Solid Shooting Sends Dartmouth to 80-69 Victory Over Canisius

Tuesday, January 12

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Canisius

Dartmouth

Solid Shooting Sends Dartmouth to 80-69 Victory Over Canisius

1/12/2016 8:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth shot a season-high 53.5 percent from the floor, including 61.9 percent in the second half, to pull away from visiting Canisius on Tuesday night at Leede Arena, 80-69. Freshman Evan Boudreaux led four Big Green players in double figures with 19 points to help Dartmouth (5-9) win its first game of the 2016 calendar year and end a three-game skid.

Canisius (7-10) got 17 points from Malcolm McMillan and a double-double from Kevin Bleeker (10 points, 11 rebounds), but the Golden Griffins sent the Big Green to the foul line too often to keep pace. Dartmouth posted season highs with 28 free throws in 35 attempts (.800) with Boudreaux recording more than half (10) of his points at the charity stripe.

Joining Boudreaux in double figures were sophomore Miles Wright with 14 on 6-of-8 shooting with a pair of three-pointers, senior Kevin Crescenzi with a season-high 13 points and senior Connor Boehm with 11.

Thanks to crashing the offensive boards in the first half, Canisius built a six-point lead at 29-23 with just over three minutes left in the first half. But Dartmouth finished the stanza on a 10-2 run to take a two-point lead at the intermission, then scored the first eight points of the second half to stretch its advantage to 10, 41-31. Six of the 10 points at the end of the first half came on Crescenzi triples, the second of which put the Green on top for good as the final points of the period.

While Dartmouth started the second half with four layups, the last two by freshman Guilien Smith, Canisius sputtered with three missed shots and four turnovers in the first four minutes. McMillan finally ended the run with a three-point play, only to have Wright answer back with a three-pointer from the corner.

McMillan started to heat up from behind the arc with a pair of triples to cut the Big Green lead down to six at 50-44, but Dartmouth kept getting to the rim for easy buckets with layups by Wright, Boehm and Boudreaux to go up, 58-47, with 8:38 to play.

The next Canisius possession, Jermaine Crumpton, who had nine points off the bench, thought he had been fouled underneath the basket and expressed his displeasure with the officiating. The referees hit him with a technical, and when he continued to verbalize his feelings, he was assessed another technical foul and ejected from the game. Boudreaux hit all four free throws for the Big Green, and suddenly the difference was 15 points at 62-47.

The technicals seemed to ignite the Golden Griffins, however, as they rattled off nine straight points, the first seven coming off three consecutive Dartmouth turnovers. A Boehm bucket ended the run, but Chris Atkinson drilled a three-pointer to slice the Canisius deficit to five at 64-59 with 5:49 left in the contest.

That would be as close as the visitors would get as Boehm cranked up a three-pointer from the right wing and his teammates sank 9-of-12 free throws in the final three minutes to secure the victory.

More than half (18) of the Golden Griffin rebounds came at the offensive end, helping Canisius win the battle on the boards, 33-27. But Canisius struggled from long range, sinking 8-of-30 (.267) while knocking down 28-of-63 (.444) from the floor and just 5-of-8 at the free throw line.

Dartmouth, meanwhile, poured in 23-of-43 (.535) of its field goals and 6-of-13 (.462) from long range. Boudreaux not only led the Big Green in scoring, but also with six rebounds and a season-high four steals.

The Big Green have one more tune up before the Ivy League schedule gets going in earnest, hosting Division III Pine Manor on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Canisius concluded its non-conference slate with this game, returning to MAAC action on Friday night at Manhattan to try and improve on its 2-4 league record.

Notes: Crescenzi has scored in double figures in consecutive games for the first time in his career, having tallied 11 at Harvard on Saturday …the victory avenged Dartmouth's loss at Canisius last year in the first round of the CIT, which was the Green's first postseason appearance in 56 years … the 28 free throws made were the most for Dartmouth against a Division I team since converting 31-of-38 in a 92-87 victory over Brown on Feb. 19, 2000.