Dartmouth Succumbs to Hot-Shooting Penn, 78-47

Friday, February 4

Philadelphia, Pa.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-14, 1-4Ivy

Penn

9-8, 3-0Ivy

Dartmouth

Penn

Dartmouth Succumbs to Hot-Shooting Penn, 78-47

2/4/2011 10:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Penn Quakers blistered the nets at a 62.8 percent clip and knocked down 10-of-16 (.625) of their three-pointers to send Dartmouth to a 78-47 defeat on Friday night at The Palestra. Tyler Bernardini led Penn (9-8, 3-0 Ivy) with 21 points, 16 coming in the first half, as the Quakers sent the Big Green (5-14, 1-4 Ivy) to their worst loss in league play since last year's 71-37 loss at Cornell.

Dartmouth got 13 points from junior Kirk Crecco, who hit 5-of-9 from the floor, and 10 more from rookie Tyler Melville. The rest of the Big Green squad combined to convert just 8-of-33 (.242) field goals as Dartmouth shot 34.0 percent overall.

Bernardini entered the game shooting just 39 percent and just 29 percent from downtown, yet the senior hit 7-of-10 for the game and all four of his three-point attempts — not to mention 3-of-4 from the foul line — to post his 21 points. Also hitting 7-of-10 was Jack Eggleston with a pair of threes as he produced a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Penn dominated just about every statistical category, including rebounding (34-18), free throw shooting (14-of-16 compared to 12-of-20) and assists (17-5). The Quakers did turn the ball over 19 times, but their dead-eye shooting easily compensated for that shortcoming.

Freshman Miles Cartwright put the first points on the board with a three-pointer as Penn led the game wire to wire. Three-pointers from Bernardini and Eggleston spurred an eight-point run early on, but after a four-point play by Melville, Dartmouth was down just 15-10.

Another Bernardini triple gave the Quakers their first double-digit lead at 20-10 less than nine minutes into the contest, and his third trifecta kept the difference in double figures for good at 27-15. When he canned his fourth three-pointer with 3:08 left in the half, Penn enjoyed its largest lead of the opening stanza at 37-18.

Dartmouth closed the half by scoring six of the final seven points, four coming at the line courtesy of sophomore R.J. Griffin and Melville. Junior Jabari Trotter sank a jumper to close the scoring at 38-24 at the break.

The Quakers hit 13-of-19 (.684) of their shots in the first half, including 7-of-9 (.778) from long range, while containing Dartmouth to an 8-of-27 (.296) shooting performance.

Eggleston scored Penn's first seven points after the intermission, but the Big Green kept the deficit between 15 and 19 points for the first nine with a three-pointer by Crecco and four free throws by Griffin. But Bernardini pushed the Penn lead to 20 with a couple of foul shots of his own, and moments later laid in his final points of the night with 9:36 to play. Those points came in the midst of an 18-0 Quaker run that ballooned the difference from 16 to 34 at 69-35. Crecco finally ended the nearly five-minute run with a layup.

After Eggleston drained two free throws with 6;34 to play, Quaker coach Jerome Allen cleared the bench to play out the final minutes.

Senior Clive Weeden had six of Dartmouth's 18 rebounds, a season low for the Big Green and their first time with fewer than 20 since grabbing 19 at Penn six years ago.

Dartmouth treks over to Princeton tomorrow evening for a 6 p.m. tipoff against the Tigers (15-4, 3-0 Ivy), while Penn hosts Harvard (15-4, 4-1 Ivy), who lost at Princeton tonight, 65-61.