Men Come Up Short in Overtime Against Cornell, 81-72

Friday, February 13

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

8-13, 1-6Ivy

Cornell

12-11, 4-3Ivy

OT 1

Cornell

Dartmouth

Men Come Up Short in Overtime Against Cornell, 81-72

2/13/2015 9:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Playing at home for the first time in almost four weeks, the Dartmouth men's basketball team led visiting Cornell for more than 30 minutes on Friday night, but the Big Red pulled away in overtime to send the Big Green to an 81-72 defeat at Leede Arena. Shonn Miller scored nine points of his 17 points in the extra period and hauled in a game-high 15 rebounds for Cornell (12-11, 4-3 Ivy) to hand Dartmouth (8-13, 1-6 Ivy) its fifth consecutive loss.

Freshman Miles Wright, the Ivy League's reigning Rookie of the Week, led the Big Green with 19 points thanks to five three-pointers, and senior Gabas Maldunas posted a double-double with 14 points and 12 boards.

While Dartmouth held the lead for the majority of regulation, Cornell quickly took control in overtime as Devin Cherry took a pass off the tap for a layup just three seconds into the period. That bucket began a 10-2 run for the Big Red with Miller scoring six of those points, including his only three-pointer to cap the spurt, for a 74-66 lead with 1:35 to play.

The Big Green countered with a three-point play by junior guard Malik Gill, and after a Miller dunk, Wright drained his final triple of the night to make it a four-point game with 55.8 seconds to play. That three-pointer provided the last points for Dartmouth on the evening as Cornell converted 5-of-6 at the charity stripe in the final minute to secure the victory.

Dartmouth led by as many as six points in the second stanza on three separate occasions, the last coming with 5:13 to play after junior Alex Mitola drove past the Big Red defense for a layup for a 60-54 advantage. The Cornell comeback began in earnest when Robert Hatter, who led the Big Red with 19 points, knocked down a three-pointer and was fouled. After converting the four-point play, Cornell tied the score at 60 on a fast break layup by Wil Bathurst.

With less than three minutes remaining, senior John Golden sank both ends of a one-and-one to allow the Big Green to reclaim the lead, only to have Miller knock down a short jumper in the paint. When Mitola misfired on a three-point shot, Cherry grabbed the rebound and Cornell head coach Bill Courtney called time to set up his offense. He went right back to his best player as Miller got another basket in the paint for a two-point lead with 1:41 to go.

When Dartmouth missed another shot from behind the arc, the Big Red had the ball with a minute remaining. But Gill picked a pocket, and even though he could not convert the fast break layup at the other end, Maldunas was there to clean up to tie the score. Cornell held for the last shot, but Miller's 17-footer at the buzzer only hit the back of the iron, sending Dartmouth to its second overtime game of the year.

The Big Green began the game on fire, hitting each of their first four shots in the first three minutes, including two three-pointers by Wright and another by junior Connor Boehm for a quick 110-2 lead. It took Dartmouth another nine and a half minutes to double that total, but not before Cornell clawed back to within two on Hatter's first of three trifectas on the night. Boehm answered with his second trey for a 22-17 lead with 7:30 until the intermission.

Another Hatter three-pointer gave the Big Red their first lead of the game at 25-23. But it looked as if Dartmouth would take a two-point lead into the locker room when Golden canned a three-pointer with nine seconds until the buzzer sounded. But Cherry was fouled as he attempted a three-ball with 0.4 seconds showing. He converted the first two, but missed the third to leave the score knotted at 31 at the break.

Cornell finished the night shooting 53.8 percent (28-of-52) and drilled all four field goal attempts in overtime to go with 8-of-12 at the line. Overall, the Big Red made 17-of-26 (.654) at the charity stripe, nearly identical to the 16-of-24 (.667) performance for Dartmouth, although the Big Green had just one free throw attempt after regulation.

Both teams hit eight three-pointers, but Cornell was more efficient, hitting 50 percent compared to 33.3 percent for Dartmouth. The Big Green shot 44.4 percent overall (24-of-54), and the battle on the boards was about even with the Big Red owning a 32-31 edge.

Wright hit 7-of-11 from the floor overall, including 5-of-8 from long range, to account for his 19 points and is averaging 20 over the last three contests. Both Boehm and junior Tommy Carpenter added 10 points apiece, a career-high for the latter.

Cherry produced 15 points for the Big Red, while Galal Cancer chipped in 10. All four of the Cornell players in double figures hit exactly five field goals while attempting fewer than 10.

Dartmouth will host Columbia (11-10, 3-4 Ivy) on Saturday at 7 p.m., while Cornell travels to Harvard (16-5, 6-1 Ivy) in a game that will tip at 4 p.m. due to the impending snowstorm.

Notes: Dartmouth had won its previous two overtime games, including a 58-55 victory over Northern Illinois back on Dec. 19 ... Maldunas needs 11 points to become the 26th player in Dartmouth history to reach 1,000.