It was the team's third win of the season, but only its second over Division I competition. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak that had culminated with a disappointing 22-point loss to Quinnipiac University.
Dartmouth never trailed and jumped out to an early 10-2 lead. Griffin then came off the bench and began to hit a barrage of three pointers, finishing with three in the first half and four total.
Overall, Griffin was 5-8 from the field, including 4-5 from beyond the arc. He also snatched a game-high seven rebounds.
Although Griffin has received playing time all season, his 24 minutes on Monday were a career high and brought a significant improvement in scoring.
"As a freshman, you don't want to throw him to the wolves full-time too soon," head coach Terry Dunn said. "We needed [Griffin] to have one of those nights [on Monday]."
Bucknell drew within one point with 4:54 to go in the first, but a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Griffin followed by a Josh Riddle '12 jumper made the score 22-16 in Dartmouth's favor.
The Big Green took a 25-21 lead into halftime and opened the second half on a 15-5 run to make it 40-26 with 12:42 to play. The highlight of the run was a give-and-go between co-captain Robby Pride '10 and David Rufful '12 with 16:45 to go.
Speeding down the court on a two-on-one breakaway, Pride delivered a behind-the-back pass to Rufful, who returned the ball to Pride for the layup.
The Bison immediately responded with a 15-5 run of their own, cutting the Dartmouth lead to four as the score stood at 45-41 with less than five minutes to play.
The Big Green seemed more content to let the shot clock run, instead of pressing its advantage during the second half.
The final minutes were key and Dartmouth delivered, holding Bucknell scoreless over the last 3:57.
Griffin and Pride both had crucial steals in the final minutes, cementing the Big Green's first win of 2010.
Dunn said that he was pleased with the victory, especially following the 73-51 drubbing by Quinnipiac on December 30.
"I feel great for the kids," Dunn said. "We really worked hard these last four days after Quinnipiac."
The Dartmouth squad had a lot to improve on after the game against the Bobcats. Quinnipiac went into halftime with a 13-point lead, and entered the second half by shutting the Big Green offense down with a 12-0 run.
The Big Green's defense proved crucial for the win, holding the Bison to just 30.6 percent shooting from the floor.
"We know that defense is our calling card," Griffin said.
Bucknell's leading scorer, junior guard Darryl Shazier, was held to just three points. Shazier is averaging 10.8 points per game this season.
The key for Dartmouth as it heads into conference play this weekend will be to keep opponents in the forties and fifties and win with defense.
The Big Green is 3-2 this season when it holds its opponents to under 60 points, but 0-8 in all other games.
Dartmouth was out-rebounded 35-23 in the game a weakness that has plagued the team all season. This year the Big Green has notched an average of 7.3 rebounds per game fewer than its opponents.
This flaw was highlighted in the Bobcats game, when the Big Green finished with just 22 rebounds, compared to 42 by Quinnipiac.
Shooting just 7-13 from the line, Dartmouth again struggled with free-throw shooting on Monday.
The Big Green has averaged just 62 percent on the season and will need to improve from the stripe to edge out victories in close conference games.
Dartmouth attempted only eight three-pointers in the game, and on the season the Big Green is shooting just 27.5 percent from beyond the arc. The team may already be showing improvement, however, as it sunk 50 percent of those few three-point attempts against Bucknell. In the previous game, against Quinnipiac, Dartmouth was only two-for-nine.
Having consistent perimeter shooters who can knock down threes when the offense fails to penetrate would benefit the team in the second half of the season as conference play begins.
Although Dartmouth's previous victories were won by double-digit margins, this game required the squad to buckle down and finish strong. This approach reflects a new attitude that Pride said the team is taking into 2010.
The Big Green now faces a tough stretch of games, beginning with a trip to Harvard (11-3, 0-0 Ivy) on Saturday to open Ivy League play. Dartmouth split its two close games with the Crimson in the 2008-2009 season and hopes to take both this year.
After returning home for a game against St. Francis University (4-9, 2-0 Northeast), Dartmouth will take on Harvard again, this time at Leede Arena, before traveling to Ithaca for a contest with two-time defending league champ Cornell (12-2, 0-0 Ivy).
The Big Red has already racked up nine more wins than the Big Green and won both contests when the two teams met last season.
Dunn said the upcoming schedule will show the Big Green where it stands in the Ancient Eight.
Last year, the team finished in a tie with Columbia for fourth place, behind the Big Red who finished first and Princeton and Yale who tied for second.
"If we can come out of those with a couple wins, we've got as good a chance as anyone," Pride added.
At this point in the season, no player has filled the shoes of consistent scorer Alex Barnett '09, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year who averaged 20.3 points per game for Dartmouth last season. For the Big Green to be successful in conference play, someone will need to step up and carry the scoring load.
