LOWELL, Mass. — The Dartmouth College men’s basketball team employed a second half of stifling defense to record a 55-46 win over Merrimack on Friday in the first day of the River Hawk Invitational at UMass Lowell.
Trailing at the half, the Big Green (3-0) used a 19-3 run over the span of 11 minutes to take control. Chris Knight led all players with 13 points, followed by 10 from Aaryn Rai.
Ian Sistare shook Dartmouth out of a 29-23 halftime deficit with back-to-back 3-pointers. Merrimack’s Devin Jensen answered with one of his own, but it would prove to be the last points the Warriors (1-2) would score for a while.
The Big Green held Merrimack to 25% shooting in the second half, 32.1% for the afternoon and outrebounded the Warriors, 45-23. Dartmouth’s three-win start is the program’s best in 23 years.
The Big Green continues the three-games-in-three-days tournament against Jacksonville on Saturday.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Dartmouth men were sixth and the women eighth in their respective races at the NCAA Northeast Regional meet.
With snow and mud softening the University of Buffalo’s normal course, runners competed on a road course on Friday. The women competed in a field of 37 teams and scored 263 points, but the eighth-place team result didn’t net an NCAA finals bid.
Senior Lauren Sapone led Dartmouth in her final race, placing 20th in 20:09 over the 6K route.
The men finished high in a field of 34 squads, led by 23rd-place Sam Morton in 29:26 over 10 kilometers. The result netted Morton all-Northeast honors. Dartmouth’s men now await word on whether any individual athletes will be invited to NCAAs next week.
HANOVER — Dartmouth beat Cornell, 169-131, but lost to Harvard, 191-101, in a tri-meet at the Karl Micheel Pool.
Christina Cianciolo won two events for Dartmouth, prevailing in the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle. Maggie Deppe-Walker added a victory in the 100 breaststroke.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The host Tigers (4-6-1) used a three-goal third period to overturn the Big Green (1-5-1) in the first game of a weekend set.
Sara McClanahan had a pair of goals for Dartmouth, which built a 3-1 lead on Celine Pietraszek’s score just 40 seconds into the middle period. It was all Rochester once the third period arrived, as Madison Itagaki, Rachel Goff and Jordan Marchese scored in the span of 10 minutes to reverse the result.
Bailee Brekke had two assists for the Big Green, which received 15 saves from goaltender Hannah Humphreys. RIT netminder Jessi O’Leary finished with 29 stops.
The two teams meet again on Saturday at noon.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Will Graber’s goal with 1:25 to play gave the Big Green (2-2-1, 2-1-1) a win over the Bulldogs in ECAC Hockey action at Ingalls Rink.
The goal capped a wild third period for Dartmouth. A Quin Foreman strike gave the visitors a 3-2 lead with 11:14 to play, but Yale’s Dante Palecco drew level with 3:48 left, leaving overtime a possibility.
Graber ended that with a snipe from the right circle that cleared the shoulder of Yale goaltender Corbin Kaczperski (25 saves) in the final 100 seconds of regulation.
Drew O’Connor and Matt Baker also scored for Dartmouth, and Adrian Clark finished with 27 saves. The Big Green travels to Princeton on Saturday.
HANOVER — The Big Green (9-15, 3-8) rallied from a two-set deficit, including a marathon second-set loss, at Leede Arena to avenge an earlier Ivy League loss to the Lions (11-12, 2-9).
Columbia took the opening sets, 25-21 and 34-32, before Dartmouth’s 25-17, 25-18, 15-12 response. The Big Green hit at a .440 clip in the third set and a .421 rate in the final set to earn the victory.
Nicole Liddle paced the attackle with 16 kills, backed by 12 from Elise Petit. Carly Tower had a hand in nine blocks for the defense.
Dartmouth wraps up its season on Saturday night against Cornell.