Bryant Hands Big Green First Home Loss, 64-60

Saturday, December 21

Hanover, N.H.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

7-6

Bryant

8-4

Bryant

Dartmouth

Chris Knight had 21 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth career double-double.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Bryant Hands Big Green First Home Loss, 64-60

12/21/2019 1:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Chris Knight and Aaryn Rai both had double-doubles for Dartmouth

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — While juniors Chris Knight and Aaryn Rai each had a double-double for Dartmouth, visiting Bryant rode a dozen 3-pointers to a 64-60 victory at Leede Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs improved to 8-4 on the season while the Big Green suffered their first home loss in dropping to 7-6.

Mikhail Simmons came off the bench to provide four of the 12 triples to account for his 12 points, while Ikenna Ndugba led four Bulldogs in double figures with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting with two long balls. Hall Elisias proved to be quite the presence in the post, hauling in a game-high 13 rebounds while blocking six shots and altering quite a few more.

Knight, meanwhile, led all players with 21 points on 8-of-18 from the floor to go with 10 rebounds and three assists. His front court mate Rai added 13 points (5-of-12 field goals) with two treys and 10 rebounds as well. Taurus Samuels joined the duo in double figures with 13 points, 11 coming in the first half.

Bryant showed no ill effects of its 11-day layoff between games, hitting its first two shots — one a 3-pointer — for a quick 5-0 lead. They added two more triples in the first four minutes of action, but Dartmouth kept pace with a trio of layups and a Rai long ball before Ian Carter dropped in another layup and Samuels rained down a trey for a 14-11 Big Green lead.

Dartmouth maintained a slim advantage until Michael Green III popped a 3-pointer to tie the game at 22, but Rai answered with a rainbow three, Knight sank a short jumper and Samuels drove for a layup for a seven-point edge, the Green's largest of the game.

That lead did not last long as the Bulldogs rained down four consecutive trifectas, the last two by Simmons, and suddenly Bryant enjoyed a five-point advantage, 34-29. The Big Green was poised to take a one-point lead into the half after a seven-point run that Rai capped with a three-point play with 16 seconds on the clock, yet Green just beat the buzzer with a layup to give the Bulldogs a 38-37 lead at the intermission.

Ndugba boosted the Bryant lead to four with a layup 90 seconds into the second stanza, only to have Dartmouth rattle off nine straight points, seven courtesy of Knight, for a 48-43 lead with 15:43 to play. The Big Green offense struggled to put points on the board for the rest of the game, however, with just five more field goals in 22 attempts and nary a 3-pointer, plus 2-of-5 at the line.

But Dartmouth still had the lead with 10 minutes to play after James Foye drove for a layup and a 53-52 edge. The next five minutes belonged to the Bulldogs as Simmons and Brandon Lin hit from downtown and Green added a 12-footer on the baseline for an eight-point run and a 60-53 lead.

Knight closed the gap to two, 62-60, with his final points of the day with 1:15 to play and had a chance to tie or take the lead after getting a defensive stop. Elisias had other plans as he collected his sixth block. Lin hit both ends of a one-and-one moments later, and when a Big Green 3-point attempt was off the mark with 10 seconds left, Bryant was able to close out the road win.

The Bulldogs went 12-of-27 (.444) from the perimeter, much more accurate than their season percentage entering the game (.313), while hitting 23-of-52 (.442) overall to overcome a 6-of-12 performance at the line.

After connecting on half of its shots in the first half (15-of-30), Dartmouth was just 9-of-31 (.290) after the break to finish 24-of-61 (.393) for the game and only 3-of-17 (.176) from long range. The Big Green could not take advantage of a huge edge on the glass with 44 rebounds (11 offensive) to just 28 for the visitors.

Dartmouth will get a week off around the Christmas holiday and return to action on Dec. 30 at New Hampshire in Lundholm Gymnasium at 2 p.m. in a game streamed live on AmericaEast.tv.

Notes: Bryant took a 5-4 lead in the all-time series with games played in each of the last nine seasons … Rai has had double-doubles in consecutive games, matching his career total entering the week … Foye, sixth in Division I in 3-point percentage, was 0-for-2 from behind the arc, ending a streak of six games with at least two 3-pointers … the Bulldogs bench outscored the Big Green's, 25-4.