Late Comeback Falls Just Short at Yale, 72-69

Friday, February 4

New Haven, Conn. / Lee Amphitheater

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-13,2-5Ivy League

Yale

11-9,5-1Ivy League

Dartmouth

Yale

Brendan Barry had 25 points in the hard-fought defeat

Photo by: Brian Foley

Late Comeback Falls Just Short at Yale, 72-69

2/4/2022 7:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Brendan Barry scored 25 points, 17 in the second half, to lead the charge

By: Rick Bender

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Dartmouth found itself in familiar territory on Friday night at the Lee Amphitheater, needing a 3-pointer in the final seconds to try and force overtime at Yale. Although the Big Green got two shots at the prize, both were off the mark as the Bulldogs (11-9, 5-1 Ivy) survived a close battle, 72-69, to stave off upset-minded Dartmouth (5-13, 2-5 Ivy).

Graduate Brendan Barry scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half as he did his best to will Dartmouth to victory, while junior Dame Adelekun posted career highs of 17 points and 15 rebounds for his third double-double in the last six games. But Yale's Azar Swain matched Barry point for point with 25 of his own, thanks to a perfect 14-of-14 showing at the foul line, including eight of his team's final 10 points.

The Big Green trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half, and were still down by 10 with 5:30 play, 61-51, after Matt Knowling hit a short hook in the lane for Yale. That wound up as the final Bulldog field goal of the game as the remainder of the team's scoring came at the charity stripe.

Barry cut into that deficit with a 3-pointer a little more than minute later, making it a six-point game. Following Swain's first two free throws down the stretch, Barry answered back with two of his own and senior Taurus Samuels (12 points) hit the second of two foul shots. With 1:46 to play, Adelekun backed his way under the basket and scored a layup, bringing the Big Green within one possession at 64-61.

Another Barry 3-pointer after two Swain free throws closed the gap to two, and head coach David McLaughlin called a quick timeout with 1:10 to go. Again Swain was able to get to the line and convert, but Barry drove the lane, dropped in a layup and was fouled. When his freebie fell through, Dartmouth found itself down by just one, 68-67, with 45.5 seconds remaining.

Dartmouth nearly stole the ball on the ensuing possession, but Swain managed to get fouled again, sending him to the line where he sank two more foul shots. Barry tried to tie the score with a long ball, but the misfire was gathered by Adelekun — his fifth offensive board of the night — before he was fouled. The 6-8 forward drained both free throws with 10.9 seconds left, keeping the Green within one, 70-69.

A quick foul on Bez Mbeng put the pressure on the freshman guard, but like Swain, he hit both shots to boost the Bulldog lead back to three. After the Big Green's final timeout, Barry got the look behind the arc that McLaughlin drew up but could not get the shot to fall. Fifth-year senior Aaryn Rai corralled the rebound, however, and got it back outside to freshman Ryan Cornish, who also got a shot off from right in front of the Dartmouth bench. But it, too, would not acquiesce and find its way through the iron, leaving the Green on the wrong end of the score as time expired. It was the sixth time this season that Dartmouth had the ball in the final seconds with an opportunity to tie or take the lead only to come up short.

The first half featured quite a bit more offense as Yale shot 57.1 percent from the floor in taking a nine-point lead, 41-32, into halftime. But it was Dartmouth that jumped out to an early five-point lead on the strength of Adelekun who powered his way to 10 points on five layups in the first six minutes of action. But after hitting seven of their first 12 shots as a team, the Big Green found it more difficult to put points on the board.

Yale stormed back and led by as many as eight at 32-24, only to have Dartmouth go on an 8-2 spurt that Barry started with a couple of baskets before sophomore Izaiah Robinson, who matched his personal best with 10 points on the night, cranked a 3-pointer to bring the Green within two, 34-32, with just 1:18 left in the half. A 7-0 Bulldog run, however, suddenly left Dartmouth down by nine at the intermission.

The defenses took over in the second half as scoring slowed and neither side could put together a run. The difference on the board oscillated between seven and 12 points — save for one moment when Samuels hit a free throw to close the gap to six — for the first 16 minutes of the half. Barry's third triple of the game finally got the ball rolling for the Big Green and started the gradual comeback in the final four minutes.

"While we played hard and had a great comeback, the fact of the matter is, we were not good enough for the first 20 minutes," McLaughlin said after the game. "When you don't value the ball, don't get stops and don't value the time and score, you find yourself down nine on the road against a team like this. And it's going to take a full 20 minutes to come back from that. We simply were not a tough enough group in the first half to allow us to come away with a victory."

Barry finished the night 7-of-14 from the floor and 4-of-8 from distance while hitting all seven of his free throws to account for his 25 points, while Adelekun was an efficient 6-of-9 shooting the ball and 5-of-6 at the foul line. Dartmouth may have shot just under 40 percent for the game (21-of-53) and 29 percent (7-of-24) from the perimeter, but the 18th most accurate free throw shooting team in Division I canned a season-high 20-of-25 foul shots (.800) to help keep Dartmouth in the game.

After the Bulldogs' strong shooting performance in the first half, they managed to hit just 36.4 percent (8-of-22) against the Big Green defense in the second stanza with a pair of 3-pointers. But like Dartmouth, Yale was stellar at the line, hitting 13-of-14 over the final 20 minutes and 20-of-23 (.870) for the game. The only other Bulldog in double figures besides Swain was Matt Knowling with 10 points on 5-of-7 field goals. And despite Adelekun's rebounding effort, Yale had a 33-27 advantage on the glass.

Dartmouth returns to action tomorrow evening at Brown (10-13, 2-6 Ivy) in an attempt to sweep the season series from the Bears to start the second half of Ivy League play. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with tipoff scheduled for 6 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth has lost 11 straight games against Yale … Barry has topped 20 points in a game four times this season to lead the team … Adelekun's 15 rebounds are the most by a Big Green player since the fourth game of the season when Rai had 15 in an overtime win at Bryant.