Dartmouth Suffers Loss in Rematch with Harvard

Saturday, January 25

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

7-10, 0-2Ivy

Harvard

13-4, 2-0Ivy

Harvard

Dartmouth

Taurus Samuels had a game-high 18 points.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Dartmouth Suffers Loss in Rematch with Harvard

1/25/2020 8:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Struggles from long distance leave Big Green 0-2 in Ivy play

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — Trailing by 13 with 1:17 to play, Dartmouth nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages but ultimately came up just short in a 70-66 loss to Harvard at Leede Arena on Saturday night. Noah Kirkwood hit five 3-pointer and scored 17 points to lead the Crimson (13-4, 2-0 Ivy) to their eighth straight win, while Taurus Samuels had a game-high 18 points for the Big Green (7-10, 0-2 Ivy).

It looked as if Harvard had the game in the bag when Chris Lewis scored the last of his 13 points on a wide-open, two-hand jam with 1:17 left on the clock to put the Crimson up, 68-55.

Yet Dartmouth would not concede, even after missing a pair of shots on the next possession. Harvard missed the front end of a one-and-one, however, and Aaryn Rai dropped in a layup with 49 seconds remaining before head coach David McLaughlin called the Big Green's final timeout.

A Crimson turnover led to Rai making a foul shot and Dartmouth rebounding his miss, only to misfire on the putback. Harvard failed to convert any of its three free throws on the ensuing possession, and James Foye (11 points) drilled his a 3-pointer with 23 seconds to go, making it a 68-61 game.

Freshman Chris Ledlum finally found the range at the line for Harvard, making both of his attempts. But Foye answered with a layup, the Crimson missed two more free throws and Samuels drilled a 3-pointer, suddenly making it a 70-66 game with 6.4 seconds left. The Big Green got the steal they needed on the inbound pass but failed to make a shot before the buzzer sounded, leaving Dartmouth on the wrong end of the score.

Although the Green hit two of their first five 3-point attempts and three of their last five in the final two-and-a-half minutes, they struggled most of the night from distance, missing 15 consecutive long balls at one point before finishing 6-of-27 (.222) from the perimeter. Harvard, on the other hand, hit 12-of-29 (.414) behind the arc, including its first three and five of its first seven — two apiece by Kirkwood and Justin Bassey — while opening up an early 17-11 lead.

But even when Dartmouth fell behind by eight, 21-13, it clawed its way back with a 10-2 run keyed by an Ian Sistare 3-pointer and a Rai 3-point play, which knotted the game at 23. With just over two minutes left in the half, Samuels drove to his left and dropped in a layup, giving the Big Green their only lead of the night at 31-30. That lead didn't last long as Lewis and Ledlum hit shots to allow the Crimson to take a 34-33 lead into the locker room.

Dartmouth kept it close for the first 10 minutes of the second stanza and still trailed by one, 43-42, when Rai provided three points the hard way. But after he nearly brought down the house containing 1,564 raucous fans with a dunk while being fouled and 11:22 to play, the Big Green went scoreless for nearly five minutes as the Harvard lead was built to nine, 55-46. The Crimson advantage reached as many as 13 on Kirkwood's fifth trey with 2:32 left, 65-52, and it was still 13 when the Big Green's comeback bid began.

Kirkwood finished the night 5-of-13 from the floor but 5-of-8 from long range and 2-of-4 at the line for his 17 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Lewis was 6-of-12 shooting and had a team-high nine boards. Harvard shot only slightly better overall (26-of-59, .441) than it did from the perimeter, but was a woeful 6-of-16 (.375) at the foul line and turned the ball over 17 times.

The Big Green finished the night 38.1 percent (24-of-63) from the floor and 12-of-16 (.750) at the line, but was outrebounded by a 44-36 margin. Samuels was 6-of-15 (.400) overall, 2-of-7 (.286) from long distance and 4-of-5 at the charity stripe for his 18 points, while Rai added 16 before fouling out in the final seconds. Foye added 11 points thanks to 3-of-7 behind the arc, including his 100th career 3-pointer on his first attempt of the night.

Dartmouth will play its next four games on the road, all streamed live on ESPN+, starting with Princeton on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth has dropped five straight games … Foye is the 18th Big Green player to hit 100 3-pointers in a career, but just the fourth to do so while making the at a 40 percent clip or better (.415) … Dartmouth's leading scorer, Chris Knight, was held to eight points on 4-of-11 from the floor, though he did have a team-high nine rebounds.