Dartmouth Downed by Colgate on the Hardwood

Tuesday, December 22

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

2-9

COLGATE

1-9

Colgate

Dartmouth

12/22/2009 8:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. — Senior Marlon Sanders put up a season-high 13 points for Dartmouth on Tuesday evening, but his effort was not enough to counteract the balanced attack of visiting Colgate in a 63-44 defeat at Leede Arena. Yaw Gyawu had a game-high 14 points to help the Raiders (1-9) pick up their first win of the season. The Big Green offense was stymied by Colgate, shooting just 33.9 percent (19-of-56) in falling to 2-9 on the season.

Each of the 10 Raiders that played in the game scored at least two points and all but one had at least one field goal. The lone player without a bucket, Joe Hoban, still scored eight points by hitting all eight of his foul shots. Colgate hit 20-of-44 from the floor and, despite entering the game shooting just 63.2 percent from the charity stripe, converted all but two of its 21 free throws for a percentage of 90.5 for the game.

The game was tight in the first half, as neither side held an advantage of more than two points for the first 13:30 of the game. Twice the Big Green went up by two, first on a short jumper by freshman center Matt LaBove, then just 40 seconds later when LaBove made a nifty pass to sophomore David Rufful for a layup to make it 10-8.

But each time Gyawu had a quick answer with short jumpers to tie the game. He then knocked down two free throws with 12:23 left in the half to give Colgate the lead, which turned out to be for the rest of the game.

Junior Clive Weeden hit 1-of-2 free throws before both teams went scoreless for more than four minutes. Sterling Melville ended the drought with a foul shot, which led to a 13-4 run for the Raiders, capped by a Brett Marfurt three-pointer for a 10-point lead at 25-15 with 3:15 remaining until the intermission.

Dartmouth showed resilience, however, scoring the final seven points of the half, five coming from Sanders. Rufful had a chance to tie the game with a three-pointer, but the Big Green would not get a shot to fall from behind the arc all game, going 0-for-9. Instead, Dartmouth had to settle for trailing by three at the break, 25-22.

Gyawu had 10 of his 14 points in the first half, and while Dartmouth was shooting just 30.8 percent (8-of-26), rebounding kept the Green in the game with a 18-14 edge on the boards. And while Colgate hit 5-of-7 at the foul line, Dartmouth was just as effective by going 6-of-8.

Rebounding and free throws would turn out to be the difference in the second half as the Raiders hauled in 22 rebounds compared to just nine for the Big Green, plus drained all 14 of their foul shots while Dartmouth did not even attempt a single one.

Anthony Hill pushed the Colgate lead to eight early in the second half with a three-ball, but freshman Mbiyimoh Ghogomu drilled a jumper in the lane to shave two points off the lead. The Raiders then rattled off nine straight points, beginning with another Hill trifecta, in a two-minute span to balloon the difference to 15 at 43-28 with little more than 10 minutes left in the game.

Dartmouth doggedly trimmed the deficit by more than half to seven with a 10-2 spurt, despite its leading scorer (Rufful) fouling out with 8:58 remaining. The two sides traded points for the next two minutes, with a 17-footer by junior Ronnie Dixon keeping the Big Green within seven at 49-42 with 4:45 to play.

The rest of the game belonged to Colgate as it finished the contest on a 14-2 run. A fastbreak layup by Sanders provided the only Dartmouth points in the final minutes of the game.

Dartmouth has a week off before its next game, a televised contest on NESN at Quinnipiac on Dec. 30 at 2 p.m. Likewise, Colgate next plays on the road on Dec. 30, traveling to Durham, N.H., to take on New Hampshire at 7 p.m.