Fleming Hits Game-Winning Three to Down Brown, 77-74

Saturday, February 11

Providence, R.I.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-16, 2-6Ivy

Brown

11-13, 2-6Ivy

Dartmouth

Brown

Fleming Hits Game-Winning Three to Down Brown, 77-74

2/11/2017 7:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Dartmouth

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Senior Mike Fleming drained a three-pointer with just under a minute remaining to break a tie and send visiting Dartmouth to a 77-74 victory over Brown at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday night. Fleming finished the game with a career-high 17 points while sophomore Evan Boudreaux added his 11th double-double to lead the Big Green (5-16, 2-6 Ivy) to their first league road victory of the season.

Dartmouth led by as many as eight with just under four minutes to play after sophomore Guilien Smith scored the final of his 14 points — all in the second half — by coercing a three-pointer through after his shot hit the rim no less than five times with 3:53 to play. At that point, the Big Green were shooting 72 percent in the second stanza, but the Bears had one last run in them.

Steven Spieth, who led Brown with 21 points, stroked four straight free throws to cut the gap in half. Then it was Tavon Blackmon's turn to make something happen, using his quickness twice to drive for layups and tie the game at 74 with 1:18 to play.

But Fleming, who had not scored since the opening half when he had 14 points, gathered a cross-court pass from freshman Ian Sistare and took aim from right in front of the Big Green bench, swishing the game-winner through the hoop with 55 seconds to play.

Freshman Brendan Barry stole the ball before Brown could get a shot off, but Dartmouth failed to score on its trip, leaving Brown with about 12 seconds to fire off a three-pointer. But the ball ended up in Travis Fuller's hands, who was just 1-for-9 from long range on the season. His shot as the clock expired bounced off the right side of the iron, and the Big Green had its second win in three games.

While Dartmouth held the lead for nearly the entire second half, it played catch-up for nearly the entire first half as Brown scored on its first two possessions. Fleming put the Big Green on the scoreboard with a corner three-pointer, and another triple by Boudreaux gave Dartmouth its only lead of the half at 8-7.

A 10-2 Brown run fueled by triples by Brandon Anderson and J.R. Hobbie was finally answered when freshman Brendan Barry buried a long three from the top of the key, ending a four-and-a-half minute Dartmouth scoring drought.

Senior Wesley Dickinson and Fleming helped keep the Green in striking distance with the former providing a highlight-reel two-hand jam and the latter a pull-up jumper. But Brown countered with a Travis Fuller three-point play and a trifecta courtesy of Corey Daugherty before Boudreaux drained his second long ball of the half to sustain the three-point deficit at 25-22.

Spieth scored four of the next six Bear points to extend his team's lead to its largest of the half at 33-25 with 1:50 remaining. But Fleming was there again to keep it close, popping a trey and two free throws. Spieth cranked a triple and Sistare hit a long two to close out the half and leave Brown with a 36-32 advantage.

After scoring six points and grabbing four rebounds over the first 20 minutes, Boudreaux quickly asserted himself to start the second half, hauling in a Bear miss, ripping off a three-pointer and scoring on a putback to put the Big Green on top barely a minute into the stanza. Then Smith got into the act, scoring his first points on a three-pointer to answer a Brown basket, then driving for a layup for a 42-41 lead. Dartmouth would not trail again in the game.

The next eight points were provided by junior Miles Wright with two three-pointers and a putback, all in the span of 67 seconds, for his only points of the night and boosting the Big Green lead to eight at 50-42. Twice Dartmouth stretched its advantage to nine, first on a Sistare trifecta with 13 minutes left, then another Dickinson dunk with just under 10 minutes on the clock.

The Bears then proceeded to hit three straight three-pointers, two by Blackmon as part of his 17 points, bringing them back within two, 63-61. But the Big Green didn't break as Boudreaux and Smith each hit a pair of field goals to make the spread eight again 71-63 with 4:25 to go. A Spieth three-point play and a Smith long ball then set the stage for the final four minutes of action.

Dartmouth finished the game shooting a season-high 57.7 percent (30-of-52) while dropping a dozen three-pointers for the second time in the last three contests, hitting 52.2 percent from deep. Behind Boudreaux, the Green enjoyed a 32-23 edge on the glass, grabbing 17 boards in the second half while limiting the Bears to only nine.

Boudreaux hit 9-of-14 from the floor with a trio of treys for his 21 points, while Fleming drilled 5-of-7 overall and 3-of-5 from deep, plus sank all four foul shots. Smith and Dickinson also were quite efficient, hitting 6-of-9 and 4-of-4, respectively, as the latter chipped in nine points. Fleming and Smith also dished out five helpers as the Big Green collected a season-high 18 assists.

Brown had a large advantage at the foul line, hitting 15-of-17 (.882) compared to just 5-of-7 (.714) for Dartmouth, which missed its only attempt of the second half.

Dartmouth returns home for the next two weekends, hosting Columbia (10-11, 4-4 Ivy) on Friday at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network with Brett Franklin and Jill Glessner calling the action, simulcast locally and on the web on KOOL 93.9 FM. Brown next hosts Penn (8-12, 1-6 Ivy) on Friday at 8 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth won for just the second time on Brown's home court for the second time in the last dozen years with the other win coming in 2014 ... the Big Green have beaten the Bears four of the last six meetings overall ... Boudreaux now has 21 double-doubles in his career, tying Ian McGinnis '01 for the most by a Big Green player in the last 25 years.