Men Rally from 24-Point Deficit in Second Half to Beat Brown

Friday, March 6

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

13-14, 6-7Ivy

Brown

13-17, 4-9Ivy

Brown

Dartmouth

Men Rally from 24-Point Deficit in Second Half to Beat Brown

3/6/2015 9:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Condensed Broadcast Archived Broadcast

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Trailing by 24 points with about 14 minutes to play, Dartmouth staged one of its largest comebacks ever to defeat visiting Brown at Leede Arena on Friday night, 75-69. Junior Malik Gill came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points while junior Connor Boehm recorded his fourth career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds to help the Big Green (13-14, 6-7 Ivy) outscore the Bears in those last 14 minutes, 49-19, and extend their winning streak to four games.

Brown (13-17, 4-9 Ivy) got a 19-point, 16-rebound performance from Rafael Maia, but the Bears were undone by three technical fouls and their own foul shooting as they hit just 13-of-26 for the game and only 6-of-15 in the game's final eight-and-a-half minutes.

There was little hope of a Dartmouth victory when Steven Spieth ripped the net from the corner for three points for a 50-26 Brown lead. But the Big Green quickly put together an 11-point run — the last five courtesy of Boehm — in less than two minutes as the Bears turned the ball over on their next three possessions and head coach Mike Martin picked up a technical foul to give life to Dartmouth.

Maia boosted the lead back to 18 by scoring the next five points for Brown, but senior John Golden (who added a season-high 12 points) started an 8-0 run by converting a pair of free throws and finished it with a nifty up-and-over move in the paint for a layup to make it a 10-point game at 57-47 with just under eight minutes remaining.

Golden then answered a Brown three-point play by knocking down a three-pointer, and after the Spieth hit 1-of-2 foul shots, Gill drained a 15-footer and drove for a layup the next time down to bring Dartmouth within seven points, 61-54, for the first time since the first four minutes of the game.

Another three-point play for Brown, this time courtesy of Tavon Blackmon, Dartmouth went on another run, this time 13-2, that would give it the lead. Senior Gabas Maldunas, who received a commemorative ball prior to the game for becoming the 26th player in Dartmouth history to score 1,000 points, returned from sitting with four fouls with a two-hand jam, a defensive rebound and a driving layup.

Between single Spieth free throws, Boehm drilled his second triple of the night, then freshman Taylor Johnson — who had played just nine minutes over the previous seven games — drove to the hoop for a layup. Back-to-back steals by Golden and Johnson led to fast-break layups by Boehm and Johnson, and suddenly the Big Green owned their first lead of the night at 67-66 with 1:19 to play.

Blackmon answered right back with a 10-foot jumper only to have Gill crank a three-pointer from the left wing for a 70-68 lead. Again Spieth hit 1-of-2 at the line, and Gill drilled both of his foul shots with 25.4 seconds to go for a three-point lead.

When Blackmon stumbled on the ensuing possession, Spieth dove for the ball and called for a timeout in the frenetic scramble. Unfortunately for Spieth, the Bears were out of timeouts and suffered a technical foul, sending the Ivy League's most accurate free throw shooter to the line in junior Alex Mitola, who hit both for a five-point lead with 16.6 seconds left. Golden then stole the Bears' inbounds pass and produced the last point of the game.

Brown controlled the opening tap, then controlled the entire first half as it ran off the first 14 points of the game. Each of the five starters scored during the seven-minute opening run, which was finished off with a J.R. Hobbie three-pointer and a Blackmon fast-break layup. The Bears led by as many as 18 in the opening stanza thanks to a Jason Massey three-pointer, but junior Kevin Crescenzi scored the final six points of the half for Dartmouth to cut the deficit to 13 at the intermission, 35-22.

After shooting a paltry 28.6 percent (8-of-28) in the first half, Dartmouth more than doubled that at 58.6 percent (17-of-29) to finish the game at 43.9 percent (25-of-57). The Big Green also missed seven of their first 11 free throws, but converted 15 of their 18 at the charity stripe to shoot 65.5 percent at the line.

Gill was 6-of-8 from the floor with his lone three-pointer in the final minute, plus 4-of-6 at the line to account for his 17 points, while Boehm sank 6-of-9 field goals with two triples and 2-of-4 free throws for his 16. Although Mitola, Dartmouth's leading scorer on the season, did not have a single field goal, he converted all six foul shots after Brown's three technical fouls and dished out five assists without a turnover.

For the Bears, Maia hit six of his seven field goals and 7-of-13 at the foul line for his 19 points, while Spieth and Cedric Kuakumensah both added 11. Tyler Williams came off the bench to contribute six points and a team-high five assists as well.

As a team, Brown shot 49.0 percent (25-of-51) for the game, including 54.2 percent (13-of-24) in the second half, and owned a 37-34 advantage on the boards. But with just seven free throws in 18 attempts (.389) after halftime, the Bears could not fend off the Big Green.

Dartmouth will host the Ivy leaders, Yale (22-8, 11-2), on Saturday night as the Bulldogs attempt to clinch its first NCAA Tournament berth in 53 years. But a Big Green would make Dartmouth eligible for the postseason — where it has not ventured in 56 years — with a .500 record overall and in league play. The game will be streamed live on Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network with tip-off slated for 7 p.m. Brown will play at Harvard (20-7, 10-3 Ivy) at 6 p.m. as the Crimson need a win and a Yale loss to force a one-game playoff for the league's automatic berth.

Notes: The 13 wins for the Big Green are their most since posting 14 in the 1998-99 season ... Mitola needs just 12 points to become the 27th Dartmouth player to score 1,000 in a career ... the Big Green have swept their final weekend of the season each of the last two years.