It was a weekend roadtrip that came up four feet short of perfection.
However, the Big Green's split on this weekend's sojourn to Princeton and Pennsylvania, their best performance ever on this road trip, left them in sole possession of second place in the Ivy League and still in prime position to capture their first league title since 1959.
Sure they didn't win both games. Sure they blew a six-point lead against Princeton with three minutes left before losing to the Tigers 57-55. But Dartmouth's 6-2 record in league play, with a home rematch left against Princeton in two weeks, guarantees the Big Green a chance to be a major factor in the title hunt.
The Big Green held on to their title dreams by rebounding from the heartbreaking Princeton loss to beat the Quakers in overtime, 74-70 on Saturday night. However, Dartmouth was lucky that the game ever reached the extra period of play as Penn had two chances in the final seconds to send Dartmouth back to Hanover with the most disappointing trip ever.
A Brian Gilpin '97 layup off of a PJ Halas '98 feed down low knotted the ballgame at 53-53 with 11 seconds left. But Penn was able to come down the court and get a good look from forward George Mboya with 2.9 seconds left, forcing Sea Lonergan '97 to foul Mboya and send him to the line.
"He would have had a wide open layup if I didn't foul him," Lonergan said.
It was as if Lonergan was looking at the stat sheet, because if there was one person to foul, it was Mboya, a 25 percent free-throw shooter on the year. He held true to form and missed both free throws, and the Big Green survived a last second three-point attempt off the rim that would have given the Quakers the victory.
Dartmouth took full advantage of the stay of execution by dominating the beginning of overtime. The Big Green hit eight free throws, got a layup from Gilpin and an alley-oop from Kenny Mitchell '97 to Shaun Gee '00 before Penn was able to hit a field-goal to open up a 65-56 lead with 1:16 left to play.
But Penn would not fold so easily. Two three-pointers by the Quakers and a conventional three-point-play cut the lead to three points and a one-possession game at 68-65.
But as he has done all year, Gee responded with an athletic play by beating the Penn defense down the floor to get a basket and the foul to put the Big Green by six. His two free throws with 11 seconds left to extend the lead to 74-70, secured Dartmouth's second victory in the Palestra in the last 37 years and handed the Quakers their first home loss in their last 34 Ivy League games at the Palestra.
"I knew that once we went to overtime, we were going to win," Gee said. "We knew that we had to come out and get a quick start and put them away and not give them an opportunity to come back."
Dartmouth had taken a 26-21 lead to the half behind the strong inside play of Gilpin, who scored 10 of his 17 points in the opening 20 minutes as the Big Green outshot Penn 48 percent to 30 percent. Lonergan and Penn's Michael Jordan each had 24 points to lead their respective squads for the contest.
"It was a win we deserved," Head Coach Dave Faucher said. "We played hard, we executed well. It's a credit to my guys, I'm real proud of them."
To get the victory over Penn, the Big Green needed to rebound from one of their toughest losses in years the night before at Princeton. Dartmouth saw their opportunity to take over first place fall just short as Keith Stanton's four foot jumper that would have tied the game as time expired rattled off the rim and Princeton, who was a 16 point favorite, was able to hold on for a 57-55 victory.
Behind the heroics of guard PJ Halas, the Big Green used an 18-2 explosion to erase a 10-point deficit in the second half and take a 55-49 lead with 3:37 left. Halas hit three shots from downtown as he poured in 11 of his team-high 14 points during the stretch.
As far as Dartmouth had come however, it would be their last points of the contest as they were not able to put the Princeton away as the Tigers clawed and scratched their way back into the ball game. Trailing by six, Tiger forward Gabe Lewullis hit a three from the top of the key to slice the lead in half. The Big Green then failed on their two trips down the floor to score. Princeton came up empty as well but was able to tie the game on Lewullis's drive and free throw with 1:27 left on the clock.
The Big Green threw the ball away on the next pass but got a reprieve when the Tigers missed their subsequent three-point attempt. Dartmouth got off a good shot opportunity by getting the ball inside to Gilpin, but the center's seven foot hook shot was off the mark, giving the Tigers the ball back. Looking for a final shot, the Tigers got the ball in the hands of their best player, center Steve Goodrich, who drew a foul on Gilpin with 6.5 seconds left to play. Goodrich calmly sank both attempts to set up the Big Green's final effort.
Instead of opting for a timeout, Mitchell pushed the ball up the floor and weaved his way through the Princeton defenders to the free throw line where he pulled up and found an open Stanton down low for the ill-fated final shot to send the game into overtime.
"I figured I could get the ball to the free throw line with about two seconds remaining," Mitchell said. "I weaved through and saw that they were in chaos, and I knew somebody would get open and step up, and Kenny was the one to come free."
"It was a devastating loss because we did enough things well enough to win this game," Faucher said. "This one got away from us and is a tough loss for the program."
With the weekend split, the Big Green sits two games behind Princeton in the standings. The Tigers come to Leede Arena in two weeks on Feb. 22 and must face Pennsylvania twice more. The Big Green need to win the rest of their games and get some help in the form of one other Princeton loss to set up a playoff for the title.
