Dartmouth Drops Defensive Struggle at Penn, 54-46

Saturday, February 1

Philadelphia, Pa. / The Palestra

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

7-12, 0-4

Penn

10-7, 2-2

Dartmouth

Penn

Chris Knight scored 12 points in the last 11:06.

Photo by: Willis Glassgow

Dartmouth Drops Defensive Struggle at Penn, 54-46

2/1/2020 7:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (HTML)Box Score (PDF)Highlights Photo Gallery

Both teams shot under 40 percent but the Quakers survived

By: Rick Bender

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Dartmouth held Penn to one field goal over the final eight minutes but could not overcome a sluggish first half as the Quakers held on for a 54-46 victory at the Palestra on Saturday night. Devon Goodman had 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting to help Penn (10-7, 2-2 Ivy) even its record in league play, while the Big Green (7-12, 0-4 Ivy) were left searching for their first conference victory of the year.

Dartmouth finished the game shooting 32.7 percent (18-of-55) overall and 23.5 percent (4-of-17) from long range, while Penn was only slightly better at 38.5 percent (20-of-52) from the floor and 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from the perimeter. Both teams converted 60 percent at the line, 6-of-10 for the visitors, 9-of-15 for the Quakers.

Chris Knight, the 6-7 Big Green forward, finished with a team-high 12 points — all in the final 11:06 — as he missed his first nine shots before finishing up 5-of-16. Penn big man A.J. Brodeur struggled as well, going 4-of-16 for nine points, ending a streak of 40 consecutive games scoring in double figures against Division I opponents.

The Quakers built up a 28-14 lead at the half, holding the Big Green to 5-of-26 (.192) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. When senior Ian Carter sank a layup with 8:41 left before the intermission, Dartmouth was still within four points at 16-12. It would be more than seven minutes before the Green dented the scoreboard again as Penn went on a 10-0 run, and Dartmouth would not hit another field goal until the second stanza.

That run took a while to develop, however, as the fifth point wasn't tallied for more than five minutes. But Goodman laid one in on the break, then canned a 3-pointer to cap the run. Senior Ian Sistare finally broke the spell, converting two foul shots for Dartmouth, but Brodeur hit his first shot of the night in the final minute to allow Penn to take its 28-14 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, the Quakers quickly built the lead to its largest point at 18, 32-14, on a pair of layups, before a 7-0 Big Green run — keyed by a James Foye 3-pointer — got the offense moving. The Penn advantage oscillated between 11 and 17 points for the next 11 minutes until Dartmouth finally closed the gap to single digits, 44-35, on a layup by Trevon Ary-Turner with 5:15 to play.

Two free throws from Knight capped an 8-0 run and made it a seven-point game 40 seconds later, but Jordan Dingle sank three free throws to slow down the Big Green. Penn then kept Dartmouth at arm's length save for a Foye 3-pointer with 40.3 seconds left that cut the deficit down to five, 51-46, stirring Dartmouth's faint hopes. But while the Quakers only made 3-of-6 at the line the rest of the way, those three were enough as the Big Green could not get another shot to fall.

While Brodeur struggled to hit his shots, he was able to contribute 10 rebounds and five assists, both game highs. Dingle joined Goodman in double figures with 13 points despite going 3-of-10 from the floor.

Like Brodeur, Knight crashed the boards with a team-high eight rebounds, and Ary-Turner scored in double digits off the bench for the second straight night with 10 on 4-of-6 field goals with a couple of triples before fouling out in the final minute. Carter chipped in eight points and a career-high six rebounds as well.

Dartmouth will attempt to end its six-game losing streak and 12-game skid in conference play when it travels to Brown and Yale next weekend. Both games are set to tip at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively, and will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Notes: Penn became the 19th Division I program to win 1,800 games … the 14 first-half points matched the fewest for the team in the first 20 minutes of a game in the past decade … the Big Green have lost 18 consecutive road games in Ivy play dating back to a 76-74 win at the Palestra on March 3, 2017 … Knight is 41 points shy of becoming the 30th player in Dartmouth history with 1,000 in a career … none of the starting five reached its scoring average on the season in either game this weekend … the Big Green had not lost a game this season when keeping their opponent under 40 percent from the floor. They are now 6-1 when doing so.