Men Falter in Final Minute at Brown

Saturday, February 5

Providence, R.I. / Pizzitola Sports Center

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-14,2-6Ivy League

Brown

11-13,3-6Ivy League

Dartmouth

Brown

Brendan Barry drilled seven 3-pointers against the Bears.

Photo by: Doug Austin

2/5/2022 8:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Dartmouth had a late 17-0 run to take the lead, but Brown hit free throws in the final minute to survive

By: Rick Bender

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Dartmouth men's basketball team rallied from a deficit that grew to as much as 14 with a 17-0 run late in the second half, but Brown (11-13, 3-6 Ivy) won the battle of free throws in the final minute to stave off the Big Green (5-14, 2-6 Ivy) at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday evening, 62-60.

Brendan Barry produced a season-high seven 3-pointers — three of which fueled the big run — and game-high 21 points, but he was the lone Big Green player in double figures. Brown, meanwhile, had four score at least 10 points, including Jaylan Gainey with a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Brown opened the second half by immediately taking its 24-19 lead and boosting it to 13 with four consecutive buckets before Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin called a timeout. For the next nine minutes, the two sides mostly traded field goals with the lead never dipping below eight points and growing to as many as 14, courtesy of a Kino Lilly Jr. 3-pointer with 15:14 to play.

After Lilly broke to the rim and laid in a shot to give the Bears a 49-38 lead with 8:24 remaining, the Big Green started their furious run that began with Barry's fifth 3-pointer of the night thanks to an offensive rebound by junior Dame Adelekun. The next time down the floor, Adelekun scored his first points of the game with a layup, and now it was Brown's turn to call a timeout.

The breather did nothing to slow Dartmouth, however, as a Bear offensive foul led to an Adelekun three-point play. Barry then stole the ball back, and Robinson drilled one from deep after having a shorter shot blocked, tying the game at 49 with 6:30 still to go.

Another Big Green steal, this time by fifth-year senior Aaryn Rai, turned into three more points courtesy of Brendan Barry on another second-chance opportunity. And when Barry picked the Bears' pocket one more time, he misfired on a long ball only to get it back from junior Cam Krystkowiak, and he did not miss to put Dartmouth up by six, 55-49, with just under five minutes on the clock.

Gainey finally ended the Big Green blitzkrieg with a layup, but senior Taurus Samuels answered with a fadeaway 15-footer to maintain the six-point advantage. But Lilly cut that difference in half with a trifecta with three minutes to go, starting the Brown comeback.

After Dartmouth, 15th in the country in free throw percentage, missed the front end of a one-and-one, Paxson Wojcik got the same opportunity for Brown and converted both ends, closing the gap to one, 57-56.

The two sides both sank 1-of-2 foul shots to leave it a one-point game with a minute to play when Brown's Tamenang Choh came up with the big play by stealing a pass and getting fouled going to the rim on the break. He sank both free throws to put the Bears back on top, and when Dartmouth missed a 3-point attempt, Choh went back to the line and hit two more for a 61-58 lead and 15.4 seconds left.

Brown made the decision to foul the Big Green instead of allow them to attempt a 3-pointer to tie the game, and Samuels only made the second one with 7.8 ticks showing. Freshman Ryan Cornish got a hand on the inbounds pass, but the Bears maintained possession and avoided the Dartmouth defense until 1.9 seconds remained. Now it was Wojcik's turn to his just the second of two free throws, leaving the door open ever so slightly.

Again Brown fouled on the inbounds pass immediately. Cornish sank the first one and purposely missed the second one, but he only hit the backboard, giving Brown possession under the basket with 1.1 seconds left. A long pass was run down by the Bears and they ran out the clock to finally secure the victory.

Both teams were sluggish offensively in the first half as Brown held the Big Green to 19 points, matching their season low that came at Boston College in the first half of the season opener. But the Bears could not muster much more, holding a 24-19 lead at the break thanks to two 3-pointers from each of Lilly and Perry Cowan.

Playing in its back-to-back game of the season, Dartmouth ended the night shooting a season-low 33.9 percent from the floor (21-of-62) and 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from distance, but it was the season-low 58.3 percent (7-of-12) at the charity stripe that proved fateful. Barry was 7-of-12 on his 3-point attempts, one shy of his personal best output, while Rai led the Green with eight rebounds.

Brown shot hit more than half of their shots in the second half after the slow start to finish at 44.7 percent (21-of-47) for the game and 35.0 percent (7-of-20) from downtown while converting 13-of-18 (.722) free throws. Lilly led the Bears with 14 points, Wojcik had 11 and Choh 10 (all but two coming at the line).

The two sides battled almost to a dead heat on the boards with Brown holding a 37-36 advantage, but it was on the offensive glass where the big difference was as Dartmouth collected 16 offensive rebounds to outscore the Bears in second-chance opportunities, 24-5.

Dartmouth will complete its four-game road swing next Saturday when it travels to Princeton (16-5, 6-2 Ivy) in an attempt to split the season series after the Tigers nipped the Big Green in Hanover two weeks ago by a four-point margin. Tip is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Saturday, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Notes: Playing in his 100th game, Barry passed Gabas Maldunas '15 on the all-time scoring list into 25th place with 1,085 points … he also has 225 3-pointers in his career and needs 18 in the final six games to break the all-time Dartmouth record … the Big Green have played seven games this season in which they had the ball trailing by exactly three with fewer than 10 seconds to play (including last night), hitting the long-distance shot twice and winning once in overtime, which came in the first such opportunity back on Nov. 28 at Bryant … Dartmouth was denied its first sweep of the Bears in 17 years … the previous season low for field goal percentage came in the victory over Brown last month, a slightly higher 33.9 percent.