) its first loss of the season.

Big Green coach Linda Cimino praised Muhammad’s play and her team’s fourth-quarter comeback postgame. Cimino said the two-possession loss to Albany (2-0), a team pegged to compete for the America East Conference crown, is “going to help us win games down the stretch.”

“Tough loss today, but I’m really proud of our fight and our effort,” Cimino said. “We showed a lot of resilience out there.”

Through nearly 3.5 quarters, Dartmouth had been plagued by its inability to convert around the rim and the second-chance opportunities it afforded the Great Danes on the glass.

Cimino wanted to attack Albany inside, junior center Clare Meyer owning a 3-inch height advantage over her defender, Albany’s Kayla Cooper. Cimino liked the quality of looks the Big Green were getting in the paint, they were just missing layups.

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A nearly 7-minute scoring drought to open the second quarter allowed the Great Danes to take a lead it would hold into the final frame. Dartmouth, on the heels of a 51-point shellacking of Keene State in the season opener, saw last season’s scoring struggles — the Big Green averaged 48.5 points per game — hamper the team once again. Cimino’s squad had scored just 32 points entering the fourth quarter.

Dartmouth’s defensive rebounding struggles only further complicated matters. Albany, which doesn’t have a single player listed above 6-foot-1 on its roster, snagged more offensive boards (19) than defensive rebounds (17) in the game. Cimino chalked up most of the Great Danes’ offensive boards to missed block outs and said the onus fell on her guards and wings to crash the glass better.

“If we clean up those offensive rebounds that we gave up, then it’s a different result and we win today,” Cimino said. “That was single-handedly the biggest difference in today’s game.”

Albany’s margin of victory could have been far greater had Cimino not attempted to speed the visitors up in the fourth quarter.

Trailing 47-37 with 7 minutes remaining, the Big Green busted out a 1-2-1-1 diamond press. The full-court extended pressure created a frenetic pace over the next 4 minutes, which saw Dartmouth chip away at the 10-point deficit as the Great Danes turned the ball over and rushed into shots.

“Our energy kind of put them back on their heels,” said senior guard Victoria Page, who poured in a team-high 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting. “They were putting up quick shots and that’s what we wanted.”

Cimino, who employed a short 8-player rotation Wednesday, doesn’t believe the Big Green can sustain that fast of a pace for 40 minutes of play.

Still, fielding a roster that features six newcomers, these early nonconference tilts are all a learning exercise. The second-year coach is also contending with the absence of 6-foot-4 center Doreen Ariik, the Ivy League’s top shot blocker in the 2023-24 campaign, who is still recovering from an injury.

But the fact that Dartmouth could weather poor performances from two starters and stay in a game is a testament to the depth on the team, according to Cimino.

“That’s the difference this year: Our culture’s good,” Cimino said. “Our team is really leading each other in a really good direction.”

Said Muhammad: “It’s just this new energy. We’re coming in and we’re ready to fight. We want to win, that was our main goal from the first day I got here, and so each day we’re working toward that, every possession we’re working toward that.”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.