Second-Half Surge Leads to Successful Senior Night for Dartmouth

Saturday, February 28

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

9-17, 7-5Ivy

COLUMBIA

11-15, 6-6Ivy

Columbia

Dartmouth

Second-Half Surge Leads to Successful Senior Night for Dartmouth

2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? The Dartmouth Big Green men's basketball team outscored visiting Columbia in the second half by 20 points to send their seniors off with a victory in their final home game, 67-53. Senior Alex Barnett (St. Louis, Mo.) led Dartmouth (9-17, 7-5 Ivy) in scoring for the 22nd time in 26 games with 22 points, while his classmate Kurt Graeber (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.) led the team on the glass with six rebounds while tallying eight points as well.

The Lions (11-15, 6-6 Ivy) got 19-point efforts from both forward Jason Miller and guard K.J. Matsui, the latter connecting on five three-pointers, but just one point from the entire bench.

At the intermission, Columbia held a 31-25 lead thanks to a hot hand, hitting 59.1 percent (13-of-22) of its shots, including 4-of-9 from three-point range. Matsui led all scorers in the first half with 13 points, draining 3-of-4 from downtown.

The Big Green had a bigger roar than the Lions in the second half, however, completely shutting down the Columbia offense. The first points in the final stanza came from Columbia's Kevin Bulger on a layup, but Dartmouth scored the next eight points, with a pair of layups by sophomore Ronnie Dixon (Danville, Ill.) and a jumper by freshman Jabari Trotter (Northridge, Calif.) to tie the score at 33.

A pair of Miller free throws briefly gave the Lions the lead again, only to have the Big Green rattle off 13 straight points. Barnett scored the first nine of those points with a three-point play followed by consecutive three-pointers. Marlon Sanders (Cleveland, Ohio) and Robby Pride (Denver, Colo.) capped the run by hitting two free throws apiece, putting the Green up by 11 at 46-35.

A single Lion free throw ended the run, but Barnett drained a pair of free throws after giving the Leede Arena crowd of 1,128 a scare when he crumpled to the ground when he was fouled. But after a few moments, the hushed crowd was cheering as he got back to his feet, and he drained his two free throws.

Graeber then took a pass from Dixon down low for a layup as the Big Green closed out an extended 25-5 run over the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Dartmouth lead, now at 14 with the score 50-36, never dropped below nine for the rest of the game.

Columbia managed to knock down just five field goals in the second half, shooting a miserable 20.8 percent (5-of-24). While Dartmouth's field goal percentage of 40.7 percent (11-of-27) in the second half wasn't stellar, the team canned free throw after free throw, going 18-of-20 from the line in the second half. Overall, the Green shot 89.3 percent (25-of-28) from the line, well above their season percentage of 64.3.

Dartmouth also hit the boards hard in the second half, grabbing 24 compared to 15 for Columbia. Both teams had 12 caroms at the break.

While Barnett was 7-of-12 from the floor, including 3-of-7 from long range, and 5-of-5 at the line to account for his 22 points, Dixon did not miss a shot all night with four field goals, a three-pointer and four free throws.

The Big Green victory, coupled with Cornell's loss at Harvard, keeps their slim hopes of an Ivy title alive. Dartmouth will need to win both of its games on the road next weekend at Yale (12-14, 7-5) and Brown (7-19, 1-11) at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively, while Cornell (19-9, 9-3) will need to lose its two home games for the Green to tie the Big Red. Columbia returns home to host Princeton and Penn on those days as well to bring its season to a close.

Notes: Barnett has scored at least 20 points in nine of 12 Ivy League games thus far ... he is now eighth all-time in scoring at Dartmouth with 1,343 points ? he passed Ed Leede '49 tonight, the namesake of Dartmouth's arena ... one more Ivy victory would give the Big Green their first winning record in conference play in 10 years.