Big Green Lead Wire to Wire in 68-63 Win at Buffalo

Friday, November 8

Buffalo, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-0

Buffalo

0-1

Dartmouth

Buffalo

Taurus Samuels scored six clutch points in the final 1:12.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Big Green Lead Wire to Wire in 68-63 Win at Buffalo

11/8/2019 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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First road win in season opener in 32 years; Bulls' 26-game home win streak ends

By: Rick Bender

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 17-point second-half lead was whittled down to one, but Dartmouth kept its composure with Taurus Samuels scoring six straight points in the final 1:12 to help the Big Green end Buffalo's 26-game home win streak in a 68-63 victory on Friday night at Alumni Arena. Samuels finished the game with a career-high 16 points while Chris Knight produced a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Dartmouth (1-0) to its first season-opening win on the road in 32 years.

Buffalo (0-1) had four players reach double figures, led by Davonta Jordan with 17 thanks to four 3-pointers. But the Bulls shot under 40 percent across the board, including 5-of-13 (.385) at the foul line as Dartmouth defeated a team that had topped 30 wins in each of the past two seasons.

When Ian Sistare converted a 3-point play with 12:47 left in the game, he boosted Dartmouth's lead to 47-30, its largest bulge of the night. But Jordan caught fire, scoring the next 10 points on three consecutive 3-point attempts and 1-of-2 at the line. Ronaldo Segu capped the 12-point run with a short jumper in the paint, and suddenly the Bulls' deficit was slashed to five in less than two-and-a-half minutes of action.

Twice Buffalo closed the gap to one, the second time at 61-60 on a Jayvon Graves long ball with 1:39 to play. With the crowd of 3,376 in a frenzy, Samuels took over, starting with a drive along the baseline for a layup that was whistled for defensive goaltending. When Jordan missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the score, it was Samuels who gathered the rebound. He was sent to the line with 34.9 seconds showing, and he calmly canned both shots to make it a five-point game, 65-60.

Again Buffalo misfired on a 3-pointer, and even when Jordan grabbed the offensive rebound, the second-chance shot was swatted away by Knight — his third block of the evening — with Samuels tracking down the loose ball. Again he was fouled, and again he sank both free throws for a seven-point lead with 18 seconds left.

Trevon Ary-Turner, making his Dartmouth debut after sitting out last year as a transfer from Weber State, provided his seventh point off the bench by sinking his second of two foul shots, and an Antwain Johnson 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left was too little, too late.

It took more than three minutes for either team to score after the opening tip, but Ary-Turner ended the drought with a three-point play. Dartmouth forced the Bulls to call a timeout when it extended its lead to 14-5 on an Ian Carter layup.

With 5:25 left in the half, Samuels dropped in a layup and was fouled, completing the three-point play to double up Buffalo at 28-14. By the intermission, however, that 14-point edge was cut in half.

A 12-2 run early in the second half featuring scoring from five different Big Green and capped by Sistare's three-point play, stretched the lead to 17 before Buffalo started to rally.

Knight finished the game 9-of-19 from the floor for his 18 points, and his 11 rebounds gave him his fourth career double-double. Sistare led all players with a career-high 13 rebounds, nine in the first half, to go with six points, and junior Aaryn Rai pitched in 12 points on 5-of-7 field goals with a trifecta in his only try from downtown. Senior James Foye dished out a team-high five assists as well.

As a team, Dartmouth shot 45.8 percent (27-of-59) and 25.0 percent (4-of-16) from long range, while its defense held Buffalo to 35.3 percent overall (24-of-68) and 28.6 percent (10-of-35) behind the arc. Both teams had 16 turnovers, and the Bulls held a 43-39 advantage on the glass, though the Big Green outrebounded the hosts in the second half, 22-17.

Dartmouth returns to Hanover to host Florida Gulf Coast (0-1) at Leede Arena on Monday at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live via ESPN+ with Bob Lipman and Dave Faucher describing the action, while a free audio stream will also be available through the official website of Dartmouth Athletics, DartmouthSports.com, with Brett Franklin on the call.

Notes: The last Big Green road victory in a season opener was an 86-76 triumph at Vermont in 1987 … the last time Dartmouth won a season opener outside of Hanover was 20 years ago in a 68-65 neutral-site victory over Colgate … Buffalo's 26-game home win streak was the second longest in the country, behind only Tennessee's 27.