Woeful Weekend for W. Cagers Results in Fall From First Place
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While the men’s basketball team was celebrating their title by cutting the net down at Newman Arena on Saturday night, the Crimson women’s team was cutting the Red’s Ivy title hopes out from underneath its feet. Despite a cold shooting weekend, the Red only scored five points less than its opponents over the weekend. However, that was all it took to lose to Dartmouth, 46-44, and Harvard, 51-48. Because of the weekend sweep, Cornell falls to 17-9 and 9-3 in Ivy play, good for second place.
The Green (12-14, 9-3 Ivy) sent its fans home happy on Friday night by winning a thriller of a defensive struggle. With 3.4 seconds remaining in the game, the Green’s freshman forward Brittney Smith made a layup to put the home team ahead for good. Smith and senior forward Sydney Scott led Dartmouth with nine points each. Even though it was a relatively low-scoring game, Dartmouth capitalized on its opportunities by shooting 47.5 percent from the field while holding the Red to 37.8 percent — well below Cornell’s season average of 42.2 percent. The Green also out-rebounded the Red 32-23 — a stark contrast from their last matchup when the Red won the battle of the boards 39-25.
Grin and bear it: Harvard’s stifling defense held the Red to just 48 points on Saturday. Junior Kayleen Fitzsimmons (12) led the team with eight points.
“Dartmouth is a defensive team,” said head coach Dayna Smith. “The second half of that game I thought they were very focused on clogging up the key. They were more aggressive on the perimeter... it really disrupted the flow of our offense and we didn’t do a good job reading it and getting the open shots.”
After losing its spot atop the conference to the Red two weeks ago in a blowout at Newman Arena, the Crimson (17-9, 10-2 Ivy) regained first place by stopping the Red offense that put up 85 points in the last matchup between the two teams. The Red’s leading scorer in that game, senior guard Gretchen Gregg, was held to just three points this time around, compared to 18 in the last matchup.
“First off we didn’t take advantage of opportunities that we did have,” Smith said. “We had a lot of open shots that we tend to make; we didn’t have as many easy layups as we normally do, we didn’t finish as much. Before we talk about the other team’s defense I think we just need to do a better job of taking care of our own business.”
Cornell’s offense was also stretched thin without its leading scorer, Maduka, who was competing at the Heps track event. None of the Red players managed to get into double digits; junior forward Shannan Scarselletta and junior guard Kayleen Fitzsimmons led the team with eight points apiece.
Cornell suffered an even worse shooting night on Saturday — just 32.7 percent — but held Harvard to a 32.2 percent. Unfortunately for the Red, the Crimson made shots at the right times. With two seconds left in the game, a lay-up by junior forward Moina Snyder cut Harvard’s lead 49-48, and the Red fouled to send Jessica Knox to the charity stripe. Knox proceeded to sink both of her shots and the Red couldn’t get a shot off in the remaining seconds.
Because of the two-loss weekend, the Red is no longer in control of the Ivy League race. Cornell would need at least one Harvard loss next weekend to reclaim first place in the Ancient Eight.
Dayna Smith
Wow! What a shame. I have never have seen a sidelines so mis-managed in my life as I witnessed this past weekend. Dayna Smith has no clue! She consistently has the wrong players on the floor in key moments of the game. My real issue is the fact that she has no control over her players. Cornell's best player missed the most important game of her career to run in a track meet. There is a double standard here. Jaomi Maduka can decide that she is running track on a night where Cornell could have earned a trip to the NCAA tournament and Dayna Smith is OK with it. What if the entire team had a conflict with what they thought was an important event? Would it be OK for the rest of the team to miss such an important game? How can a coach allow this to happen? The shame of it is that this Coach Smith cannot hold onto her players (every year a key member of the team does not return) and will never achieve what the men's team has achieved. IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE!!!!
Harvard loss hurts so much
I do feel very bad for the Cornell women players after their struggles last weekend. The coaches have done a decent job to this point however, I was shocked to hear that they went into this weekend without their best player because she had to run track. The coaches and playes must be furious. Maybe the Cornell Sun can get us the real scoop as to why the Cornell coaches would be OK with their strongest player missing the biggest game of the season with so much on the line. It is mind boggling to think that the Cornell team could not get their superstar to come to the most important game of the season. This will surely be the only reason that the women's team does not make it to the big dance. The good news is that we can all look forward to seeing the men's team play in the NCAA tournament but I still hurt from the Harvard loss because it should never have happened.