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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
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Dartmouth
Players Mentioned
Barnett, Ball Lead Dartmouth to 45-44 Win Over Men's Basketball
February 10, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Princeton held Dartmouth without a three-point shot for the entire 40 minutes. The Tigers limited the Big Green to just 32% shooting in the second half. But Dartmouth used uncharacteristic Princeton foul shooting and some key late-game plays to pull out a road win.
Alex Barnett scored a career-high 23 points and Johnathan Ball had five points 14 rebounds, including a key putback with 1:18 left, as the Big Green defeated the Tigers, 45-44, for their first win at Jadwin Gym since 1987.
Princeton led for much of the second half before Barnett's layup tied the game at 40 with 3:26 left. Ball then made the second of two free throws with 2:24 on the clock to put the Big Green ahead, and Princeton committed a turnover on the other end. Robbie Pride would then miss a driving layup for Dartmouth, but Ball grabbed the last of his career-high 14 rebounds and scored to make it 43-40.
The Tigers had a chance to tie the game down 45-42 in the final seconds, but Noah Savage's three-pointer was short. Luke Owings then tipped in a rebound of a Justin Conway putback attempt, but Dartmouth then inbounded the ball with one second left and the clock ran out.
"They didn't make a three-pointer and our defense held them to 32% in the second half, but the achilles heels that have been hurting us in our losses all year came back to haunt us again," said Joe Scott, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 Head Coach of Men's Basketball at Princeton. "Rebounding, getting loose balls and making layups are some of those things, and doing those things better would have made a big difference tonight."
The Tigers (10-10, 1-5 Ivy), who entered the game shooting better than 70% from the foul line, made just 10 of their 21 free throws Saturday, including just three of eight free-throw attempts in the second half.
Dartmouth (8-13, 3-5 Ivy) outrebounded the Tigers 31-20, including 15-8 in the first half. The Big Green had 15 turnovers but held the Tigers to just 6 for 16 shooting (38%) in the second half.
"It was a good win because I felt like we had a good chance to win here last year and it slipped away from us at the end," said Barnett, who made 10 of his 15 field goal attempts in 39 minutes. "We played with intensity for the entire 40 minutes and good things happened at the end."
"I thought their intensity was good throughout the game," said Savage, who had 12 points, four rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes in his second straight start. "We didn't execute well enough at the end of the game when we had chances to win."
Dartmouth shot 65% in the first half but still trailed 27-24 at halftime. The Tigers fell behind 6-0 early but then scored 10 of the next 12 points, led by reserves Kevin Steuerer and Matt Sargeant. The Tigers would lead by as many as four points in the first half after Sargeant's backdoor layup with 8:14 left.
Princeton took its biggest lead of the game, 37-31, on Justin Conway's driving layup with 11:18 left. But the Tigers then went cold from the field, going without a field goal until Luke Owings off-balance layup more than six minutes later put his team ahead 39-36.
NOTES
* Princeton plays Penn at the Palestra Tuesday night (7 p.m., CN8). The Quakers moved back into first place in the league standings (5-1) Saturday after defeating Harvard 67-53 and Yale's 60-59 loss at Cornell. Both the Bulldogs and Big Red are now 6-2 in the league.
* Dartmouth's last victory at Jadwin Gym came on Feb. 14, 1987, when the Big Green left Princeton with an 81-71 victory.
* Sargeant and Steuerer combined to play 28 minutes and score 12 points for Princeton on Saturday. Sargeant went 3 for 5 from the field, while Steuerer made three of four free-throw attempts.
* Princeton is 9-0 this season when it has a higher field-goal percentage than its opponent and 0-10 when its opponent has a higher field-goal percentage.