DURHAM — Dartmouth men’s basketball coach Dave McLaughlin pounded the floor when the shots fell. He looked down in disgust when they fell short.

The Big Green lost their second consecutive game Monday afternoon at Lundholm Gymnasium to UNH, 70-56.

While their defense controlled the game for almost 30 minutes — forcing bad shot opportunities and controlling the paint — they shot 31.7% from the floor and only received eight bench points.

“This is always an intense game. It never disappoints,” McLaughlin said. “I thought that we did a decent job defensively in the first half and the first five minutes of the second half.

“We were extending a lot of energy to have great offensive possessions. I feel like when we started missing shots, we lost our energy on the defensive end.”

Dartmouth was down six with over 16 minutes to play and responded with a 10-0 run.

Trevon Ary-Turner, who got the start over Ian Sistare, hit a jumper. James Foye and Chris Knight each sank two free throws to tie the game. Then Sistare made back-to-back layups to give the Big Green a 34-30 advantage with 13 minutes, 41 seconds remaining.

The explosive Dartmouth run was capped off by McLaughlin slamming his hands on the floor at the front of the Big Green’s bench when UNH called a 30 second timeout.

But the timeout seemed to suck all the momentum out of their offense.

The Wildcats picked apart Dartmouth’s defense. They went on an 8-0 run and ultimately led by 15 with under three minutes to play. They knocked down five 3-pointers and scored 11 points on the fast break in the second half.

“I still think we have not consistently enough played our best basketball,” McLaughlin said.

The Big Green struggled to produce any offensive momentum in the first half. They shot 28% from the field and only produced two assists in 20 minutes of play.

Still, Dartmouth found ways to cut the deficit.

With under six minutes to play, Knight hit a jumper and Ary-Turner knocked down a 3 to the right of the key on the following possession to make it a four-point game.

Knight led Dartmouth with 15 points and nine rebounds. Ary-Turner, in only his second start of the season, hit two 3s and finished with 11 points. Foye added 11 and Sistare pulled down 10 rebounds.

“I started thinking about the misses too much early in the game,” Knight said. “There was a lot of game left to be played. We started to lose our composure in the second half and there was too much game left to be played.”

The big picture: UNH won’t finish last in the America East like they did last year, but this was a winnable game Dartmouth could’ve grabbed before Thursday’s tough contest. Now, the Big Green are on a two-game losing streak and the offensive woes seem to have taken a turn.

Stat sheet: Dartmouth won last season’s meeting in Hanover 76-68. … UNH leads the all-time series 36-34. … The Big Green is now 4-4 on the road this season and 2-1 against America East competition. … The home team has won each of the last five meetings. … Knight now has 902 career points. … Sistare’s eight points was all Dartmouth got from the five bench players that saw playing time.

Up next: The Big Green host Vermont on Thursday night at Leede Arena at 7 p.m. It should be a great chance to size up one of the best teams in the Northeast and close out the nonconference portion of play.

Then they’ll have to wait 16 days to open Ivy League play at Harvard on Jan. 18.

Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com