Big Green Succumbs to Army's Three-Point Barrage

Monday, January 3

West Point, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

4-9

Army

8-7

Dartmouth

Army

Big Green Succumbs to Army's Three-Point Barrage

1/3/2011 9:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

WEST POINT, N.Y. — Julian Simmons led an Army three-point barrage on Monday evening with five triples as he scored a game-high 19 points to allow the Black Knights to cruise to a 67-47 victory over visiting Dartmouth. Army (8-7) also dominated the boards with a 42-25 advantage in salvaging a split with the Big Green (4-9) this season, having lost in Hanover on Dec. 11, 71-68.

Army had its sights set properly in the first half, popping 10 of its 13 three-pointers in the game in doubling Dartmouth's output for a 44-22 lead at the break. Overall in the opening stanza, the Black Knights hit 10-of-19 (.526) from downtown and a stellar 16-of-27 (.593) overall.

By stark contrast, Dartmouth struggled with its shot all night, hitting 10-of-26 (.385) in each half while going 3-of-15 (.200) behind the arc. Sophomore R.J. Griffin was the lone Green player in double figures with 13 points, going 6-of-11 from the floor with a triple.

The game did not begin as well as Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier would have liked with starting big man Clive Weeden picking up two fouls in the first minute and the Black Knights racing out to a 12-0 lead on the strength of three straight three-pointers, two by Simmons. But after Cormier called a timeout, junior David Rufful canned a triple as the shot-clock expired and the Green defense picked up three consecutive steals to lead to fast-break layups and make it 12-9.

The rest of the half belonged to Army as it responded with a 15-2 run with three more treys courtesy of Cartavious Kincade, Alex Godette and Josh Herbeck to balloon the lead to 16 at 27-11. The two sides traded a couple of layups each before Melville scored on a nice back-door pass from Rufful and was fouled on the layup for a three-point play. Ella Ellis and Simmons answered with long-range bombs for the Black Knights, who then finished the half with a flourish as Herbeck and Jeremy Hence ripped the nets from long distance.

The Dartmouth defense put the clamps on the Black Knights after the intermission, holding them to under 30 percent from long range (3-of-14, .214) and the floor (8-for-27, .296). But the Big Green could not take advantage of the depressed scoring as the point differential remained between 16 and 23 the entire half.

Nine players had at least one field goal for Dartmouth, with freshman Tyler Melville supporting Griffin's 13 points with nine of his own. Rufful had a season-high four assists while freshman Gediminas Bertasius led the Green on the glass with five rebounds.

The entire bench got into the game for Army — all 18 players — with 10 pitching in at least one bucket, but no Black Knight besides Simmons had at least 10 points. Simmons also had a game-high nine rebounds, and Mitch McDonald contributed five of Army's 18 assists.

This weekend the Big Green kicks off the Ivy League schedule when they host Harvard on Saturday at Leede Arena at 4 p.m. Army also begins its Patriot League slate with a game at Colgate on the same date at the same time.