Dartmouth Frustrated by Princeton in 54-38 Loss

Saturday, February 6

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

4-16, 0-6Ivy

PRINCETON

13-5 4-0Ivy

Princeton

Dartmouth

Dartmouth Frustrated by Princeton in 54-38 Loss

2/6/2010 8:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth Big Green had the advantage at the half, but could not hold off the visiting Princeton Tigers on Saturday night at Leede Arena in front of 926 fans, falling 54-38. Princeton (13-5, 4-0 Ivy) was led by Ian Hummer off the bench with 11 points to help the Tigers remain unblemished in conference play and run their winning streak to six. Dartmouth (4-16, 0-6 Ivy) was left still searching for its first league win of the year as senior Robby Pride finished the night with a team-best 10 points.

Hummer was 4-of-7 from the floor and 3-of-6 at the line to compile his game-high 11 points, while guard Dan Mavraides joined him in double figures with 10 with a pair of three-pointers. Kareem Maddox came up big on the glass, hauling in nine rebounds in 24 minutes.

Like Hummer, Pride hit 4-of-7 shots, plus was a perfect 2-for-2 at the charity stripe. Sophomore David Rufful contributed nine points, draining all three of his long-distance shots and snared four rebounds.

The Big Green were able to hold a 21-19 lead at the break, despite shooting just 38.5 percent (10-of-26), thanks to taking care of the basketball, turning it over just once. The defense was pretty stout as well as Princeton managed to hit just 7-of-19 (.368) from the floor and 2-of-9 (.222) from behind the arc. The battle of the boards was pretty even, with the Tigers collecting 15 to Dartmouth's 13 rebounds. Neither side scored more than four points consecutively in the opening stanza and the largest lead was three points.

The second half quickly turned out to be a different story. On Princeton's first possession, Douglas Davis knocked down a three-pointer to give the Tigers a one-point lead. Dartmouth center Clive Weeden was fouled going up for a shot, then sank one of his two free throws, tying the score. After Pawel Buczak converted a three-point play at the other end, the Tigers never led by less than three the rest of the way.

The two sides went back and forth for a bit, and the Big Green had the deficit down to four points when freshman Mbiyimoh Ghogomu hit a floating one-hander in the lane from eight feet. But over the next 7:30, Princeton slowly pulled away with an 11-2 run, making it a 43-30 game with 5:30 to play.

Consecutive three-pointers by Rufful kept Dartmouth's hopes alive as he got the Green back within single digits at 44-36 with four minutes remaining. Princeton responded with a Mavraides three-pointer and a powerful dunk by Maddox, starting a 10-point burst that ended any chance of a comeback.

Princeton dominated the boards in the second half, 18-8, finishing the game with a sizeable 33-21 advantage overall. The Tigers committed just five fouls on the night, while Dartmouth had only 12, as Princeton went to the line 19 times, making 14. The Big Green were just 3-of-4 on free throws, matching their 3-for-4 performance on three-pointers.

Dartmouth takes to the road next weekend with games at Brown on Friday, Feb. 12 and Yale the following night, both at 7 p.m. Princeton will play its first home games in conference play when Columbia and Cornell come to Jadwin Gym at 7 and 6 p.m., respectively.