Big Green Fall at Boston College in Season Opener

Tuesday, November 9

Chestnut Hill, Mass. / Conte Forum

8:00 PM

Dartmouth College

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Boston College

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Dartmouth

Boston College

Taurus Samuels scored all 10 of his points in the first half.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Big Green Fall at Boston College in Season Opener

11/9/2021 10:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The men's basketball team shook off the rust and played much better in the second half

By: Rick Bender

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — After shaking off 20 months of rust in the opening half of the season opener at Boston College, the Dartmouth men's basketball team outscored the Eagles over the second half but could not make up the big deficit in a 73-57 defeat on Tuesday evening at Conte Forum. Senior Taurus Samuels and grad student Brendan Barry led the Big Green (0-1) with 10 points apiece, while DeMarr Langford Jr. led all players with 16 points for the Eagles (1-0).

"Not playing competitive basketball for the past 20 months is going to show early in the year," Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin said following the game. "Guys are going to have to get their feet wet, learn how to play with each other, learn how to get the rhythm of the game back. That's going to be a big part of our progress moving forward this season."

That rhythm on offense was fleeting in the first half as the Big Green missed their first eight shots of the night. Samuels provided the first points with a pair of foul shots four minutes into the game, and Brendan Barry swished a 3-pointer for the season's first field goal three minutes later, but Boston College enjoyed a 13-5 lead at that point.

Langford Jr. produced back-to-back buckets for BC, only to have Samuels answer back with a triple and a driving layup through traffic to close the gap to 17-10. The Eagles took control from there, rattling off 13 straight points in a three-minute span, beginning with a Makai Ashton-Langford long ball and seven points from big man Quinten Post, boosting the BC lead to 30-10 with nearly six minutes left until the intermission.

Samuels ended the run by getting to the rim once again before senior Garrison Wade provided consecutive baskets, the first a thunderous dunk off a pass from freshman Ryan Cornish. Dartmouth could muster just three more free throws over the final 3:49 of the half, however, and the Eagles pushed their advantage to 42-19 at the break.

The Big Green were just 6-of-27 (.222) from the floor to start the game and 2-of-14 (.143) from the perimeter while the hosts connected on 15-of-26 (.577) overall and 6-of-11 (.545) from long range. Boston College also doubled up Dartmouth on the glass, 22-11.

In the second stanza, Dartmouth had the Eagles on their heels for the first seven-and-a-half minutes, outscoring BC by a 15-6 margin. The Green's leading returning scorer, Aaryn Rai, got on track with a pair of buckets in the paint, and junior Cam Krystkowiak — who was playing in his first collegiate game after missing his freshman season with an injury — had a trio of buckets, including a pair of two-hand flushes.

But Dartmouth went cold from the floor again as Boston College went on a 12-0 run to put the game out of reach at 60-34. Still, the Big Green would not relent as junior Jackson Blaufeld popped a 3-pointer and Rai got three the hard way. The Dartmouth defense held the Eagles to just two field goals over the final eight minutes as well, and when rookie Romeo Myrthil drilled a trifecta and laid in the final points of the night, the final margin was down to 16 points.

Thanks to shooting 51.7 percent (15-of-29) in the second half, Dartmouth finished the night at 37.5 percent from the floor (21-of-56) but just 20.7 percent (6-of-29) from distance. The Big Green also won the battle of the boards after halftime, 20-17, leaving BC with a 38-31 edge on the glass. Dartmouth also took care of the ball, turning it over just eight times.

Krystkowiak finished the game with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting, senior Garrison Wade added eight points and Rai seven to go with a team-high nine rebounds. All 10 of Samuels' points came in the opening half while Barry had five in each stanza.

Joining Langford in double figures for BC were Post (14), Kanye Jones (12) and Ashton-Langford (10). The Eagles ended the evening hitting just under 50 percent (25-of-51, .490) from the floor and hit just one more triple in the second half to go 7-of-18 (.389) from behind the arc.

Dartmouth gets another difficult test on Saturday when the Big Green travel to Georgetown for a televised game on FS2 at 2 p.m.