Historic Win for Dartmouth Men at Princeton, 66-63

Saturday, February 21

Princeton, N.J.

6:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

8-16, 6-4Ivy

Princeton

10-12, 5-4Ivy

Dartmouth

Princeton

Historic Win for Dartmouth Men at Princeton, 66-63

2/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

PRINCETON, N.J. ? Senior Alex Barnett (St. Louis, Mo.) drained all six of his free throws in the final minute for the second straight night as Dartmouth won for just the third time at Jadwin Gym in 41 years, nipping the Princeton Tigers on Saturday evening, 66-63. Having won at Penn last night as well, the Big Green (8-16, 6-4 Ivy) beat both the Quakers and Princeton (10-12, 5-4 Ivy) during the same weekend for the first time in 20 years and fourth in the last 50.

Trailing 61-60 following a Douglas Davis free throw, Dartmouth turned to the Ivy's leading scorer in Barnett to lead the team to victory. He was fouled with 48 seconds to play and drained both free throws to give the Big Green the lead. After a defensive stop, Princeton was forced to foul Barnett again, and he gave Dartmouth a three-point lead with two more foul shots through the hoop.

Davis drove the lane and was fouled with 18 seconds remaining, and he hit both free throws to cut the deficit to one again. But when Barnett was able to corral the in-bounds pass, the Tigers had no choice but to foul him one more time. Again he calmly hit both despite more than 3,000 Princeton fans on hand to witness the dedication of Carrill Court in honor of Pete Carrill, the school's head coach for 29 years through 1996.

The Tigers had a chance to tie, but Dan Mavraides' three-point attempt came up short. Big Green freshman Jabari Trotter (Northridge, Calif.) hauled in the rebound and the clock expired to seal Dartmouth's second historic win in as many nights.

Barnett led all scorers with 22 points, hitting 6-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-4 from long range, plus a perfect 7-of-7 at the line. He also moved into Dartmouth's top 10 all-time scorers by surpassing 1,300 points (1,302), good for 10th place.

Barnett's six rebounds led a strong Dartmouth effort on the boards, outrebounding the host Tigers, 29-17. Princeton managed just six boards in the entire second half and not a single offensive rebound the entire game. But the Tigers did shoot 59.0 percent (23-of-39) for the game, yet fell short mostly due to the fact that the Big Green had 15 second-chance points to none for Princeton.

Supporting Barnett were senior Marlon Sanders (Cleveland, Ohio) with 13 points and freshman David Rufful (Warwick, R.I.) with 12.

Mavraides was one of three Tigers to score in double figures with 19 points plus led the team on the boards with five caroms. Davis had 16 points ? all in the second half ? while center Pawel Buczak had 11.

The Tigers led the entire first half, led by Mavraides' 13 points and nine from Buczak. Rufful kept Dartmouth in the game early, scoring 10 of the Big Green's first 14 points. But Princeton led by as many as 13, 27-14, before Barnett heated up, tallying nine of the last 11 of the half for Dartmouth with a three-point play and a pair of trifecats, including one at the buzzer to cut the deficit to four at the intermission, 34-30.

Princeton ripped the nets at a 65 percent clip (13-of-20) in the opening half, plus drained 5-of-6 from the foul line. While Dartmouth's field goal percentage paled in comparison (.433), the Big Green connected on as many field goals with 13. Six offensive rebounds allowed Dartmouth to get seven second-chance points, keeping the Green in the ball game.

In the second half, Dartmouth continued to chip away at the deficit, taking its first lead nearly five minutes into the period on a driving Sanders layup. Neither side led by more than two points for almost 10 minutes until Davis ripped a three-pointer from the top of the key to break a 53-all tie with 5:40 to play.

Mavraides added a free throw for a four-point cushion, but Trotter came through with a three-point play following a missed Big Green shot. Barnett drained a tough baseline jumper with two men on him with 2:19 on the clock to give Dartmouth a 58-57 advantage, only to have Mavraides pull off a three-point play of his own.

Trotter created the game-tying bucket by driving into the lane and finding freshman Herve Kouna (Ebolowa, Cameroon) under the hoop for the layup and a foul. He missed the free throw however, and Mavraides broke the tie by hitting one-of-two from the line at the other end. From there, Barnett took control.

Dartmouth entered the game shooting just 63.5 percent from the line but, for the second straight night, really helped itself by converting 13-of-15.

Dartmouth returns home next weekend for its final two home games of the season, beginning with league-leading Cornell on Friday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. Princeton continues its four-game homestand when Brown comes to town next Friday as well at 7 p.m.