The Dartmouth men's basketball team's quest for the Ivy League crown melted away this weekend as the Big Green came up short at Penn and Princeton. The road trip is historically tough, especially at Princeton where Dartmouth squads have won only once in the last 26 years.
"We were outplayed on both ends of the floor both nights," Coach Dave Faucher said.
On Friday night the Big Green were in New Jersey to take on the Princeton Tigers. Princeton jumped out to a 15-4 lead early in the first half and extended it to 32-16 at the break.
"They came out on fire from the start," said Brian Gilpin '97, who finished with eight points and five rebounds. "Their quick double-teaming defense swarmed us, and we couldn't convert."
In the second half, Dartmouth started strong. A driving layup by Lonergan and a pair of three-point bombs from Kenny Mitchell '97 and P.J. Halas '98 cut the lead to eight two minutes into the half. But the comeback ended there, and Dartmouth went on to lose 65-39.
Princeton's tough defense forced Dartmouth to commit 15 turnovers in the game.
"The turnovers were a result of us trying to force the issue as we tried to come back," Jacob Capps '96 said. "They really played some incredible D."
In fact Princeton held the league's leading scorer, Sea Lonergan '97, to nine points in just 12 attempts. Dartmouth shot 33 percent from the floor for the game.
Saturday night, Faucher's squad took on the Penn Quakers at the Palestra in front of over 7,000 fans. At the tip off, Dartmouth was still mathematically in the hunt for the league title.
"We felt really prepared," Gilpin said, "but we knew we had to play perfect to beat Penn."
The game was a seesaw battle through most of the first half. A pair of Mitchell free throws with five minutes remaining in the first knotted the score at 24. Penn went on a 9-2 run to close the half with a 33-26 advantage.
The Big Green came out of the locker room hungry. Lonergan drained a 15 foot running jumper, and Keith Stanton '97 tipped in a Mitchell miss to highlight a 6-0 run that shaved the Quakers lead to only one.
"At that point we were right there" in the game, Gilpin said, "but then we let it slip out of our fingers."
In the next nine minutes Penn went on a 20-4 run that sealed the game for the Quakers. The final count was 80-51.
"Penn was just getting easy baskets on fast breaks that were created by Bowman," Capps said. "On top of that we weren't making our shots."
Bowman lead all scorers with 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Penn held Dartmouth to 32 percent shooting from the floor including just four of 21 from behind the arc. Mitchell led the Big Green in scoring with 11 points.
With the losses Dartmouth fell to 14-10 (7-5 Ivy). The Big Green finish up the season playing host to Yale, Friday at 6:30 p.m., and Brown, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., this weekend.