Mitola, Carpenter Lead Big Green to Victory Over Penn

Saturday, February 21

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

10-14, 3-7Ivy

Penn

7-16, 2-7Ivy

Penn

Dartmouth

Mitola, Carpenter Lead Big Green to Victory Over Penn

2/21/2015 8:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Trailing by four with five minutes to play, the Dartmouth Big Green outscored visiting Penn for the remainder of the game, 16-7, to earn a split in the season series with a 67-62 victory on Saturday night at Leede Arena. Junior Alex Mitola drained four three-pointers and led all players with 18 points for Dartmouth (10-14, 3-7 Ivy) while classmate Tommy Carpenter added 13 points and five assists, both career highs.

The Quakers (7-16, 2-7 Ivy) got 12 points from center Darien Nelson-Henry and 11 more from Antonio Woods, who also dished out a game-high six assists, but they could not keep Penn from dropping its fifth straight contest. Camryn Crocker contributed 10 points, the first time the senior had scored in double figures in his career.

With the score 55-51, Carpenter started the rally after grabbing an offensive rebound. He kicked the ball back out, and it found its way back to him when junior Malik Gill found a hole in the defense, allowing Carpenter to score the easy layup with 4:45 to play. The next trip down the floor ended with another Gill assist, this time to Mitola behind the arc as the 5-11 guard gave Dartmouth a 56-55 lead.

Penn answered right back as Nelson-Henry got position in the lane and Woods found him for a quick layup. But that Quaker lead didn't last long as Carpenter strode across the lane and sank a short jumper while getting fouled. After the final media timeout of the night, Carpenter finished off the three-point play for a two-point edge.

When the Quakers were off the mark with a shot from distance, Mitola doubled the lead only because his toe was on the three-point line from the left wing. Nelson-Henry got those points back at the foul line, but again Mitola sank a jumper — this time near the left elbow — to boost the lead back to four at 63-59.

Three straight turnovers could have effectively ended the game, especially when Carpenter tapped in a missed shot with 54 seconds left. But Dartmouth failed to convert the front end of three consecutive one-and-one free throw opportunities. Coupled with two free throws by Woods, Penn was still alive when Woods was fouled with 9.2 seconds left.

Woods missed everything on his first attempt before sinking the second, leaving the Big Green up three, 65-62. On the inbounds play, Dartmouth played keep away and was able to find junior Connor Boehm wide open down the court for a layup to seal the victory.

Mitola knocked down 7-of-12 field goals on the night and 4-of-5 from long range for his 18 points, while Carpenter sank 5-of-8 and 3-of-5 at the line. Senior Gabas Maldunas chipped in 12 points to go with a game-high seven rebounds and three blocked shots. The fourth of those rebounds made him the fourth Big Green player ever to snare 700 in a career. Boehm also finished in double figures with 10 points, eight in the first half.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair with neither team leading by more than four points as the lead changed hands eight times and was tied five more. Both sides were more effective outside the arc than inside as Penn dropped five triples and Dartmouth four more. Crocker led all players at the break with nine points while Boehm paced the Big Green with his eight thanks to hitting both of his three-point attempts. At the intermission, the score was as tight as the statistical breakdown with Dartmouth on top, 29-28.

Early in the second half, the Big Green led by as many as nine at 39-30 after Mitola knocked down three consecutive shots, two from long range, for a personal 8-0 run. The Quakers then rattled off 16 of the next 20 points on the strength of three trifectas (two courtesy of Sam Jones) and a three-point play by Mike Auger. Jones second trey put Penn up three at 46-43 with 12:31 to play.

Carpenter ended the run with a layup, but a pair of layups by Woods, the second ending with a free throw, gave the Quakers their largest lead of the night at 51-46. The difference was still five when junior Kevin Crescenzi scored his only points of the evening with a three-pointer from the corner before Matt Howard answered with a layup for that fateful four-point lead in the final minutes.

Nelson-Henry hit 5-of-7 field goals and was one of four Quakers with four rebounds. Penn shot 43.8 percent (21-of-48) as a team and nearly as well (9-of-21, .429) from downtown while knocking down 11-of-15 at the charity stripe.

Dartmouth finished with the statistical advantage in most categories, including field goal percentage (.458, 27-of-59), three-point percentage (.533, 8-of-15) and rebounds (33-29). In addition, the Big Green gave out a season-high 19 assists while turning it over just seven times, one shy of a season low. But with the three misses at the foul line in the final minute, Dartmouth was just 5-of-11 (.455) for the game.

The Big Green take to the road one more time this season when they play at Columbia (13-11, 5-5 Ivy) next Friday in a game that will be broadcast by American Sports Network at 8 p.m. before attempting to avenge a loss to Cornell (12-14, 4-6 Ivy) the next night in Ithaca at 6 p.m. Penn continues a four-game road trip with games at Brown (12-15, 3-7 Ivy) and Yale (19-8, 8-2 Ivy).

Notes: Dartmouth has won two straight against Penn in Leede Arena for the first time since 1988-90 when Cormier led the Big Green to three straight triumphs during his first tenure in Hanover … Dartmouth recorded just its second victory of the season when allowing an opponent to shoot at least 40 percent from the floor.