HANOVER, N.H. – Throughout a more than a little frustrating season, the defense has not been the problem for Brown men’s basketball.
The Bears are solidly in the middle of the pack in Ivy League defensive efficiency.
But the Bears just can’t score. Or more appropriately, they can’t shoot, ranking among one of the worst teams nationally in effective field-goal shooting (as well as three-point shooting).
All of which made the second half at Leede Arena Saturday night stunning.
Brown shot 19-for-27 from the field, and 7-for-8 from behind the arc (after going 2-for-18 the previous night against Harvard and 2-for-14 in the first half Saturday) to come from behind and deal Dartmouth a crushing blow in its hopes to return to the Ivy League Tournament, 79-76.
“Obviously shots fell, I actually thought we got a lot of good looks in the first half, but they didn’t go in,” Brown coach Mike Martin said. “They’re a really tough team to guard, and I didn’t think our defense was as good as it has been. We turned it over too much, but I thought we set the tone early in the second half with our offensive rebounding, (N’famara) Dabo was huge with some second-chance points. Any win’s a good win when you’ve been on the run we’ve been on.”
There was nothing in the first half that indicated a Brown offensive explosion was imminent. Or even possible. The Bears forced several turnovers and did not allow an offensive rebound, but they sputtered at the other end which led them to trail by double digits before getting within 38-30 at the intermission.
But the tone was set early in the second half. After a pair of Dabo dunks, Landon Lewis stepped out and drilled an uncontested three. Why would he be contested? In his four-year career entering Saturday, he was 1-for-9 against Division I competition in his career from behind the arc.
After a Lewis steal and dunk, he was feeling good and hit another three (tripling his career total) to bring Brown within 45-44 with 15:47 left.
“I could probably go back to possessions and nitpick, but I think Lewis making those first two threes really loosened them up, and then they just shot with confidence,” Dartmouth coach David McLaughlin said. “There were some miscommunications that led to open threes, but honestly when they’re establishing the post game the way they did, you’re going to have to react to that, and to their credit, they hit shots they usually don’t make.”
Now feeling great about themselves, the Bears (8-15, 2-8) seemingly could not be stopped. A David Rochester (shooting 22% coming in) three gave them a 52-49 lead with 12:55 left and Brown would hold Dartmouth at bay for almost all the rest of the way. A desperate Dartmouth team did battle, though, and when – on Senior Night – senior Brandon Mitchell-Day found classmate Jayden Williams for a three with 2:55 left, the Big Green had crawled back in front 69-68 and seemed to have all the momentum.
However, Malcolm Wrisby-Jefferson (just 5-for-24 from behind the arc prior to this shot) buried an open three on the ensuing possession and Brown never trailed again.
The Bears didn’t make it easy on themselves by missing free throws down the stretch, Kareem Thomas had a three-pointer that would have tied the game with 33 seconds left go in and out, and the Big Green had one last chance in the final seconds, but eventually got fouled with 1.8 seconds left. Mitchell-Day missed the first of a one-and-one and Williams actually got the rebound, but couldn’t get a shot off.
The win ends a six-game losing streak for Brown, who had been quite feisty in recent games, though, leading Yale by double digits in the second half before taking Harvard to the wire in Boston Friday night.
“We just have to keep getting better despite what the results say,” Martin said. “I said this the other day, if you come to our practice, you’d be surprised at what our record is based on energy and spirit, and belief. We practice really hard. We play really hard. We’re getting better. We are obviously offensively challenged, but we’re getting better at reading different coverages and solutions. Who knows what can happen? We just have to continue to improve.”
For a team that was an improbable Yale comeback in the final seconds from breaking a 40-year NCAA Tournament drought two years ago, it’s been rough going, but full credit for continuing to battle. It was an especially gratifying night for Lewis, who finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds, despite being in foul trouble. The chances of Brown making it back to Ivy Madness are infinitesimal at this point, but Lewis – the only Brown senior who is in the regular rotation – wants to end his career fighting and spoiling.
“Landon is a really hard worker, he’s super driven,” Martin said. “He’s been performing statistically well even during our losing streak. But when you’re losing, stats don’t really matter. He was great tonight, when he went out of the game with his fourth foul, our offense stalled a little, but once he got back in there, it was either him in the post or him playmaking.”
Rochester was the only other Brown player in double digits with 10, while Luke Paragon and Charlie O’Sullivan both came off the bench to hit a pair of big three-pointers.
They certainly spoiled the Senior Night of Mitchell-Day, Williams and Jackson Munro, as Dartmouth’s chances to return to Ivy Madness now also look slim with road games against Columbia, Penn and Princeton on the horizon.
Williams was on fire early and finished with 24 points while Thomas added 22 for Dartmouth, who turned it over 17 times, but still had a decent night (1.06 points per possession) against a good Brown defense, but just could not get a stop no matter what defense they tried to throw at the Bears.
“I thought we could have gotten a bigger lead in the first half, but when you can’t take care of the ball and you have nine turnovers, it’s not going to happen,” McLaughlin said.