Men Lose Heartbreaker in Double Overtime at Cornell, 79-76

Saturday, February 14

Ithaca, N.Y.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

6-16, 4-4Ivy

Cornell

17-7, 7-1Ivy

OT 1

OT 2

Dartmouth

Cornell

Men Lose Heartbreaker in Double Overtime at Cornell, 79-76

2/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

ITHACA, N.Y. ? Trailing by 19 in the second half, Dartmouth rallied to tie the score, but could not knock off the Ivy-leading Cornell Big Red on their home court, falling 79-76 in double overtime. Louis Dale scored 18 points and hit all six of his free throws in overtime to help Cornell (17-7, 7-1 Ivy) stave off the upset at home. Dartmouth (6-16, 4-4 Ivy) was led by senior Alex Barnett (St. Louis, Mo.), who scored a game-high 22 points.

Cornell had an 11-point lead at the half, 34-23, then came out gunning in the second stanza, nailing a quartet of three-pointers before the first media timeout to build a 19-point lead at 48-29. Yet the Big Green did not waver in their resolve to work their way back into the game. With the defense shutting down the host Big Red for five and a half minutes, the Dartmouth offense rattled off 15 straight points, with six coming from junior Elgin Fitzgerald (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and five from sophomore Ronnie Dixon (Danville, Ill.).

A Ryan Wittman jumper ended the Cornell drought, but Dartmouth kept it close with a Dixon three-pointer. Freshman Herve Kouna (Ebolowa, Cameroon) provided a big lift off the bench with three blocks and five straight points to keep Dartmouth within a possession at 55-52 with just under seven minutes to play.

Points became scarce after Barnett canned a jumper with 5:53 on the clock, making it 57-54. The teams traded points back and forth before Fitzgerald closed the gap to two at 61-59 by hitting one-of-two at the line. Dartmouth got the stop it needed and Barnett tied the score with 36 seconds left. Cornell had three shots to tie but could not get one to fall, sending the game to overtime.

Barnett struck first with buckets on the first two Big Green possessions. But Cornell kept drawing fouls and going to the line, where it made the most of its opportunities. Dale hit four straight, then Chris Wroblewski added a pair to put the Big Red up by two. Dixon tied the game on a driving circus layup around Cornell's seven-foot center, but Foote responded with two free throws.

Freshman David Rufful (Warwick, R.I.) was fouled with 34 seconds to play, and he calmly hit both to tie the game once again. Cornell took the lead again when Geoff Reeves streaked to the basket on an in-bounds play and dunked ? the only field goal of the first overtime for the Big Red ? leaving Dartmouth 18 seconds to either go for the win or tie. Rufful came through again, picking up a loose ball in the lane and scoring with just 2.5 seconds showing, forcing a second overtime.

Free throws made the difference in the second extra period as Dale and Wroblewski each hit two, bookending a Barnett bucket, to put Cornell up two at 75-73. Too many empty Big Green possessions allowed Cornell to finally get up by two possessions when Foote put in a reverse layup with just over a minute to play. Reeves canned two more foul shots, making the three-pointer by freshman Jabari Trotter (Northridge, Calif.) at the buzzer moot.

The Big Red won the game at the line, hitting 27-of-33 (.818) of their foul shots. They also hit eight three-pointers while shooting 41.5 percent (22-of-53) overall from the floor.

Dartmouth just about matched the Cornell shooting percentage at 41.2 (28-of-68), but hurt itself at the charity stripe by hitting 16-of-26 (.615). The rebounding was nearly equal with the Big Red holding a very slight advantage at 41-40, but Cornell also turned the ball over 17 times to Dartmouth's 14.

Joining Dale in double figures were Reeves with 15, Wittman with 14 and Foote with 11. Foote also had a game-high nine rebounds.

Dixon scored 14 points, while Fitzgerald and Rufful each added 12. Kouna was a force in the paint, hitting all three of his shots, grabbing six boards to tie for team-high honors and blocking three shots.

Dartmout had won four straight overtime games, including two in the last month.

Dartmouth continues its four-game road trip next Friday, Feb. 20 when the Big Green travel to Philadelphia to play Penn in the Palestra at 7 p.m. Cornell plays at Yale on Friday at 7 p.m. as well.