Bulldogs fall to Dartmouth, 76-59, at home Wednesday

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Junior forward Connor Boehm scored a game-high 20 points to lead Dartmouth College to a 76-59 victory over the Bryant University men's basketball team on New Year's Eve at the Chace Athletic Center.

Boehm went 7-of-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from the line with seven rebounds to lead the Big Green (6-6), who shot 43.6 percent from the floor on the afternoon. Alex Mitola added 14 for the visitors and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds with four assists.

Senior Joe O'Shea (Burlington, Vt.) paced the Bulldogs (3-6) with 12 points off 4-for-8 shooting and a 4-for-4 mark from the stripe, adding a side-best six rebounds. Senior guard Dyami Starks (Duluth, Minn.) and rookie counterpart Hunter Ware (Powder Springs, Ga.) each added 10 points in the loss, as the Black and Gold converted just 35.1 percent of their shots from the floor (20-57) and a season-low 22.7 percent from long distance (5-22).

After jumping out to a 12-4 start, the Bulldogs went cold by the nine-minute mark, allowing Dartmouth to go on an 11-0 run and take over the lead, 24-17, with 5:23 left on the first-half clock.

A jumper by sophomore forward Dan Garvin (Bethel, Conn.) (9 points) put a stop to the run, but the Big Green would maintain a lead for the rest of the half, growing it to as many as 12 in the final 45 seconds, 35-23. Ware would drop in a pull-up jumper in the final 30 seconds to send the hosts into the locker room with a 10-point deficit, 35-25. Starks was limited to just a single basket in the stanza.

Bryant scored first out of the break and cut the deficit to six less than eight minutes in on a Zach Chionuma (Jamesville, N.Y.) (9 points) layup, 47-41. But the Big Green rebuilt a double-digit lead by the 10:48 mark with a pair of Gabas Maldunas free throws, 51-41.

Dartmouth maintained the spread entering the last five minutes, 58-48, and got a corner three from Boehm followed by a Tommy Carpenter layup as the clock ticked below 3:00 to give the visitors their largest margin of the contest to that point, 63-48.

The Bulldogs would continue to push from there but had no choice but to begin the fouling game.  Dartmouth hit its shots down the stretch, though, going 13-for-17 from the charity stripe in the final three minutes for the eventual 76-59 victory.

The Bulldogs will try to shake off the loss quickly as they enter into Northeast Conference play to open January action. Bryant takes on LIU Brooklyn on the road in the league opener Saturday, Jan. 3 (4:30 p.m.) and will play at NEC favorite St. Francis Brooklyn Monday, Jan. 5 (4:00 p.m.). Both games can be seen live and free-of-charge at NECFrontRow.com.