Big Green Win In-State Rivalry at the Foul Line, 76-68

Sunday, December 30

Hanover, N.H.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

New Hampshire

Dartmouth

Junior Ian Sistare scored a career-high 21 points.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Big Green Win In-State Rivalry at the Foul Line, 76-68

12/30/2018 1:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Dartmouth hit 29-of-38 free throws while Ian Sistare provided a career-high 21 points

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — A 12-point, first-half lead turned into an eight-point deficit in the second half before Dartmouth rallied to finish off visiting New Hampshire at Leede Arena on Sunday afternoon, 76-68. Junior Ian Sistare — a New Hampshire native — led the way with a career-high 21 points as the Big Green (9-6) won for the fifth time in their last six games while the Wildcats (2-11) lost their 10th straight contest.

When Jordan Reed fired a 3-pointer with 13:40 to play, UNH enjoyed a 49-41 advantage, its largest of the game. But the Dartmouth defense clamped down, surrendering just three more points over the next six-and-a-half minutes. Meanwhile, the offense went to work as sophomore Chris Knight scored twice down low and the Big Green knocked down 7-of-8 free throws to knot the score at 52. On the next Dartmouth possession, sophomore Aaryn Rai laid in a putback to give the Green their first lead since the first minute of the second half.

Elijah Jordan and David Watkins put the Wildcats back on top with consecutive layups, but Dartmouth answered back with seven straight points capped by a Rai 3-pointer with five minutes remaining for a 61-56 lead.

Two minutes later, the difference was down to four when Rai struck again from the outside, tossing in his third rainbow of the game, before scoring the final two of his season-high 13 points off the bench with a pair of free throws for a 69-60 advantage.

New Hampshire wasn't quite done, however, forcing a turnover that led to an intentional foul and a five-point possession thanks to making both foul shots and a three-point play. But the Big Green converted 7-of-8 free throws in the final minute to render a Watkins trifecta in the final seconds meaningless.

Sistare did most of his damage at the foul line, converting 12-of-14 free throws (including all nine of his second half points), to go with a 4-of-5 performance from the floor with a 3-pointer. Knight provided the inside presence with 17 points on 6-of-11 field goals and 5-of-6 at the line.

New Hampshire, which got a double-double from Watkins (24 points, 11 rebounds), played a particularly physical defense that led to 27 fouls and 38 free throws for the Big Green, 29 of which were made (.763). Although UNH was more efficient at the line, it was just 11-of-13 (.846).

Sophomore Adrease Jackson started the game with an emphatic alley-oop dunk on the game's first possession and added another dunk on a give-and-go with Knight, leading to a quick Wildcat timeout barely 90 seconds into the contest. The Big Green eventually built their lead up to a dozen at 24-12 with the five starters providing all but three of those points (Rai's first triple) before UNH chipped away at the difference.

The two teams traded buckets before the Wildcats embarked on a 12-3 spurt, sparked by 3-pointers from Nick Guadarrama and Watkins. Reed, who had 13 points for UNH, sank two free throws to close the gap to two at 32-30 with just over a minute until the intermission. Sistare sank his only long-distance shot of the game, only to be matched by Mark Carbone to keep it a two-point game at the half, 35-33.

The Wildcats played stifling defense to start the second stanza, holding Dartmouth scoreless for the first four minutes while rattling off eight straight points to take their first lead of the afternoon. But New Hampshire saw its foul count mount as the Big Green were in the bonus before six minutes had elapsed as Dartmouth kept within striking distance at the charity stripe. When Reed hit his 3-pointer for the eight-point lead, the Big Green started on the comeback trail.

After shooting better than 50 percent (13-of-25), in the first half, Dartmouth was just 8-of-22 (.364) after the break but canned 23-of-28 (.821) free throws. The Big Green finished the game shooting 44.7 percent (21-of-47) overall and just 25.0 percent (5-of-20) from distance after entering the game sixth in the country in 3-pointers made per game (11.4) and ninth in accuracy (.412).

The Big Green, which turned the ball over just six times to match a season low, also enjoyed a substantial 36-25 advantage on the boards — led by Jackson with seven — with all of that disparity coming in the second stanza (20-9).

Dartmouth will return to the hardwood after ringing in the new year with its final non-conference game of the season at Vermont (9-4) on Wednesday, Jan. 2. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with tipoff at 7 p.m.

Notes: This is just the third time since the Ivy League started formal play in 1956-57 that Dartmouth has won nine non-conference games (prior to postseason play), joining the 1957-58 and 1975-76 teams to do so … the victory was Dartmouth's 200th in Leede Arena in this its 32nd season of operation … the Big Green are just one game behind UNH in the all-time series now with a 34-35 record against the Wildcats … Sistare is the fifth player to score 20 or more points in a game this season … his 12 free throws made are the most since Jvonte Brooks converted a dozen at Penn on Feb. 11, 2012, and most by a Big Green player at Leede Arena since February of 2000 (Greg Buth, 14-of-14 vs. Brown) … freshman Taurus Samuels scored just one point in 17 minutes off the bench, but recorded a plus-21 while on the court … juniors Brendan Barry and James Foye, both of whom were shooting better than 50 percent from the perimeter this year, were held to a combined 0-for-5 on 3-point attempts.