Catamounts mount m. hoops
Dartmouth men's basketball struggled throughout its home opener in Leede Arena last night, falling 73-54 to the University of Vermont. The Big Green picked up only two offensive rebounds to the Catamounts' 17 and trailed by as many as 28 points late in the second half.
"They overpowered us inside," Dartmouth coach Dave Faucher said after the game. "We had good looks early, but they definitely disrupted us by the adjustments they made."
Team co-captain Flinder Boyd '02 was the lone bright spot for the Big Green. Boyd scored 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting, including 4 of 6 from three-point range.
"He played a heck of a ballgame," Faucher said of his starting point guard. "That's it for the positives."
Boyd's opposite number on Vermont, T.J. Sorrentine, burned the Big Green from the floor, scoring a game-high 21 points.
The undersized Catamounts also dominated down low, grabbing 48 total rebounds to Dartmouth's 24. The Big Green attempted to bring the ball inside offensively, but were repeatedly rebuffed by the stronger Vermont big men.
"They turned up the heat, particularly on our post people," Faucher said. "And when they did that, we became discombobulated."
Forced to shoot almost solely from the outside, Dartmouth struggled to generate open looks at the basket, but the team still managed to create some highlights on offense.
With 10:33 to go in the first half, center Scott Klingbeil '04 dunked off a sweet pass from co-captain Vedad Osmanovic '02 on a give-and-go. Osmanovic jumped up as if to shoot a three-pointer and dropped a soft pass over Vermont's two fooled defenders to Klingbeil on the run, who slammed home a basket that tied the game at 11-11.
With 13:45 to go in the second half, guard/forward Greg Friel '03 made an easy layup after a hairpin entry pass from Boyd to make the score 45-30 in favor of Vermont.
And with 5:21 remaining in the second half, freshman center David Gardner -- who started his first collegiate game -- fed a streaking Osmanovic for a layup to bring the score to 67-41.
Dartmouth started two freshmen against Vermont: Gardner and shooting guard Mike McLaren.
Gardner played 24 minutes and grabbed five rebounds. McLaren scored the Big Green's first points of the game with a three-pointer at 17:18 and finished with seven points in 28 minutes.
Two other freshmen saw significant playing time in the Big Green's nine-man rotation. Forward Brandon Smith scored three points in 15 minutes, while guard Steve Callahan shot 0-1 in 11 minutes.
The team's youth showed, as Boyd occasionally had to point out spots on the court where he wanted his young teammates to go.
Osmanovic played only 18 minutes, but managed to shoot 10 times and scored seven points. His fellow starting forward, Charles Harris '02, never got on track either and shot 3-9 for seven points.
The lanky Klingbeil blocked three shots in 16 minutes off the bench.
The men are next in action this Saturday at noon at the University of New Hampshire.
