Quick Report: Dartmouth 76, Penn 74

A 19-point effort from freshman Ryan Betley (above) wasn't enough as Penn fell short to Dartmouth Friday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

David Gough (@DG0UGH)
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With an Ivy League playoff berth within its grasp, Penn fell to Dartmouth 76-74 on Friday night at the Palestra.

At First…
Penn got off to a slow start in this one despite scoring the first four points of the game. Dartmouth responded with an 8-0 run and controlled the game for most of the first half leading 26-15 thanks to making four of its first seven 3-pointers in the first 12 minutes. The Quakers then scored the next 13 points to take a two-point lead. The Big Green still looked like they would head into halftime with the lead before Penn’s Matt Howard received a full-court pass with two seconds left, turned around, and hit a jumper a the buzzer to tie it at 35.

Turning Point…
Dartmouth came out on fire with a 17-4 run in the first five minutes of the second half to take a 54-39 lead. The Quakers would battle back and eventually take 63-60 lead on a Matt Howard 3-pointer with 6:58 left, but couldn't pull away. Dartmouth’s Juilien Smith hit a layup with 52 seconds left to break a tie, and the Big Green got two FTs to go up four with 23 seconds left. Penn had a final chance to tie it after a layup and subsequent Dartmouth turnover, but a jumper by Darnell Foreman with three seconds left was no good.

Standout Stars…
Howard and freshman Ryan Betley both scored a game-high 19 points in the Quakers’ loss accounting for 13 on 6-of-9 shooting in the first half. They came into the game as Penn’s second and third leading scorers averaging 11.6 and 11.1 points per game respectively.

Dartmouth’s Evan Boudreaux had a double-double in the win with 16 points and 12 rebounds. The 6-foot-8 sophomore came is as the Big Green’s leading scorer and rebounder with 17.6 points and 9.4 boards per game.

Noteworthy Numbers…
48: Dartmouth leaned heavily on the three as it went 13-of-27 (48 percent) from beyond the arc tying its season high in made 3-pointers. Those 39 points were 50 percent of its offense for the night.

12: Dartmouth committed 12 more turnovers than Penn in the game with 18. It won despite turning it over in the first half more than the Quakers did in the entire game.

Up Next…
Penn (12-14, 5-8) vs Cornell (7-20, 3-9) -- Sat., Mar. 4, 7 PM
Dartmouth (7-19, 4-9) at Princeton (19-6, 12-0) -- Sat., Mar. 4, 6 PM