Down four with 18 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down, guard Jabari Trotter '12 hit a huge three-pointer to narrow the score to 65-64. After letting 11 seconds run off the clock, Trotter finally fouled Colgate junior guard Mike Venezia with seven seconds to play and sent him to the free throw line. Venezia knocked down both shots, leaving the Big Green one last chance to extend the game.
After Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier called a timeout to draw up a play, guard R.J. Griffin '13 launched what would have been a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer. Unfortunately, the shot clanked harmlessly off the rim, sending the Big Green to its fourth straight defeat.
"We were extremely disappointed," captain Clive Weeden '11 said. "That's a game felt we could have won and probably should have won. We were able to fight back, but just not enough to finally get over the hump at the end."
The team was already playing shorthanded, as forward David Rufful '12, Dartmouth's second-leading scorer, was in foul trouble for most of the game. Rufful picked up his fourth foul with 15:54 to play in the game and sat out for much of the second half.
After hitting two free throws with 2:45 to play, cutting the deficit to three, Rufful committed his fifth foul on Raiders sophomore guard Mitch Rolls and was forced to watch the remainder of the game from the bench.
"[The fouls] really hurt how much I could contribute," Rufful said. "It was unfortunate. I wasn't composed enough, and I had to be careful and realize that the [referees] might have been calling a tighter game."
Dartmouth had a rough start to the game, shooting just 30 percent from the field in the first half. The only player who found success was Griffin he was 4-9 from the field and 3-4 from the free throw line but even his statistics came with a caveat, as he misfired on all three of his three-point attempts in the half.
The Big Green shot better after the break, and used a trio of three-pointers midway through the first half to slash the Raiders' 15-point lead to six. After a dunk by Raiders junior center Nick Pascale put Colgate up 47-32, Tyler Melville '14 responded with a pair of three-point shots on back-to-back possessions. Griffin followed with two steals and Trotter hit another three with 11:48 to play, narrowing the score to 47-41.
Pascale gave Dartmouth trouble all night he led all Colgate scorers with 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds, which was the second most in the game. The Raiders out-rebounded Dartmouth, 38-28, in the contest, a major factor in Colgate's success.
"We're by no stretch a big team," Rufful said. "We have to rely on our boxing out and aggressiveness to get rebounds. That pretty much sums up the game we out-rebounded them at our place, but they out-rebounded us on the road."
Only two players in Dartmouth's rotation stand taller than 6'5" Weeden and backup center Matt LaBove '13, who stand at 6'9".
In the teams' first encounter on Nov. 27 at Leede Arena the Big Green out-rebounded Colgate, 42-32, behind a season-high 12 boards from Weeden. Dartmouth won the matchup, 80-63.
Weeden agreed that the onus is on him and LaBove to shoulder the load in the frontcourt.
"I don't think we as the big men have performed to where we need to be," Weeden said. "We've worked a lot on team rebounding due to our lack of size. It's something we need to fix and get over."
Four Big Green players scored in the double figures, a feat Dartmouth had not achieved since its first game against Colgate when a season-high six players reached 10 or more points. Trotter led the way with 14, while Griffin trailed with 13 points. Melville added a career-high 12 points, and Gediminas Bertasius '14 added 10.
Much like last season, no player has emerged as a dominant scorer for Dartmouth. The team has instead had to rely on multiple individuals to carry the scoring load, an issue that has plagued the Big Green since former Ivy Player of the Year Alex Barnett '09 left two seasons ago.
Dartmouth resumes Ivy League play this Saturday in a rematch against Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The Crimson (12-3, 1-0 Ivy) currently has the best record in the League and beat the Big Green, 68-53, in the teams' first meeting in Hanover on Jan. 8.
