Last-Second Three Comes Up Short at Vermont

Wednesday, January 14

Burlington, Vt.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

6-8

Vermont

8-8

Dartmouth

Vermont

1/14/2015 8:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (HMTL)

By: Dartmouth

BURLINGTON, Vt. — In a game that featured 13 ties and neither team pulling ahead by more than six points, the host Vermont Catamounts were able to fend off Dartmouth on Wednesday night at Patrick Gymnasium, 55-52. Junior Malik Gill launched up a 30-footer at the buzzer only to catch the front iron as the Big Green (6-8) suffered their third loss this season by three points or less.

Vermont (8-8) got 12 points from Hector Harold and 11 more from Dre Wills to beat an Ivy League for the first time this season in three tries.

Both teams finished the night with 21 field goals, and both hit 3-of-11 three-pointers. The difference came at the free throw line where Vermont made 10-of-15 foul shots compare to 7-of-10 for the visitors.

After junior Connor Boehm, who finished the night with 11 points for Dartmouth, sank the first of two free throws with 50.7 seconds left, the Big Green still trailed by three. The Big Green defense then would not allow Vermont to get a good look at the basket and forced a shot-clock violation to get the ball back with 14.2 seconds remaining.

Gill brought the ball up the floor and passed off to junior sharp-shooter Alex Mitola, but he could not shake the Catamount defense. His pass back to Gill came with less than five seconds left, so Gill fired up a shot from well behind the arc to give Dartmouth a chance at forcing overtime. But the desperation heave would not find its mark as the buzzer sounded.

The last Big Green lead of the night came with just over seven minutes to play thanks to the second of three trifectas on the night for Mitola, who matched Boehm with 11 points to lead the squad, as Dartmouth inched ahead by one at 45-44. But Vermont scored the next seven points in less than a minute and a half as Wills tapped a miss through the iron, Zach McRoberts swished a three-pointer and Trae Bell-Haynes converted a pair of free throws to give the Catamounts a 51-45 with 5:24 to play.

Mitola broke the run with his third triple, only to have Hector respond with his second trey. The next three points came at the charity stripe as senior John Golden sank 1-of-2 and junior Kevin Crescenzi dropped a pair through the iron. Vermont's only point in the final 3:45 came on the second of two foul shots by Wills with 1:09 left to boost the lead back to four, then Boehm went to the line that set up the plays of the game.

The Catamounts entered the second half with a six-point lead, 29-23, only to have Dartmouth score the first nine points of the second stanza — the first two coming on a tip-in by freshman Miles Wright — to jump right back into the game and take a 32-29 advantage. When Vermont broke the run on a putback by Haynes, the two teams traded buckets before Hector knocked down the Catamounts' first three of the night to reclaim the lead at 36-34. The next four times Dartmouth knotted the score, Vermont would go back up by two until Mitola rained down his go-ahead three-pointer.

The first half was almost exclusively played in the paint as every Big Green tally — except the lone three-pointer of the half by Mitola — came from in the lane as Dartmouth hit half of its field goals (11-of-22). Vermont, meanwhile, shot 56.5 percent (13-of-23) with all but two of those successful shots were taken in the paint. Sophomore Cole Harrison came off the bench to provide six points in six minutes on the floor, equaling Boehm for the team lead at the break.

Vermont's leading scorer this season, forward Ethan O'Day, had eight points in the first half, but was mired in foul trouble for the most of the game and did not score after the first nine minutes of action. Hector canned 5-of-8 from the floor, including 2-of-4 from long range, and Wills got five of his seven shots to fall while grabbing a game-high nine rebounds, although the Big Green finished the night with a slim 30-27 advantage on the boards.

Boehm matched Wills by drilling 5-of-7 field goals for his 11 points, while Mitola hit 4-of-11 overall and 3-of-8 from downtown. Senior Gabas Maldunas and junior Kevin Crescenzi each had six caroms to lead the Big Green.

Dartmouth returns to Leede Arena this weekend to host NJIT (10-9) in the Big Green's final non-conference game of the season on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Highlanders boast a win over then-16th-ranked Michigan back in early December on the Wolverines' home floor. Vermont jumps back into America East play at UMBC (2-14) on Saturday as well, tipping off at 1 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth has lost seven straight to the Catamounts and 15 of the last 16 meetings ... Boehm has reclaimed the Ivy League lead in field goal percentage at 55 percent ... Maldunas scored the 900th point of his career when he laid in the first points of the night. He needs 93 to become the 26th player in Big Green history with 1,000.