Dartmouth Nipped by Crimson in Rematch, 64-59

Saturday, January 26

Cambridge, Mass.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

10-8, 1-1Ivy

Harvard

8-7, 1-1Ivy

Dartmouth

Harvard

Freshman Taurus Samuels had a season-high 13 points.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Dartmouth Nipped by Crimson in Rematch, 64-59

1/26/2019 3:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Big Green can't quite finish the series sweep despite 11 3-pointers

By: Rick Bender

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In a game that neither team led by more than five points during the second half, visiting Dartmouth came up just short in its quest for its first season sweep of Harvard in 20 years as the Crimson (8-7, 1-1 Ivy) held off the Big Green (10-8, 1-1 Ivy), 64-59. Christian Juzang led Harvard with 19 points in front of the sold-out crowd at Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, while freshman Taurus Samuels provided a season-high 13 points to pace Dartmouth.

Both Samuels and junior Brendan Barry — the nation's leader in 3-point percentage — drilled four triples as the Green knocked down 11 from behind the arc for the second straight game against the Crimson. Barry finished the game with 12 points, as did sophomore Chris Knight, who also paced the team with eight rebounds and five assists.

Juzang hit 6-of-9 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointers and 5-of-5 at the line to account for his 19 points, to which he added a game-high five assists. Forward Chris Lewis contributed 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and Bryce Aiken chipped in 14, including four free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal the victory for Harvard.

After Harvard opened up a 51-46 lead with less than seven minutes to play, Barry knocked down one from behind the arc and Knight followed with a layup to tie the score for the eighth time on the afternoon. When the Crimson scored the next four points, Barry came through again with another trifecta, keeping Dartmouth within one, 55-54, with 4:30 still to play.

The Big Green were still trailing by two, 60-58, when Knight was fouled going to the rim with 23.1 seconds left. Knight got his first free throw to fall through, but the second hit the back iron and Aiken was quickly fouled after grabbing the rebound. But it was just the fifth team foul on Dartmouth, so twice the Green fouled on inbounds plays, which sent Aiken to the line where he hit his first free throw and the bonus.

Looking for the tie, Barry created some space from way downtown, but his shot was off the mark and went out-of-bounds. Aiken added two more foul shots to seal the Crimson victory.

"Everyone in our locker room knows this is a game that we not only could have won, but should have won," Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin said. "We are not merely disappointed with the loss, but angry about losing this one. Give Harvard credit, they simply made more plays down the stretch, but it was certainly within our grasp to be 2-0 in league play."

Harvard opened the game with a pair of buckets for a 4-0 lead, only to have Dartmouth answer back with two of their own. The two sides traded a pair of 3-pointers before the Crimson rattled off seven straight points for the largest lead of the game at 17-10. And with the Big Green's two leading scorers this season — Knight and Barry — relegated to the bench with two fouls and still more than eight minutes in the half, Harvard looked to have an opportunity to widen its 17-10 lead.

But Dartmouth flipped that script by ripping off 11 straight points, beginning and ending with 3-pointers from Samuels. The rookie added one more shortly before halftime, allowing the Big Green to take a slim 26-25 advantage at the intermission.

In the second stanza, Barry popped a three before the Crimson went on a seven-point spurt to take the lead, 32-29. Dartmouth responded with six straight points to reclaim the upper hand, and the two sides remained within four points of each other until Noah Kirkwood was fouled while shooting from the perimeter and sank the three foul shots for a 51-46 Harvard edge with seven minutes to go. That is when Barry drained his third triple and Knight scored to tie the score and bring about the close finish.

Both teams hit 22 field goals on the day with the Crimson (40 percent) holding a slight edge in accuracy (38.6 percent). While Dartmouth hit 11-of-30 (.367) from long range compared to 6-of-21 (.286) for Harvard, the hosts won the game at the charity stripe, hitting 14-of-16 (.875) to just 4-of-7 (.571) for the Big Green. Harvard also had a 40-33 advantage on the glass with Justin Bassey (12) leading the Crimson.

Dartmouth returns to Hanover to start a four-game homestand, hosting Brown and Yale on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively. The games will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Bob Lipman and Eric Berry calling the action. Fans can also listen to the contests 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: Dartmouth entered the game sixth in the country in 3-pointers per game, and essentially matched that number (10.8 per game) … senior Guilien Smith played two minutes late in the first half, his first time on the court since being sidelined by an injury for the previous 10 games.