Yale Rides the Hot Hand in 81-66 Win over Big Green

Friday, February 6

New Haven, Conn.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

8-11, 1-4Ivy

Yale

16-6, 5-0Ivy

Dartmouth

Yale

Yale Rides the Hot Hand in 81-66 Win over Big Green

2/6/2015 9:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale hit three-pointer after three-pointer to put visiting Dartmouth in a hole from which it could not recover as the Bulldogs shot their way to an 81-66 victory on Friday night at the Lee Amphitheater. Jack Montague had five of the 13 three-pointers for Yale (16-6, 5-0 Ivy) for a team-high 19 points to help the Bulldogs remained undefeated in Ivy play and atop the standings. Freshman Miles Wright led all players with a season-high 20 points for the Big Green (8-11, 1-4 Ivy), which has lost three straight for the first time this season.

While Montague was raining down 5-of-6 from behind the arc, four other Elis sank two apiece as Yale shot a sizzling 61.9 percent (13-of-21) from long range. Overall the Bulldogs hit 23-of-45 (.511) field goals and 22-of-32 (.688) from the charity stripe. Justin Sears added 16 points — 13 in the second half — and Makai Mason chipped in 11 off the bench.

Dartmouth struggled offensively in the opening period, shooting just 29.2 percent (7-of-24) from the floor, before finishing the night at 41.4 percent (24-of-58) thanks to hitting half of its shots after halftime.

Montague wasted little time in offering a preview of what was to come by canning his first trifecta just 18 seconds into the contest. Over the first 10 minutes, Yale led by four, 17-13 by popping five triples to go with one inside the arc. But Dartmouth kept pace as Wright hit a pair of long balls and junior Kevin Crescenzi swished a three-ball. A three-point play by Wright in which he stole the ball and slammed it home closed the gap to one at 17-16 with 9:55 left in the half.

Senior Gabas Maldunas, who tallied 13 for the Big Green, knotted the score at 20 with under seven minutes until the intermission as he went underneath the backboard and up for a layup. It would be the first and only tie score of the night as Yale finished the half on a 15-1 run as Montague and Mason each provided a trey to put the Bulldogs up, 35-21, when the buzzer sounded.

Any thoughts of a second-half rally like the one Dartmouth had when down 14 at Harvard two weeks ago were quickly put in doubt after junior Connor Boehm opened the stanza with a 15-footer. Armani Cotton, who led all players with eight rebounds, scored his only points of the night with consecutive three-pointers in a 30-second span to suddenly increase the bulge to 18 at 41-23. Two and a half minutes later, Mason hit his second triple for Yale's largest lead of the night at 19 points, 46-27.

The Big Green were not discouraged, however, and went on a 13-3 spurt of their own to get the deficit back into single digits at 49-40 with 11:44 to go. Maldunas began the run with his third straight layup and Wright capped it off with a steal and a breakaway dunk.

That was as close as Dartmouth would get, though, even with junior Alex Mitola hitting his first three-pointer in over three halves of play. Greg Kelley followed with a trey and Montague added another. The fouls started piling up for the Big Green as well, leading to the Bulldogs hitting 20-of-28 in the second half to help Yale keep a comfortable distance on the scoreboard.

Wright finished the night 8-of-15 from the floor, including 2-of-5 from downtown, and his three steals led to both of his dunks and a layup. Maldunas hit 6-of-9 field goals while leading the Big Green with six rebounds and matching junior Tommy Carpenter's three blocks. But the rest of the Dartmouth squad was just 10-of-34 (.294) and the team as a whole shot 54.5 percent (12-of-22) at the free throw line.

Montague didn't miss much, going 6-of-8 overall and 5-of-6 from deep, not to mention hitting both of his free throw attempts. Sears added seven rebounds, two blocks and a game-high four assists to his 16 points.

Dartmouth returns to the hardwood on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Brown (9-13, 0-5 Ivy) to take on a Brown squad that suffered an excruciating loss to Harvard in overtime tonight, 76-74. Yale will host the Crimson (14-5, 4-1 Ivy) in a showdown of the top two teams in the league standings at 7 p.m.

Notes: Since scoring in double figures in 15 of the first 16 contests, Mitola has been held under 10 points in each of the last three games … Wright is the fourth Big Green player to score 20 points in a game, joining Mitola, Maldunas and Boehm … all 12 Dartmouth players that saw action scored at least one point.