Big Green Have the Hot Hand in 84-71 Win at Columbia

Friday, February 27

New York, N.Y.

8:00 PM

Dartmouth College

11-14, 4-7

Columbia

13-12, 5-6

Dartmouth

Columbia

Big Green Have the Hot Hand in 84-71 Win at Columbia

2/27/2015 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Condensed Broadcast Archived Broadcast Postgame Interview: Paul Cormier, Feb. 27, 2015 Box Score (HTML)

By: Dartmouth

NEW YORK, N.Y. — With the score tied at 51, the Dartmouth men's basketball team strung together a 25-8 run over 10 minutes to pull away from host Columbia and finish a season sweep of the Lions with an 84-71 victory. Junior Alex Mitola led six Big Green players in double figures with 18 points as Dartmouth (11-14, 4-7 Ivy) produced its highest scoring output of the season while shooting 60.4 percent from the floor to win its second straight contest.

Kyle Castlin matched Mitola with 18 points to lead Columbia (13-12, 5-6 Ivy), but the Lions were done in by poor shooting with nine three-pointers in 34 attempts (.265) and 22-of-63 (.349) overall.

Mitola drained a trio of three-pointers while shooting 5-of-10 overall and 5-of-6 at the line to record his second straight game with 18 points. The 5-11 guard was complemented by 5-9 Malik Gill, who dished out six assists and contributed 14 points while converting all seven of his foul shots and 3-of-4 from the floor with a triple.

The Big Green big men came through with solid performances as well with senior center Gabas Maldunas tallying 12 points, junior power forward Connor Boehm 11 and junior forward Tommy Carpenter 10 to go with a team- and career-high seven rebounds off the bench. Senior John Golden also had chipped in a season-high 10 points to add to the balanced attack.

Chris McComber tied the score at 51 with a three-pointer from the corner and 11:50 showing on the clock, only to have Dartmouth rattle off the next nine points on two Boehm buckets, a putback by Carpenter and a wide-open three from the wing by Gill. The Ivy's leading scorer, Maodo Lo, ended the spurt with a pair of free throws, only to have Golden knock down an almost desperate three-point attempt with the shot clock near zero for a 10-point Big Green lead at 63-53.

A Lion putback didn't slow Dartmouth as Gill drove for a three-point play and Mitola popped a trifecta on the break, leading to a Columbia timeout. The two teams traded points before Mitola sank two freebies and Boehm hit 1-of-2 at the line to put the Big Green up by 17 at 76-59 with a mere 1:49 to play. The lead reached 18 a few seconds later, and despite a 10-2 Lion run over a 30-second span, it was not nearly enough to overcome that deficit.

Not only did Dartmouth shoot 60.4 percent from the floor (29-of-48), it was efficient behind the arc as well with six triples in just 11 attempts (.545). Just as important was the Big Green's accuracy at the charity stripe where they hit 20-of-26 (.769) after entering the game at just 63.9 percent as a team.

Dartmouth took a quick 6-0 lead a little more than two minutes into the game, leading Lion head coach Kyle Smith to call a timeout. Whatever he said to his team worked as the long-range bombers started raining down three-pointers with regularity as Columbia took a 20-15 lead thanks to five triples, two each from Steve Frankoski and Lo.

But starting with a layup by Maldunas that gave the Green 15 points, Dartmouth caught fire from the floor, hitting 10 of its last 12 field goal attempts before halftime. Golden drilled a 15-footer on the baseline before ripping the net from the corner to tie the score, and Gill came away with a free ball near midcourt and cruised in for a layup to put the Big Green back on top, 22-20.

The lead oscillated back and forth with neither side getting ahead by more than two until Mitola followed up a three-pointer with a jumper for a 34-31 Big Green edge. After Columbia knotted the score, Dartmouth reclaimed the lead at the line and took a slim 40-38 advantage into the locker room.

Dartmouth enjoyed one of its finest shooting halves of the season, hitting 16-of-26 field goals (.615) in scoring 40 points in the opening stanza for the first time in over two months. The only things that kept the Big Green from building a bigger lead at the break were nine turnovers. Their shooting barely cooled after halftime as they hit 13-of-22 (.591), including all three long balls.

To extend its win streak to three, Dartmouth will need to end a personal 11-game skid at Cornell's Newman Arena when the Big Red (13-14, 5-6 Ivy) host the Big Green on Saturday at 6 p.m. Columbia hosts Harvard (19-6, 9-2 Ivy), the league's co-leader, tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

Notes: While the 60.4 field goal percentage is a season high for Dartmouth, it bettered that mark twice last year — 60.7 percent against Lesley on Dec. 31, 2013, and a whopping 65.2 percent 10 days prior against Longwood … the Big Green have swept the season series from Columbia twice in the past three seasons … the last time Dartmouth had five players score in double figures was against UMass Lowell on Nov. 16, 2013.