Yale Rallies to Defeat Dartmouth, 75-65

Friday, February 12

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

7-14, 1-6Ivy

Yale

16-5, 7-0Ivy

Yale

Dartmouth

2/12/2016 9:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Makai Mason sank all four of his three-point attempts in the second half, finishing the night with a game-high 25 points, and Justin Sears posted a double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds to help Yale defeat host Dartmouth on Friday night at Leede Arena, 75-65. Freshman Evan Boudreaux had a double-double of his own with 21 points and 10 boards, but after leading for most of the first 33 minutes, the Big Green (7-14, 1-6 Ivy) could not finish off the league-leading Bulldogs (16-5, 7-0 Ivy), which won their 11th straight game.

Yale took its first lead since it was 2-0 when Sears sank two free throws to make it 51-50 with 8:38 to play. Boudreaux answered back with two of his own foul shots just 21 seconds later for what turned out to be Dartmouth's final lead of the night.

After Sears converted his second of two free throws to knot the score at 52, turnovers plagued the Big Green to help the Bulldogs open up a lead. Mason knocked down a three-pointer in front of his own bench to put Yale up for good, and Sears flushed home the next two points following the third straight Dartmouth miscue.

The Big Green turned the tables briefly, stealing the ball to lead to a layup by sophomore Miles Wright, who recorded 15 points. But the Bulldogs scored the next seven, capped by Mason's final long ball of the night to put Yale on top by 10, 64-54, with four minutes remaining.

The difference reached as many as 12 before senior Connor Boehm (12 points) and Boudreaux hit consecutive three-pointers to cut the deficit in half with 1:52 on the clock. Dartmouth had an opportunity to get even closer when the Bulldogs misfired on the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, but Boudreaux had his lean-in jumper in the lane bounce off the back iron twice before falling off into the waiting hands of Sears. Yale went on to convert 7-of-8 free throws in the final 65 seconds to seal the Big Green's fate.

Most of the stats were pretty even on the night as both teams recorded the exact same field goal percentage having knocked down 23-of-53 field goals (.434). While Yale canned 40 percent (6-of-15) from beyond the arc, the Big Green was a little better at 43.8 percent (7-of-16). Although the free throw percentages were similar — 65.7 percent for Yale, 63.2 percent for Dartmouth — the Bulldogs converted 11 more to account for the difference in the score.

The nation's leader in rebound margin at over 12 per game, Yale barely edge the Green on the glass, 36-33. But 11 offensive rebounds led to 11 second-chance points, while Dartmouth managed just four second-chance points off of eight offensive boards. The Bulldogs were also able to turn 15 Big Green turnovers into 17 points.

Dartmouth got off to a good start as Wright and Boudreaux each popped a trey for a quick 6-2 lead. While the Big Green maintained the lead for the rest of the half, they could extend their advantage to as many as seven points just once on a short Boudreaux jumper in the paint for a 19-12 lead halfway through the first stanza.

Sophomore Cameron Smith drilled a pull-up jumper in the lane for a 28-23 lead with 2:43 until the intermission, but the Big Green would not score again before the horn sounded. Yale could not take full advantage, however, failing to collect a field goal and sinking 4-of-6 free throws to make it a one-point game at the break, 28-27.

Wright scored the first five points of the second half, and his third trey of the evening a short while later gave Dartmouth its biggest lead of the night at 41-32. A Boehm bucket with 14:05 to play kept the difference at eight, 48-40, but that was the last Big Green field goal for nearly nine minutes as Yale rattled off an extended 24-6 run.

Boudreaux hit 7-of-15 shots, including 2-of-3 from downtown, plus drained all five foul shots for his 21 points. Both Wright and Boehm were 5-of-9 from the floor with the latter contributing seven rebound as well.

Mason was 6-of-16 overall and 4-of-9 from deep, while his 9-of-10 showing at the charity stripe helped secure the Bulldog victory. Sears was 8-of-18 from the floor with seven of his 13 rebounds coming on the offensive end. Brandon Sherrod, who recently set an NCAA record with 30 consecutive field goals, was just 4-of-9 while scoring 14 points, and Anthony Dallier, filling in for Yale's top three-point threat, Jack Montague, chipped in 10 points.

Dartmouth hits the hardwood again on Saturday night when Brown (7-14, 2-5 Ivy) comes to Leede Arena for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Yale will try to remain perfect in conference tomorrow night at rival Harvard (10-13, 2-5 Ivy), which beat the Bears tonight, 79-73. Both games will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network.

Notes: Boudreaux has seven double-doubles this season, more than any other player on the team has in their career … Wright averaging over 11 points a game this year, ended a string of six straight games scoring less than 10 points … Boehm was presented with a commemorative basketball before the game for becoming the 28th player in Dartmouth history to score 1,000 points in a career ... the Big Green have lost five straight games since reeling off three consecutive victories in mid-January.