HANOVER, NH—Fanni Szabo scored six of Dartmouth's 11 overtime points, helping The Big Green to a 68-63 overtime victory at Dartmouth Sunday afternoon at Leede Arena.
Szabo, a sophomore guard who finished with a game-high 21 points, was one of three double-figure scorers for Dartmouth, which had defeated the Highlanders in another thriller, 48-45, in regulation when the two teams played last season in Newark on January 18.
The Big Green also got 18 points and 11 rebounds from junior forward Lakin Roland, while junior guard Milica Toskovic combined for a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
In the final 1:14 of the second half, Dartmouth's Toskovic broke a 51-51 tie, converting on a baseline layup, but NJIT answered for its first lead of the game, 54-53, on a 3-pointer by
Alana Dudley with 44 seconds remaining. The Highlanders connected on one of two free throws, 55-53, with senior point guard
Alyssa Albanese at the charity stripe, before Dartmouth's junior Daisy Jordan tied the game at 55 with a layup with 12 seconds remaining.
NJIT used a timeout to regroup and NJIT's Albanese went the length of the floor to score and give the Highlanders a 57-55 lead with 0.6 seconds left. On the inbounds, NJIT's Albanese knocked the ball out of bounds in front of the Dartmouth bench.
After the referees reviewed the replay, 0.4 seconds was put on the clock. Dartmouth's Toskovic standing at 6-foot-2 was the in-bounder for the Big Green and she sent a pass over NJIT's 6-foot-5 center
Maria Ruban towards the far baseline and Roland connected on a jumper off the glass as the clock expired.
In overtime, neither side scored until 2:46 remained and Dartmouth's Szabo hit a jumper to give the Big Green a two-point lead, 59-57. Dartmouth went on to outscore NJIT 11-6 in the extra period, with Szabo scoring the final four points at the line.
The Highlanders (0-2) had three players score in double-digits, led by Albanese with 14 points. The 5-foot-3 senior from Fort Washington, MD, also pulled down 11 rebounds, a new personal-best, surpassing her old mark of 7 rebounds vs. Utah Valley on January 26, 2013.
Forward
Leah Horton posted her second straight double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds) performance, while sophomore
Alana Dudley, the sophomore guard, came off the bench to score 10 on 4-of-9 shooting from the field overall and 2-for-3 from 3-point range.
NJIT lost its second straight five-point contest and never led until 44 seconds left in regulation on the Dudley 3-pointer and the score was tied three times. The Highlanders made a thrilling comeback to erase a 10-point deficit over the final 12:49 of regulation and forced overtime by outscoring the home team 11-6 in the last 2:52 of the second half,
Dartmouth, which took an early 19-12 lead and held a 29-22 advantage at the halftime break, extended its lead to as many as 10, 40-30, at the 12:49 mark on a three-pointer by Toskovic.
"We made some adjustments in the second half and focused on the players that hurt us in the first half (Fanni and Lakin) and that adjustment got us into the flow for the second half," head coach
Steve Lanpher commented after the contest.
NJIT scored the 9 straight points from the 12:11 mark to 10:19, sparked by a layup by Horton and slimming the Big Green lead to one, 40-39. Horton had 4 of the Highlanders' 9 points in the spurt.
The Big Green pushed its lead up to 6, on three different occasions after that, the final time with 3:13 on the clock and the score, 51-45.
NJIT will return to action on Wednesday when the Highlanders visit Fairleigh Dickinson at 8pm in Hackensack, NJ.
