Pride Scores 11 on Senior Night, but Brown Wins by 19

Saturday, February 27

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

5-21, 1-11,Ivy

BROWN

11-18, 5-7Ivy

Brown

Dartmouth

Pride Scores 11 on Senior Night, but Brown Wins by 19

2/27/2010 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. — Matt Mullery scored 20 points and the Brown bench contributed 40 as the Bears spoiled senior Robby Pride's final home game at Dartmouth by defeating the Big Green, 76-57. Brown (11-18, 5-7 Ivy) hit 10 three-pointers in the game and shot 47.4 percent (27-of-57) from the floor to finish the series sweep against Dartmouth (5-21, 1-11 Ivy).

Junior Ronnie Dixon led the Green with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Pride contributed 11 points and freshman Matt LaBove tallied 10.

Besides the 20 points from Mullery, Brown got 16 from freshman reserve Tucker Halpern and 15 more on five three-pointers by reserve guard Adrian Williams. Steve Gruber came off the bench to direct the offense with 10 assists, nearly half of his season total of 22 entering the game.

The game began with the two sides trading buckets for the first five minutes before Williams began the barrage of trifectas to give Brown a four-point lead at 10-6. Junior Clive Weeden responded for Dartmouth by jamming home his own miss, only to have Williams come right back with a long triple.

David Rufful

Big Green sophomore David Rufful tried to keep the pace from long distance with a three of his own, but with just over eight minutes left in the half, Williams canned another trey to make it a 22-13 game. A three-pointer by Garrett Leffelman and another one from Williams gave Brown its biggest lead of the half at 13 points, 28-15.

Dartmouth began chipping away at the double-digit deficit with the first of two Dixon threes on the night. The two teams traded free throws, then Rufful and Dixon each drove the lane for baskets to get the Green within six at 30-24. LaBove asserted himself near the end of the half with three buckets, and by the time Rufful sank a 12-footer on a break, Dartmouth had cut the lead to three going into the locker room, 37-34.

Rebounding was a big reason why the Big Green were able to keep it close, grabbing 20 misses to just 12 for Brown, not to mention hitting 50 percent from the floor at 14-of-28. That edge on the glass disappeared in the second stanza.

After Brown scored the first five points of the second period on a Matt Sullivan three-pointer and a Mullery layup, Dixon and Pride nailed consecutive three-pointers to make it a two-points game, 42-40. But over the next five-and-a-half minutes, it was all Brown as the Bears went on a 13-2 run. Chris Taylor tipped in baskets on two straight possessions, and Halpern capped the run with a back-breaking three-pointer.

Sophomore Herve Kouna ended the run with an easy layup on a nice feed from Pride, but Halpern drained another three and Williams added another to give Brown a 61-46 cushion. Pride sank two shots to cut the difference to 11 and keep Dartmouth's slim hopes alive, but the Big Green would not get any closer.

Brown turned the table on the boards in the second half, hauling down 24 to just 12 for host Dartmouth. Peter Sullivan had a game-high 11 caroms for the Bears, who finished the contest with a 36-32 rebounding edge.

While the Bears were shooting 50 percent (13-of-26) in the second half, Dartmouth simply could not keep pace, slumping to 32.3 percent (10-of-31) to finish at 40.7 percent (24-of-59) for the game.

Both Brown and Dartmouth took special care of the basketball all night as the two sides combined for just 11 turnovers. The six miscues for the Big Green were a new low for the season, one night after coughing up the ball 20 times against Yale.

The 2009-10 season comes to a close for both teams next weekend, beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m. Dartmouth plays at Princeton (17-8, 8-3 Ivy) as the Tigers try to stay alive in the race for the conference crown, while Brown hosts the league-leading Cornell Big Red (25-4, 11-1 Ivy), who can clinch the title with a victory.