Men Top UMass Lowell for Second Straight Big Win

Wednesday, December 10

Lowell, Mass.

8:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-4

UMass Lowell

6-4

Dartmouth

UMass Lowell

Men Top UMass Lowell for Second Straight Big Win

12/10/2014 9:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)

By: Dartmouth

LOWELL, Mass. — Junior Alex Mitola drilled a season-high five three-pointers and led four Big Green players in double figures with 19 points to send Dartmouth (3-4) to a 69-48 victory over UMass Lowell (6-4) at the Costello Athletic Center on Wednesday evening. The Big Green defense held the River Hawks without a field goal for the final 11 minutes of the game to give head coach Paul Cormier a victory in his 500th game as a collegiate head coach.

Mitola, the Ivy League's most prolific three-point shooter this season, connected on 5-of-9 from deep and 7-of 12 overall to account for his 19 points while senior Gabas Maldunas added his first double-double of the year with 13 points and 10 boards, five on the offensive end. Juniors Connor Boehm and Malik Gill both had 10 points as well as Dartmouth shot 43.5 percent (27-of-62) from the floor and 40.9 percent (9-of-22) from behind the arc. The Big Green also enjoyed a 39-30 advantage on the glass and stole the ball a season-high 12 times.

Lance Crawford came off the bench to lead UMass Lowell with 14 points, and Chad Holley chipped in 10 as the duo accounted for half of the River Hawks' total. As a team, UMass Lowell hit just 15-of-43 (.349) field goals and 13-of-24 (.542) at the foul line.

The River Hawks got off to a fast start, jumping out to an 11-4 lead. Mark Cornelius provided a three-pointer to start the scoring and Marco Banegas-Flores had a pair of baskets, while Boehm had the only two Dartmouth buckets of the first seven minutes.

Freshman Taylor Johnson came off the bench and provided a needed spark, splashing a three and converting 2-of-3 free throws in a 30-second span. Then it was Gill's turn to ignite the Big Green, ripping a 25-footer before swiping the ball and going the length of the floor for a layup to cut the UMass Lowell lead to 15-14 at the midway point of the opening half.

Another Boehm bucket knotted the score at 18, and following a Jahad Thomas layup, Kevin Crescenzi launched a three-pointer to give Dartmouth its first lead of the night at 21-20 with 6:49 left in the half. The River Hawks briefly reclaimed the lead on two Holley free throws, but Gill put the Green on top for good with a steal and an easy layup.

Mitola took over during the final 4:20 of the stanza, ripping a trio of triples for his first points of the game and a nine-point lead at the break, 36-27. Dartmouth, which had started the game just 3-of-14 from the floor, finished the half by hitting 11 of its last 16 shots, including 5-of-6 from three-point range.

Barely a minute into the second half and Mitola dropped another trey for a 12-point lead. UMass Lowell never got within single digits again, although Holley laid one in to make it a 39-29 game. The Big Green then went on an 8-0 spurt, highlighted by a steal and slam by Crescenzi.

Maldunas scored five straight points for Dartmouth thanks in part to going 3-of-4 at the line on a single possession due to a flagrant one foul against the River Hawks. Banegas-Flores countered with a three-pointer for UMass Lowell with 11:10 left; it would be the final field goal of the night for the hosts as they missed their last seven attempts and went just 8-of-14 at the line as well.

The difference oscillated between 13 and 18 points for more than 10 minutes until Mitola lofted one more three-pointer that softly dropped through the iron for a 63-43 edge with 7:18 to play. Maldunas added a layup off a feed from Mitola — his fourth assist of the night — with 5:55 to play, then neither team scored for the next four minutes when junior Brandon McDonnell hit 1-of-2 at the charity stripe. Gill put the cap on the night with his second trifecta in the final minute for the largest lead of the night at 21 points, which is how it remained at the buzzer.

Dartmouth continues a three-game road swing when it heads south to play at Jacksonville State on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. (2 p.m. Central). UMass Lowell doesn't play again for 10 days due to exams, traveling to Duquesne on Dec. 20 for a 1 p.m. tip.

Notes: Cormier is 207-293 in 19 seasons at Dartmouth and Fairfield combined ... Maldunas has 11 double-doubles in his career, and the Big Green have gone 6-5 in those games ... he also needs just 16 more rebounds to become the seventh Big Green player with 600 boards in a career.