It literally came down to the line Friday night for the women's basketball team.
With the Bears down by two points and just six seconds left, Hannah Passafuime '12 — Brown's leading scorer — stepped up to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game at 64 and send it to overtime. But that's not the way it went. Brown fell to Dartmouth, 67-63, on Friday night and Harvard, 66-51, the next night.
Dartmouth 67, Brown 63
Brown got off to a 12-4 lead on Dartmouth's home court, at one point holding the Big Green scoreless for nine minutes. But the home team stormed back with an offensive attack to gain a one-point advantage over Brown with 2:14 left in the half.
Before the halftime buzzer, both teams went basket-for-basket and ended the half in a 26-26 tie. The Bears shot 75 percent from the line but missed all six shots from behind the arc in the first half.
The battle for the lead continued through the night with seven ties in the game. Dartmouth held the largest lead of the second half, leading 52-45 with 5:53 left on the clock before Brown came back to life.
With the game on the line, Passafuime bounced her first free throw off the iron and sunk the second one. Bruno had no choice but to foul for the remainder of the game. The Big Green made three of four free throws to end the game ahead, 67-63.
Leading scorers from the Bears were Passafuime, Aileen Daniels '12 and Lindsay Steele '12 with 15, 14 and 10 points, respectively.
"Right now, our team is really clicking because we are playing together and utilizing each other's strengths," Passafuime said. "We have had leading scorers and rebounders from different players almost every game."
Harvard 66, Brown 51
Saturday night was a tough challenge in Cambridge for the Bears. The Crimson, who are among the top contenders for the Ivy League title this year, came out hot and jumped out to a 16-4 lead in the first eight minutes.
Bruno fought back and held Harvard scoreless for nearly three minutes to cut the deficit to just three with 2:27 remaining in the first half. Brown came within one with 1:49 left in the half before the Crimson ran away with the lead. The Bears never came within four for the rest of the night.
Bruno shot only 10 percent from three-point range and 29 percent from the field. Passafuime led Brown with 14 points, making her the only Bear in double figures. Harvard placed three players in that category, and the team's top scorer racked up 27 points.
