Playing on the road against a team that has advanced to the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, the Big Green men's basketball team had an inkling what was in store for them when they headed to Worcester, Mass. Tuesday night for a showdown with the Holy Cross Crusaders.
Dartmouth head coach Dave Faucher knew what to expect as well. Prior to the game, Faucher remarked that, "Without question, Holy Cross is one of the finest teams and toughest opponents on our schedule. They really play hard at both ends of the court. This is a really tough assignment."
Despite hanging tough with the powerful Crusaders in the first half, Dartmouth dropped its intensity level in the second half to be routed, 63-43.
The Big Green held the Crusaders to just 35 percent shooting from the field in the first half. Greg Friel '03, whose status was "probable" before the game after sustaining a shoulder injury during last week's game against UVM, brought Dartmouth (4-10 overall, 0-2 Ivy) to within just three, 23-20, on an open-court lay-up with 24.1 seconds remaining before halftime.
Dartmouth trailed 31-22 with 16:28 left in the second half after Holy Cross (13-3, 3-0 Patriot) embarked on a 6-0 run. The Big Green failed to get any closer than nine points the rest of the way, as the Crusaders shot an impressive 59 percent in the second half; this shooting percentage matched the plus-60 percent shooting prowess of UVM in Dartmouth's last game.
A well-balanced attack characterized the Dartmouth effort. Ten of the Big Green's 12 players scored, including sophomore center David Gardner, who had eight. Sophomore point guard Mike Liddy played in place of the injured Steve Callahan '05, who suffered a pulled groin this week in practice. Liddy was a serviceable replacement for Callahan, scoring seven points in the loss.Said Friel following the team's fifth straight loss: "We are struggling right now, but we need to bounce back with our next game at Albany. We have shown we can play good basketball at times. We just need to focus and sustain it for 40 minutes."
The Big Green will try to stop the bleeding on the road again on Saturday, playing its final non-conference game against Albany.
