New Hampshire Knocks Off Dartmouth in Final Seconds, 65-63

Sunday, November 30

Hanover, N.H.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-3

New Hampshire

3-2

New Hampshire

Dartmouth

New Hampshire Knocks Off Dartmouth in Final Seconds, 65-63

11/30/2014 5:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Two days after knocking down a three-pointer as time expired to beat IPFW, Dartmouth could not repeat the thrilling ending as visiting New Hampshire escaped Leede Arena with a 65-63 victory on Sunday afternoon. Daniel Dion, who scored a game-high 23 points, sank a tough runner with 3.6 seconds left to break the tie and give the Wildcats (3-2) their second straight win.

Junior Malik Gill quickly brought the ball up the floor for the Big Green (1-3) and launched a contested three-pointer from 25 feet, but hit only the back of the iron. Junior Connor Boehm, who was Friday's hero with the buzzer-beating triple, led Dartmouth with 14 points, while classmate Alex Mitola had 13 and Gill 10.

Boehm tied the score at 60 with 1:36 to play, backing in on the post and banking in a one-hander off the glass, and then played excellent defense at the other end of the court. With the shot clock winding down, Jaleen Smith managed to throw up a prayer from 16 feet that found its way through the hoop to put UNH on top by two with a minute to go.

The Big Green failed to answer back, so they were forced to foul, sending Tanner Leissner to the line to shoot two. His first was off the mark, but he sank the second for his 13th point and a 63-60 lead. But Mitola shed his defender long enough to get free and drain a three-point to tie the game with 19.1 seconds showing on the clock.

After a Wildcat timeout, Dion took control of the ball beyond the top of the key, drove outside the left of the lane and threw up a floater that fell through with 3.6 seconds remaining. Gill did everything he could to pull out a second-straight win at the buzzer, but could not coax the ball to rip the net.

Dartmouth led by a single point at the half, 26-25, only to have UNH open up an eight-point advantage as Dion rattled off 11 straight Wildcat points thanks to a trio of three-pointers. Sophomore Wesley Dickinson started and ended a 7-0 spurt with layups, surrounding a Mitola trey to close the gap back to one at 42-41 with 12:27 to play.

The only four-point lead for either team the rest of the afternoon came on a layup by senior Gabas Maldunas to put the Big Green up, 52-48, with 7:19 left. In those final seven minutes, the lead changed five times, beginning with a Jacoby Armstrong layup with 4:30 to go for a 53-52 New Hampshire lead.

Gill responded with a three-pointer, which was countered by Leissner with a long ball of his own. After Boehm sank a pair of foul shots with 3:29 to go, Armstrong knocked down a turnaround jumper to put UNH on top, 58-57. Dartmouth tied the score twice more, but never regained the lead in the final minutes.

The first half was just as tight, although the Big Green managed to take their biggest lead of the day at 20-14 on a layup by freshman Taylor Johnson with 4:49 remaining in the stanza. But the Wildcats went on a 7-1 spurt on a Dion three-point play and two buckets by Ronnel Jordan, who pitched in 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting off the bench. Mitola rained in the second of his four trifectas in the game to help Dartmouth take that 26-25 lead into the locker room.

New Hampshire shot 48.1 percent (25-of-52) for the game, but just 30.0 percent (6-of-20) from downtown, while Dartmouth canned half of its threes (8-of-16) and 46.8 percent overall (22-of-47). At the line, the Big Green took more trips but converted just 61.1 percent (11-of-18), while the Wildcats sank 64.3 percent (9-of-14).

Dartmouth held a slim edge on the boards, 30-28, but forced just seven turnovers while coughing the ball up 12 times, leading to 14 UNH points.

The Big Green hit the road for their next game at Longwood (1-5) on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. New Hampshire will travel to LIU Brooklyn on the same date at the same time.