Men Stumble at Jacksonville State, 79-67

Sunday, December 14

Jacksonville, Ala.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-5

Jacksonville State

6-4

Dartmouth

Jacksonville State

12/14/2014 4:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (HTML)

By: Dartmouth

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — Neither the return of senior John Golden to the court nor the 27 points provided by Dartmouth's other senior, Gabas Maldunas, could spark the Big Green at Pete Mathews Coliseum on Sunday afternoon as the Jacksonville State Gamecocks exacted some revenge by handing the visitors a 79-67 defeat. Darion Rackley led JSU (6-4), which lost by 30 in Hanover last year, with 22 points and Jeremy Watson added a double-double with 19 points — 13 at the foul line — and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Maldunas hit 11-of-15 field goals for the Big Green (3-5), which had their modest two-game winning streak snapped, and grabbed 10 boards for his second straight double-double. Golden, who missed the first seven games with an injured knee, came off the bench to provide eight points on 4-of-5 shooting and six rebounds in 26 minutes, while junior Alex Mitola tallied 13 for his 12th straight game in double figures.

The big difference in the game came at the free throw line where Jacksonville State attempted 41 freebies and converted 30 (.732) compared to 14-of-18 (.778) for Dartmouth. The final 12 Gamecock points came from the charity stripe during the final two minutes as the Big Green tried to extend the game by fouling.

Overall, Dartmouth had a slight edge from the floor at 44.6 percent (25-of-56) to 42.3 percent (22-of-52) for JSU, and both teams fired up 14 three-point tries with the Gamecocks sinking five and the Green only three. Jacksonville had a decisive edge on the glass through the first half (19-11), but Dartmouth did a better job crashing the boards in the second stanza as the Gamecocks finished with a 35-33 advantage in rebounds.

The first points of the game came from junior Connor Boehm — who finished with 10 points — with a layup off a nice feed from Mitola. But that would be the only lead of the afternoon for the Big Green. Twelve of the first 17 JSU points were scored by Watson and Jamal Hunter (11 points, eight rebounds), then D.J. Felder (14 points off the bench) knocked down three consecutive 15-footers and Undra Mitchem scored his only points with a trifecta to give the Gamecocks their first double-digit lead at 26-16 with 7:14 left in the half.

The Dartmouth deficit went back and forth between seven and 10 points until Felder canned two free throws and Rackley split the defense for a finger roll to conclude the half and allow Jacksonville State to take a 41-28 advantage into the locker room.

Although the turnovers were fairly even at the intermission — six for Dartmouth, five for JSU — Jacksonville State did a better job of taking advantage of the Big Green miscues, converting them into 11 points. The hosts also shot well for the first 20 minutes at 53.8 percent (14-of-26) in scoring 41 points, 10 more than any Dartmouth opponent had managed this year in the opening period.

A Jamal Hunter jumper opened the second half to give the Gamecocks their biggest lead of the day at 43-28. Very gradually, the Big Green worked their way back, first on a Maldunas layup with 15:22 left to slim the gap to nine points at 45-36. Sophomore Wesley Dickinson went up and under for a reverse layup to keep the difference at nine, and with little more than 10 minutes to go, Boehm had a layup to make it a 52-44 game.

As soon as Boehm had Dartmouth within eight, Rackley popped one of his three triples, and Mitola answered right back with his third of three long balls. The Big Green held JSU scoreless for nearly four minutes following a Felder free throw with 9:20 left, but only made up four points in that time, the last two on another Maldunas bucket. With the score 56-51 with 6:08 to play, Gamecock head coach James Green called time to calm his troops.

A Rackley three-pointer helped keep Dartmouth at bay, but Boehm got the Green as close as four points at 61-57 with 4:27 remaining with another layup. Six straight points to extend the lead back to 10 made the prospects of a complete comeback quite slim, and then impossible as Jacksonville State converted 12-of-14 free throws in the final two minutes.

Dartmouth finishes its brief Southern swing on Tuesday night when they play the Mercer Bears (5-4) on ESPN3 at 7 p.m. Jacksonville State will host UNC Asheville that day as well at 7 p.m. (CST) before embarking on a five-game road trip.