Dartmouth Men Outlasted by Harvard on the Hardwood

Saturday, January 23

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

4-12, 0-2Ivy

HARVARD

13-3, 2-0Ivy

Harvard

Dartmouth

Dartmouth Men Outlasted by Harvard on the Hardwood

1/23/2010 8:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. — Both Jeremy Lin and Kyle Casey tallied 19 points for visiting Harvard (13-3, 2-0 Ivy) to help the Crimson fend off Dartmouth on Saturday night in front of a raucous crowd of 1,555 Big Green fans at Leede Arena. Dartmouth (4-12, 0-2 Ivy) had three players in double figures, led by junior Ronnie Dixon with a season-high 15 points.

The Dartmouth defense held a Harvard squad among the top 10 nationally in field goal percentage to just 39 percent (23-of-59) from the floor and a paltry 11.8 percent (2-of-17) from three-point range. Casey was an exception to the shooting woes, hitting 6-of-7 with a three-pointer, but just 6-of-10 at the line. While Lin added six assists to his stat line, forward Keith Wright had 13 points and eight boards.

While Dixon was knocking down a trio of three-pointers and going 6-of-11 from the floor, senior captain Robby Pride contributed six field goals in nine attempts for 13 points, and sophomore Jabari Trotter came off the bench to score 12.

The Big Green trailed by as many as 13 with seven minutes to play, and found themselves still behind by 10 with 1:21 on the clock. Dixon drained his last of three-pointers, and after the Crimson converted just 1-of-2 at the line, Trotter sank a long jumper with his toe on the arc to get Dartmouth within six at 57-51.

Casey hit a pair of free throws, but Pride came right back with a quick layup. Lin then hit only one free throw, and another Pride layup made it a five-point game with 26 seconds left. Again Lin made 1-of-2 at the line, which meant that a Trotter three-pointer got the Green within three points at 61-58 with 17 ticks on the clock. Now it was Oliver McNally's turn to sink 1-of-2 foul shots, but that was enough as two Dartmouth three-point attempts were off the mark before the buzzer sounded.

The game began quite well for the Big Green as they tallied 13 straight points after Harvard opened the game with a bucket. Sophomore Josh Riddle scored five points during the run, while Dixon and freshman R.J. Griffin each hit three-pointers to help build the quick lead. The Crimson came back with six consecutive points, but sophomore Herve Kouna's three-point play and a Dixon jumper kept the Dartmouth advantage at 10 midway through the first half at 20-10.

The Dartmouth offense was stymied over nearly nine minutes as Harvard enjoyed an 18-2 run with Lin chipping in six of those points on a three-pointer and a conventional three-point play. Trotter finally broke the drought with just under a minute until the break with a triple. A Crimson turnover led to a Pride layup, making it a one-point game, but Casey hit his lone three-pointer of the night from the left baseline as time expired for a four-point Harvard lead at the half, 31-27.

In the second half, the Big Green briefly regained the lead at 36-35 as Pride converted a three-point play. Two minutes later, Harvard went back ahead on a Lin layup. That started a 15-1 run over the next six minutes to give the Crimson that game-high 13-point edge. Dartmouth missed eight shots and turned the ball over six times during that span. A Dixon trey shook the Green out of their offensive doldrums, but the deficit proved to be too great to overcome.

Dartmouth hits the road next weekend, playing at the league's top RPI team, Cornell, on Friday at 7 p.m. Harvard will play at Columbia that same day at 7 p.m. as well.