HANOVER, N.H. – In the first of three final non-conference games of the season, the UMass Lowell women's basketball team suffered a, 70-54, defeat at Dartmouth on Wednesday night.
The Big Green (5-4) outscored the River Hawks (3-8), 30-13, in the third quarter to take control of the contest, which was never at more than a seven-point difference in the first 20 minutes.
"We need to put two halves together," said Head Coach
Tom Garrick. "The first half was a dogfight, and I thought our ladies stayed with it and executed defensively with some good offensive looks. If we had just sustained that, it might have been a different game. We grew a little tonight, it just was not enough to win the game."
UMass Lowell had all eight players who entered register points, with
Brianna Rudolph (Lynn, Mass.) scoring 13 and Bri Stiers (Denver, Colo.) adding 12 points. The hosts' Cy Lippold led all scorers with 25 points, connecting on seven three-pointers.
Dartmouth opened a 9-2 lead in the first three minutes, but a Rudolph ended the drought and brought the visitors within four points.
After the Big Green held a seven-point advantage at the game's first media timeout, UMass Lowell scored the next four points to head into the second quarter trailing, 14-11.
All 11 points were scored by Rudolph and
Oda Shackelford (Edinburgh, Ind.), as Shackelford's second bucket of the night were the final points of the opening quarter.
Ren'Cia Rolling (Lansing, Ill.) recorded the first points of the second to make it a one-point contest, but Dartmouth responded with five straight.
Shackelford hit a free throw to make it a 21-14 deficit, sparking a 7-0 run for the visitors which trimmed the gap to 21-20 with 72 seconds left in the first half. All seven points of the spurt came from the charity stripe as UMass Lowell went 7-of-10 from the line in the opening half.
The River Hawks first three points in the third period were recorded at the line as the visitors knotted the game at 21-21, but saw a one-point deficit extend to 29-23 in the first two minutes of the half.
UMass Lowell is off until a matchup at Massachusetts on December 21 at 1 p.m.
