Big Green Suffer One-Point Loss at Bryant

Friday, December 21

Smithfield, R.I.

11:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Bryant

Dartmouth

Bryant

Junior James Foye scored a career-high 23 points

Photo by: David Silverman(DSPics.com)

12/21/2018 1:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)

James Foye had a career-high 23 points, but Bryant hit a 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds for the win

By: Rick Bender

SMITHFIELD, R.I. — SaBastian Townes hit a 3-pointer with 17.6 seconds left for the last of his 23 points — all in the second half — to lift host Bryant (3-7) to a 68-67 victory over Dartmouth (8-6) on Friday at the Chace Athletic Center. Junior James Foye also had a career-high 23 points for the Big Green, which saw their four-game win streak come to an end.

Dartmouth controlled the game during the first half, jumping out to a 13-3 lead that bulged to as many as 15 points before settling for a 34-26 advantage at the intermission. Junior Brendan Barry and sophomore Adrease Jackson both had eight points at the break, while Foye and sophomore Chris Knight added seven apiece. But the Big Green failed to hit a field goal in the final 5:30 of the half, but were able to maintain the lead thanks to some work at the foul line.

In the second stanza, Bryant rode Townes, who played just three minutes before halftime due to picking up three fouls. The forward started the scoring with three consecutive buckets before Adam Grant — who scored his 1,000th career point in the first half — drained back-to-back 3-pointers for a sudden 38-34 Bulldog lead.

Townes scored 12 of the next 15 Bryant points, during which the Bulldogs led by as many as seven at 46-39, but Foye heated up to keep the Big Green in the game. The left-handed sharp-shooter hit a pair of triples, and junior Ian Sistare added another to put Dartmouth back on top by two. After Townes scored the next five points, Foye answered back with another long ball, and the two traded buckets leaving the score knotted at 53 with eight minutes to play.

Joe Kasperzyk, who provided 19 points, twice drove to the rim for layups, putting Bryant back on top by four. But the Big Green scored the next nine points, the first six at the foul line and the last three on Foye's last 3-pointer of the game. Kasperzyk hit the first of two free throws, and junior Brendan Barry launched his third trey of the day for a seven-point Dartmouth lead at 65-58.

But the final three minutes belonged to the Bulldogs with local elementary school children in attendance to liven up the gym. Taylor McHugh hit a tough runner in the lane and Juan Cardenas popped just his third 3-pointer of the season to whttle the deficit down to two. When Foye missed a corner three, he was able rebound his own miss and worked the ball down low to junior Will Emery, who put up an easy layup to keep the Big Green lead at four, 67-63, with 1:32 to play.

Townes proceeded to hit two free throws, and after a Dartmouth possession failed to produce a good shot, the big man stepped outside the arc and hit his eighth trifecta of the year for the one-point lead. Barry drove into the paint but had his shot blocked, and Townes was fouled with 2.4 seconds to go. He missed the first, then purposely missed the second with the Big Green out of timeouts. The only problem was the his second shot did not hit the rim, giving Dartmouth the ball on the baseline. Sophomore Chris Knight got a good look from the Bulldog logo on the court, sent a shot right on line, only to see it bounce off the back iron as the buzzer sounded.

Turnovers proved costly for the Big Green as they coughed up the ball 16 times while shooting just 40 percent (20-of-50) from the floor with half of their field goals coming from the perimeter. Dartmouth bested Bryant at the foul line, hitting 17-of-20 (.850) compared to 15-of-22 (.682), and owned a 35-28 edge on the glass, but the Bulldogs shot a blistering 61.5 percent (16-of-26) in the second half to finish at 48 percent (24-of-50) overall.

Foye was an efficient 7-of-10 from the floor, 4-of-6 from downtown and 5-of-6 at the line to account for his second career 20-point game. Barry added 13 points, while both Sistare and Jackson joined them in double figures with 10 apiece. Sistare led the Big Green on the boards with a personal-best nine rebounds for the second straight game.

Townes finished the game 9-of-15 from the floor and 4-of-8 at the line, grabbing a team-high five rebounds in just 20 minutes on the floor.

Dartmouth has more than a week off before returning to Hanover to play host to in-state rival New Hampshire (2-9) on Dec. 30 at noon. The game will be televised on NESN and streamed live on ESPN+ with Bob Lipman and Eric Berry calling the action. Fans can also listen to the game on the airwaves locally on KOOL FM (106.7 FM in Hanover, 96.3 FM in Walpole and 106.5 FM in Keene) or online at koolnh.com with Brett Franklin and Bill Murphy on the call.

Notes: Bryant evened the series at four games apiece … the Dartmouth bench scored a season-low two points, those coming on Emery's bucket at the end of the game.