Brittney Smith Named Ivy Player of the Year; Schram
and Rose Tabbed All-Ivy
Courtesy: Dartmouth
Release: 03/12/2009
Courtesy: MarkWashburn Brittney Smith paced Dartmouth to
the outright Ivy title on Tuesday night
Princeton, N.J. -- After leading Dartmouth to its 17th Ivy
Championship and NCAA Tournament, sophomore
Brittney Smith (Fort Worth, Texas) has been named the Ivy League
Player of the Year while
Koren Schram (Batesville, Ark.) repeated as a first team All-Ivy
selection and
Darcy Rose (Fort Collins, Colo.) was named to the second team.
Schram and Smith are the ninth set of first team All-Ivy teammates
in Dartmouth history and the first since Jeannie Cullen '06 and
Angie Soriaga '06 were both named in 2006. Prior to that it had not
happened since 1988. They are the 23rd set in Ivy history.
Brittney Smith, who was the unanimous Ivy Rookie of the Year
last season, is Dartmouth's 11th Ivy Player of the Year honoree. She
was also one of two unanimous selections to the first team All-Ivy.
The 6-1 forward was a force inside throughout the season, averaging
14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game
overall. In conference play she upped her numbers to 15.1 points and
8.4 rebounds per game while contributing to the Big Green's dominant
defense, allowing just 47.1 points per game.
A three-time Ivy Player of the Week, Smith saved some of her best
work for the most pivotal game of the season. She dominated in
Dartmouth's regular season finale against Harvard, posting 19 points
and nine rebounds to secure the outright title and NCAA bid for the
Big Green (18-10, 13-1 Ivy). It was also a head-to-head battle with
the only other unanimous pick, Harvard's Emily Tay, that may have
decided the player of the year result as Tay was limited to just
seven points.
Smith is the seventh sophomore to be named Ivy Player of the Year
and first since 2002. Three of the others also came from Dartmouth
(Liz Walter '89, 1987; Ann Deacon '83, 1981; Gail Kozaiara '82,
1980).
The person most responsible for limiting Tay was Dartmouth's other
first team All-Ivy honoree,
Koren Schram, a senior guard who is making her second-straight
appearance on the first team. She is Dartmouth's first two-time
first team honoree since Katharine Hanks '03 was named to the team
in three-straight seasons. As a senior, Schram was the vital cog in
Dartmouth's offense, averaging 12.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game
along with 2.4 assists and 62 made threes. She was also the
centerpiece of the Big Green's epic defense, ranking second in the
league in steals per game with 2.4. Schram went out with a bang in
her final home game tallying 18 points, including her 1,000th career
point, along with three steals.
This season, Schram did it all for the Big Green, from running the
point to shutting down the opponent's top scorers as one of the
Ivy's top defenders. She scored in double figures 20 times, bringing
her career total to 56. She was named to the TD Banknorth and Blue
Sky Classic All-Tournament teams and is a top-10 finalist for the
Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Schram is one of the Big Green's best
three-point shooters of all time, currently standing in third place
with 196 made threes. She was named honorable mention All-Ivy as a
sophomore.
Dartmouth's final All-Ivy honoree is
Darcy Rose, a senior forward who earned second team honors for
the first time in her career. Rose truly saved the best for last,
having her finest season in a Dartmouth uniform as a senior. She
averaged 9.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, which she upped to an
impressive 9.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in conference play.
Rose was unstoppable down the stretch, willing the Big Green to the
third Ivy title of her career.
Prior to this season, Rose had tallied just one career double-double
but posted seven as a senior with four coming in the last five games
of the season. She battled to a 17-point, 10 rebound double-double
in the dramatic comeback
win at Columbia and added 13 points and 10 rebounds to ice the title
over Harvard.
The Big Green's all-time All-Ivy total is now 98, well above any
other team in the league. Dartmouth has also had 36 first team
All-Ivy selections ahead of Harvard's 30.
Dartmouth has accepted the Ivy's automatic bid to the 2009 NCAA
Tournament and will learn its first round opponent on Monday, March
16 at 7 p.m. during the national selection show.
Player of
the Year
Brittney Smith, Dartmouth (So., F, Fort Worth, Texas)
First Team All-Ivy
Judie Lomax, Columbia (So., F, Washington, D.C.)
*Brittney
Smith, Dartmouth (So., F, Fort Worth, Texas)
Koren Schram, Dartmouth (Sr., Batesville, Ark.)
*Emily Tay, Harvard (Sr., G, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Carrie Biemer, Penn (Sr., F, Haddonfield, N.J.)
Second Team All-Ivy
Lauren Benson, Cornell (Jr., G, Downers Grove, Ill.)
Darcy Rose, Dartmouth (Sr., F, Fort Collins, Colo.)
Emma Markley, Harvard (So., F, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.)
Addie Micir, Princeton (So., G/F, Newtown, Pa.)
Melisa Colborne, Yale (Jr., F/G, Calgary, Alb.)