Upset-Minded Green Can?t Finish Off Harvard on the Road

Saturday, January 22

Cambridge, Mass.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

4-12, 0-2Ivy

Harvard

13-3, 2-0Ivy

Dartmouth

Harvard

Upset-Minded Green Can?t Finish Off Harvard on the Road

1/22/2011 5:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Dartmouth built up a 12-point lead in the second half at Harvard before the host Crimson went on an extended 23-2 run to knock off the upstart Big Green in an Ivy League game on Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion, 59-50. Sophomore R.J. Griffin had a career-high 20 points for Dartmouth (4-12, 0-2 Ivy), which lost its fifth consecutive contest, but Harvard (13-3, 2-0 Ivy) countered with four in double figures with a team-high 13 by freshman Laurent Rivard to lead the Crimson to their sixth straight victory.

Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier was coaching his 100th Ivy League game, and his squad nearly made it memorable. But the coach, now in his second tenure with the Big Green and 47-53 in league games, was upbeat after the game. “We played with a ton of emotion; I couldn't be prouder. Obviously we would have liked to get a different result. But the way we rebounded against an athletic team and challenged the shots was following the game plan right to a T. Some kids really stepped up, particularly Matt LaBove, Tyler Melville and R.J., and I thought we evolved as a team today.”

Griffin knocked down 7-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from long range, plus hit a pair of free throws to account for 40 percent of the Big Green's scoring in the game. After connecting on 14-of-29 (.483) of its field goals in the first half, Dartmouth managed just 6-of-26 (.231) in the second stanza as the Crimson rallied.

Harvard scored the first seven points of the game, and after the teams traded buckets until the Crimson held a 15-8 lead, Dartmouth rattled off 11 straight points. Griffin started the spurt with back-to-back three-pointers, then freshman Gediminas Bertasius cranked up a three of his own — just his third of the season — to put the Big Green up, 17-15. Junior Jabari Trotter finished off the run with a tough 17-footer from the right wing before Harvard's Matt Brown sank a long jumper to briefly stem the tide.

Griffin and sophomore Matt LaBove each hit mid-range jumpers to boost the Dartmouth lead to six, only to have the Crimson battle back to within one at 25-24. Harvard had a chance to tie the game, but Oliver McNally, a 92 percent free throw shooter, missed the second of two free throws. The Green then ripped of seven more points, the last five coming from junior David Rufful before Keith Wright hit a pair of free throws for Harvard with 1.5 seconds left in the half to make it 32-26.

Dartmouth crashed the boards hard in the opening half, grabbing 19 of the 29 rebounds available while allowing the Crimson a single offensive rebound. Griffin had 10 points to spearhead the Big Green offense while LaBove hauled in four rebounds.

At the start of the second half, Dartmouth extended its lead while playing shut-down defense as Harvard scored just one field goal in nearly seven minutes. Meanwhile, Trotter canned a three, Griffin hit a layup while getting falling and getting fouled, then rained in another triple to give the Green a 12-point lead at 40-28.

The rest of the game belonged to the Crimson with Dartmouth getting a single Rufful jumper over the next 13 minutes of action. Harvard began its comeback with a Rivard layup and two McNally free throws. Rivard popped a three to put a charge into the until-then-quiet crowd of 1,469, and Matt Brown knocked down another triple to bring the Crimson within two at 40-38.

Rufful brought a brief respite from the rally with his bucket, but 13 more Crimson points followed, capped by a McNally three-pointer, his only field goal in the game.

Now trailing 51-42, Griffin scored the next five Dartmouth points with two free throws and his fourth trey. But Harvard hit 6-of-8 at the line to quell any Dartmouth hope of retaking the lead.

Complementing Rivard's 13 points was a trio with 12: McNally, Wright and Brandyn Curry. Harvard had a tremendous advantage at the foul line, hitting 19-of-23 compared to just 2-of-5 for the Big Green. Dartmouth, which averaged more than eight fewer rebounds per game than its opposition, finished the day with 34 rebounds to just 26 for the Crimson.

Dartmouth returns home to Leede Arena next weekend beginning with a Friday night game against Cornell at 7 p.m. The Crimson next play host to Columbia on Friday as well at 7 p.m.