Last season, Dartmouth defeated an 11-17 University of New Hampshire squad in a close ball game on the road, 72-70. Additionally, Dartmouth owns the all-time series, 29-23, and was at home on Wednesday for a showdown with their interstate rival.
On paper, all signs pointed toward a Big Green victory at Leede Arena. However, games are not played on paper, and Dartmouth learned this lesson the hard way Wednesday night.
Miami Heat head coach Pat Riley once said, "No rebounds, no rings." His words could not have rung more true for Dartmouth in their past two games, in which they have been outrebounded by Harvard and UNH and, more importantly, have squandered several key offensive rebounds to these foes at crucial times in the second half.
A prime example of this on Wednesday occurred when New Hampshire's Jeff Senulis rebounded a missed three-pointer and put back an uncontested layup to give UNH its largest lead to that point of the ball game, 51-45.
Turnovers also plagued Dartmouth, which committed a total of 15 on the night, including several at key moments during the contest. In the game's last three minutes, the Big Green surrendered the ball twice: once when center David Gardner tried to feed a bounce pass to guard Greg Friel '03, and another when New Hampshire's Griffin Walker stole an inbounds pass at half court and punctuated an excellent UNH comeback victory with a soaring open court dunk. Friel injured his shoulder on the play and had to be taken out with 6.9 ticks left.
The first half was marked by close play throughout. No team made a major run in the half, and after having a 14-7 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the half, Dartmouth led by two, 29-27, at halftime.
The Dartmouth defense broke down in the second half, as UNH shot a blazing 64 percent from the field. The Big Green was especially lax on perimeter defense, giving up five three-pointers to New Hampshire's Marcus Bullock.
The Wildcats were paced by Roland Williams's career-high of 20 points, 14 of which came in the second half. UNH sealed the game on a pair of free throws by Williams with 35 seconds to play, which made the score 60-55.
The Big Green's Scott Klingbeil '04 and Charles Harris '02 consistently posted up shorter players in the paint and had excellent scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, with so much perimeter play, Dartmouth infrequently exploited these mismatches down low, a point which did not go unnoticed by Harris, who expressed his frustration late in the second half when he did not receive the ball while in the paint.
Harris scored 14 points for Dartmouth to lead three Big Green players in double figures.
Now 4-9 on the season, the Big Green is on the road for six straight games, beginning with a Jan. 21 trip to Holy Cross.
