Dartmouth Ends 12-Year Drought Against Penn

Saturday, January 31

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

4-14, 2-2Ivy

Penn

5-11, 1-1Ivy

Penn

Dartmouth

1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? Senior Dan Biber (Lorain, Ohio) converted a three-point play with eight seconds on the clock to lift Dartmouth to a 63-60 victory over the visiting Penn Quakers on Saturday evening at Leede Arena. Biber finished the game with a career-high 17 points as the Big Green (4-14, 2-2 Ivy) snapped a 23-game losing streak against Penn, with the last victory coming Feb. 8, 1997 in overtime at The Palestra.

Tyler Bernardini, who led the Quakers (5-11, 1-1 Ivy) with 22 points, got off a clean look from 27 feet at the buzzer, but the shot bounded harmlessly off the left side of the rim.

Senior Alex Barnett (St. Louis, Mo.) was the leading scorer for Dartmouth with 24 points for the second straight night, hitting 8-of-16 from the floor. Biber, meanwhile, connected on 6-of-11 with a pair of three-pointers, and canned all three of his foul shots.

Dartmouth knocked down 24-of-50 (.480) from the floor and 5-of-13 (.385) from downtown, but more crucially 10-of-14 (.714) at the line. Senior Kurt Graeber (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.) had five of the Big Green's 25 rebounds, while senior Marlon Sanders (Cleveland, Ohio) was solid handling the ball with four assists and no turnovers.

Penn, meanwhile, had very similar numbers at 20-of-41 (.488) on field goals, 5-of-11 (.455) on threes and 15-of-22 (.682) from the charity stripe. Joining Bernardini in double figures were Cameron Lewis with 12 and Brennan Votel with 10. Jack Eggleston was the Quakers' leading rebounder with eight, six coming in the second half, and point guard Zack Rosen provided a game-high seven assists.

Trailing by eight at 56-48 after a 9-0 Quaker run with less than five and a half minutes to play, Barnett got the Green going on the comeback trail by hitting a short jumper while getting fouled. Although he missed the free throw, junior Robby Pride (Denver, Colo.) was able to track down the rebound, which eventually led to another three-point play for Barnett, which he converted this time to cut the lead to three.

Penn built the lead back to six on a Votel jumper and one-of-two free throws from Jack Eggleston. Biber answered with a three-pointer to slice the deficit back to three.

Freshman Josh Riddle (Aurora, Colo.), who had played in just three minutes over the previous four games, came up big on the defensive end with steals on consecutive Penn possessions. The first led to a driving layup by Pride to make the score 59-58 with barely under three minutes to play.

Another freshman, David Rufful (Warwick, R.I.), gave Dartmouth a one-point lead with a pull-up jumper with 1:28 on the clock. Penn threw the ball away on the inbounds play, but the Big Green could not capitalize as two free throws were missed.

Bernardini was fouled at the other end, but he managed to hit just 1-of-2 at the line, leaving the game tied with 37 seconds to play and setting up Biber's heroics.

Penn was in control for most of the first half, taking a 19-10 lead following a three-pointer by Bernardini with 6:14 left. But the Big Green clamped down on defense, holding the Quakers without a field goal for the remainder of the period.

While the defense was doing its thing, Dartmouth started to heat up at the offensive end. A three-point play from Barnett ended a stretch of more than seven minutes without a field goal. Back-to-back threes from Rufful and Biber, and a Biber 14-footer, tied the game at 21. After a pair of Penn foul shots, Barnett scored the final seven points of the half to allow the Big Green to take a five-point lead into the locker room, 28-23.

Dartmouth shot 40.9 percent (9-of-22) in the first half, thanks to connecting on five of its last six shots in the half. Conversely, Penn missed five of its last six shots, finishing at 42.1 percent (8-of-19) from the floor.

Barnett led all players at the intermission with 14 points, while Rufful had four rebounds.

Bernardini was one of just four Quakers to score in the first half, tallying seven, and Rosen led the squad with three boards.

Dartmouth will continue a four-game homestand next Friday, Feb. 6, when it hosts Brown (6-12, 0-4 Ivy) at 7 p.m. Penn returns to Philadelphia to host Columbia (7-11, 2-2 Ivy) on Friday at 7 p.m. as well.

Notes: Dartmouth also ended a 12-game losing streak at its home venue against the Quakers, dating back to Feb. 9, 1996 when the Green eked out a one-point win, 54-53 ... in addition, the Big Green stopped a six-game slide at home since a 96-47 triumph over Plymouth State on Dec. 14.