The cross-state rivals held the Big Green (6-9, 1-1 Ivy) scoreless for the first four minutes of the second half, and took their largest lead of the night, 49-28, with 17 minutes still to play.
In an effort to slow the game down and protect their commanding lead, UNH (6-12, 2-3 America East) switched from man-to-man to zone defense.
Dartmouth was ready for the change. Displaying impressively quick and accurate ball movement, the Big Green was able to both pass through and dribble-penetrate New Hampshire's zone defense.
Devon Mosley '09 made two three-pointers and Leon Pattman '07 added another to finish an 11-3 Big Green run and diminish the Wildcat's lead to 58-51.
The barrage of long-range jumpers brought the deficit back into single digits for the first time since early in the first half, and forced the Wildcats to come out of its zone defense with two minutes and 30 seconds remaining to hold on for the win.
Defensively Dartmouth was strong early in the game, holding all five of UNH's starters to a combined 29 points for the game. After getting in early foul trouble, the Wildcats' freshman center Sam Herrick was taken out of the game in favor of senior forward Blagoj Janev. Janev would go on to score 15 points, including a key three-point play late in the second half.
Also coming off the bench for UNH midway through the first half was senior guard Jermaine Anderson, who would go on to score a game-high 21 points, including a perfect seven for seven from the foul line.
The two seniors' scoring prowess did not surprise the Big Green.
"Both Janev and Anderson generally start the game, and we knew that they were going to be tough, but you have to try to limit their points somehow," said captain Jason Meyer '06.
Dartmouth led early in the first half, but UNH took a lead it would never relinquish when Brandon Odom buried a three from the left wing eight minutes into the game. That three sparked a 10-2 run for the Wildcats, as they continued to increase their lead and take a 41-28 halftime edge.
In the second half, Pattman, Mosley and Alex Barnett '09 led the Big Green. Pattman and Mosley finished with 18 and 13 points, respectively. Barnett threw down a second-half slam dunk that galvanized the home crowd and finished off a 6-0 Big Green run, which helped start the comeback.
Barnett notched yet another double-double. The sophomore racked up 16 points and 12 rebounds. Seven of those boards came on the offensive end.
If the fact that the comeback fell short for the Big Green is a cloud, then Barnett's play is the silver lining. The sophomore's athletic ability was on full display, as he was able to put himself in position to leap over his defenders. Barnett tied his career high in rebounds, and recorded his third double-double in a row.
"[Alex] has been playing great lately," Meyer said. "He's got the talent to continue performing [at] a high level for us."
Despite playing the entire game, Barnett failed to make his way to the foul line.
When asked about what the Big Green needs to improve on entering Ivy League play, Meyer said, "It's important to come out harder in the first half. We didn't play hard enough in the first 30 minutes of the game. We need to concentrate on playing with more intensity earlier in the game. When we came back against Harvard, we were down by 12 at the half, and last night we were also down by 13 at the half. It's hard to win games when you have an uphill battle in the second half."
All the games remaining on Dartmouth's schedule are against Ivy League opponents. The Big Green opens up a four-game home stand against Brown on Friday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.
Since the Ivy League does not use a conference tournament system to determine who receives its automatic NCAA tournament bid, every game will have to be played with a playoff mentality if Dartmouth wants to make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1959.
