Boehm Leads Men to 76-59 Victory at Bryant on New Year's Eve

Wednesday, December 31

Smithfield, R.I.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

6-6

Bryant

3-6

Dartmouth

Bryant

Boehm Leads Men to 76-59 Victory at Bryant on New Year's Eve

12/31/2014 2:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Connor Boehm may hail from Illinois, but Rhode Island is becoming his adopted state. The junior power forward scored 20 points to lead visiting Dartmouth to a 76-59 victory over Bryant on Wednesday afternoon at the Chace Athletic Center. Boehm has recorded four 20-point games in his career for the Big Green (6-6), and three have come in games played within the borders of the Ocean State.

Joe O'Shea led the Bulldogs (3-6) with 12 points, all coming in the second half, while Bryant's leading scorer on the season, Dyami Starks, was held to just 10 points, nearly half of his season average.

Boehm knocked down 7-of-9 field goals, including 2-of-3 from behind the arc to double his three-point total on the season, plus converted 4-of-5 at the line to account for his 20 points. His career high of 24 came two years ago on this court as a freshman in a loss to the Bulldogs, and he also had 22 points in a victory at Brown last year. He also had seven rebounds, though 5-11 point guard Alex Mitola led the Big Green with a career-high nine rebounds while chipping in 14 points as well.

“Connor has been our most consistent performer all season,” said Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier after the game. “The things he contributes to the team don't always show up in the box score, but he really came through for us at both ends of the floor today. He may not be a shot blocker, but he is such a presence on the court, whether it's grabbing a big rebound, hedging off his man to deny penetration in the lane, getting open in the post, whatever. He does so many things that help us win ball games.”

After Boehm scored the first bucket of the afternoon, Bryant rattled off eight straight points on the strength of three-pointers by Angus Riley and Hunter Ware, who also finished with 10 points for the home team. Sophomore center Cole Harrison came off the bench to end the spurt with a two-hand flush off a feed from Boehm, but baskets by Andrew Scocca and Starks stretched the Bulldogs lead to eight at 12-4 after seven minutes of action.

The rest of the half belonged to Dartmouth, however, beginning with back-to-back three-pointers courtesy of senior John Golden, his first two triples of the year. Mitola followed up with a long ball of his own to slice the Big Green deficit to one at 14-13, and freshman Miles Wright chipped in with a three-point play to counter a Zach Chionuma trifecta and keep the difference at one.

Coming out of an official timeout, junior Kevin Crescenzi took an inbounds pass along the baseline and canned a 13-footer to put Dartmouth back on top for the first time since the opening bucket. He knocked down another shot from the baseline, this time from eight feet, before junior Tommy Carpenter and senior Gabas Maldunas extended the run to 11 points with layups for a 24-17 lead.

The Big Green continued to take the ball to the rim, many times in transition, as Mitola lofted a teardrop in off the glass, Carpenter streaked along the baseline to gather a pass for a layup, and Boehm and Golden had easy buckets thanks to nifty passes from Carpenter and junior Malik Gill, who led the Green with five assists in just nine minutes of action. When Boehm converted a three-point play during the final minute of the stanza, Dartmouth enjoyed its largest lead of the half at 35-23. Ware scored the final points before the buzzer with a short jumper, but the Big Green took their 10-point advantage into the locker room thanks to shooting 51.7 percent (15-of-29) over the first 20 minutes.

After Bryant started the second stanza by hitting 1-of-2 at the line, Boehm ignited an eight-point run with two foul shots and a three-pointer from the top of the key. Mitola capped the spurt with a triple of his own, and suddenly the Dartmouth lead was 17 at 43-26, leading to Bulldog head coach Tim O'Shea to call for a timeout. He lit a fire under his team as Bryant rattled off 15 of the next 19 points to crawl back within six points at 47-41.

That would be as close as the Bulldogs would get as Golden sank a free throw and Maldunas, who had picked up his fourth foul less than two minutes into the second half, returned to the floor to drop in a left-handed layup and a pair of foul shots.

The coach's son, Joe O'Shea, tried to will Bryant back in the game with two free throws and a layup, only to have Boehm answer with a 12-footer and 1-of-2 at the line. Ware did drop a three-pointer to cut the Big Green bulge to seven at 55-48, but Mitola and Boehm came right back with treys to make it a 13-point game with just under five minutes to play.

Mitola sank all six of his free throws in the final three minutes of the game to help Dartmouth convert 13-of-17 at the charity stripe in that time span to seal the victory.

The Big Green finished the game shooting 43.6 percent (24-of-55) and 38.9 percent (7-of-18) from long distance. Entering the game with a 63.5 free throw percentage, Dartmouth sank 21-of-29 (.724) for the afternoon. The Green also enjoyed a hefty 43-30 advantage on the glass and dished out 18 assists while turning the ball over just nine times. Both Golden and Mitola had four assists to lend a helping hand to the offense.

Bryant ended the game hitting just 35.1 percent (20-of-57) from the floor and 22.7 percent (5-of-22) of its three-point attempts. Starks, who faced numerous double-teams on the perimeter, was just 3-of-12 overall and 1-of-5 from downtown.

Dartmouth, which had not played in nine days, now gets 10 days to prepare for its Ivy League opener against the three-time defending champion, Harvard (8-3), in Hanover on Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. Bryant also opens its conference slate with its next game, playing at LIU Brooklyn on Jan. 3 at 4:30 p.m.