Dartmouth's men's basketball team split its weekend home stand, taking the Friday night decision 53-43 against the Princeton Tigers before dropping a Saturday night thriller 80-78 to the University of Pennsylvania Quakers on Senior Night. Saturday marked the final home game for captain Jason Meyer '06 and leading scorer Leon Pattman '07.
The Big Green (9-16, 4-8 Ivy) came into the Friday night contest looking for its second victory of the season against the visiting Tigers (11-14, 2-9 Ivy) and its first season sweep of Princeton since the 1945-46 campaign.
The game was closer than the score indicated, as the Big Green's lead was cut to 43-41 with three and a half minutes remaining. From that point on, Dartmouth's defense would clamp down and let Princeton score just one more basket.
Good free throw shooting by Pattman, Alex Barnett '09 and Johnathan Ball '08 would ice the win for the Big Green. The trio combined to go 6 for 8 from the line in the final minutes of the game, which would end on a 10-2 Dartmouth run.
Dartmouth started the game at a blistering pace, taking an early 19-8 lead, which was capped off by a Ball lay up. The first-half lead would swell to as much as 12 before the Tigers would storm back with a 7-2 run to close the half trailing 26-21. Princeton would take its only lead of the game, 41-40, with six minutes left in the game.
Princeton's Luke Owings came off the bench for a game-high 15 points, including a perfect 3-for-3 mark from three-point range. Owings would also grab seven rebounds, but only saw 18 minutes of action due to foul trouble.
Ball and Pattman each had 14 points and were the only scorers in double figures for Dartmouth. Ball also recorded his second career double-double, grabbing 10 boards.
Also making an impact for Dartmouth on the defensive end was Barnett, who recorded four blocks, including one big block from behind on what appeared to be an easy fast-break lay up for the Tigers.
"J-Ball is the glue that holds our team together," Meyer said. "He does all the small things like taking charges and playing tough defense. Barnett was also huge for us on the defensive end, coming up with those blocked shots."
Saturday night saw Dartmouth playing an outstanding Penn (19-8, 10-1 Ivy) squad, which had beaten the Big Green 73-53 earlier in the season.
The Big Green played inspired basketball, and with 19 seconds left, Dartmouth trailed by just three points.
The Big Green had two pretty good looks from behind the arc to force overtime, but shots by seniors Pattman and Meyer both were off the mark.
Free throws for Penn gave the Quakers a five-point edge that was cut to just two with a final-second three-pointer by Pattman.
From the start, the game had the looks of one that would get out of hand quickly, as the Ivy League-leading Quakers sprinted out to a 10-0 advantage. The Big Green did not score until almost four minutes into the game.
The Quakers would go on to take a 17-5 lead before the Big Green showed a gritty performance and started to claw its way back into the game. Free throws by Elgin Fitzgerald '10 would cut Penn's lead to 38-32 at the half.
The second half also displayed a gutsy effort by the Big Green, which would take its first lead of the game 59-58 on a Barnett jumper.
Facing a six-point deficit with only a minute and a half remaining in the game, Dartmouth scored six points in the next minute and trailed by just two with 27 seconds remaining.
Penn's Ibrahim Jaaber led all scorers with 22 points. Also scoring in double figures for the Quakers were Steve Danley (12 points), Brian Grandieri (13 points) and Mark Zoller (13 points). Zoller is the Ivy League's leading scorer, averaging 18.2 ppg, and Jaaber is the league's leading passer, averaging 5.3 assists per game.
Dartmouth also had four players score in double figures. Pattman (20 points), Barnett (14 points), Fitzgerald (12 points) and DeVon Mosley '09 (11 points) filled up the hoop for the Big Green. Barnett was just one rebound away from a double-double.
"In the second half, we came out with the mindset that we could play with [Penn]. We knew what we were up against, and we had prepared for them. We just kept battling and kept playing hard," Meyer said.
Dartmouth finishes its season next weekend when the team goes on the road to face Ivy League rivals Columbia on Friday, March 2 and Cornell on Saturday, March 3.
"Picking up two big wins on the road would definitely give the team momentum heading into the off-season," Meyer said.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m., and both games will be broadcast live on 1340 WDCR.
