HANOVER, N.H. – The Big Red women's basketball team couldn't find its shooting touch and fell to Dartmouth, 54-35, this evening at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.
 
Cornell (15-11, 6-6 Ivy) was led by Nia Marshall with 10 points, while Nicholle Aston scored 10 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Kerri Moran chipped in eight points, grabbed seven rebounds, handed out four assists and recorded three steals.
 
Dartmouth (13-13, 4-8 Ivy) was led by Lakin Roland's 17 points, while Fanni Szabo scored 16. On the boards, Tia Lawson grabbed nine rebounds, helping the Big Green to the 36-34 advantage.
 
The Big Green got out to a hot start, shooting 41.7 percent overall (10-24) and a blazing 60 percent (6-10) from beyond the arc in the first half as it built a 28-19 halftime lead. Cornell, on the other hand, shot just 32.1 overall (9-28) and connected on just one trey (1-9) in the first 20 minutes, due in large part to an eight minute scoring drought through the middle of the first half.
 
Dartmouth, which shot just 30 percent from 3-point range entering the game, knocked down 45 percent for the contest, hitting 9-of-20 treys. The Big Green finished at 38.5 percent for the game (20-52) after cooling in the second half. Unfortunately, Cornell couldn't capitalize as its shooting didn't improve over the final 20 minutes and the Big Red finished at 26.9 percent overall (14-52) and a mere 16.7 percent from long distance (3-18).   
 
After trading baskets to a 7-6 Dartmouth lead, the Big Green got back-to-back 3-pointers from Roland, followed by a layup from Szabo to take a 15-6 lead with just under 13 minutes to play in the half.
 
A tough layup from Marshall temporarily ended the home team's run but Roland knocked down another trey, this time from the corner, to push the Big Green's lead to double-digits (18-8) at the 11-minute mark. Marshall's field goal would be the last for Cornell over an eight minute span as the home team pushed its lead to 23-8 with just under five minute to play in the half.
 
Aston ended the Cornell drought with layups on back-to-back Cornell possessions, but Dartmouth responded with another trey, its sixth of the half to push its lead back to 26-12.
 
The Big Red closed the half on a 7-2 run, with four points from Christine Ehland and a trey from Moran, to go into the intermission trailing, 28-19.
 
After a quick bucket by Szabo to open the second half, Cornell scored seven consecutive points, to make it a four-point contest (30-26) game with 16:35 to play. The teams traded baskets for the next six minutes before the Big Green used a 15-0 run, with eight points from Roland and five from Szabo, to put the game away.
 
The Big Red will play its final home Ivy League games of the season when it welcomes No. 14 Princeton and Penn on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7, respectively. The game against the Tigers will tip-off at 7 p.m., while the game vs. the Quakers is slated to begin at 6 p.m.  Cornell will celebrate its Senior Night on Saturday, as the team honors Christine Kline and Sarah Poland prior to the game with Penn.