Brown Men's Basketball Ends Slide, Beats Dartmouth
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Brown Men's Basketball Ends Slide, Beats Dartmouth
Brown had lost its first two league games at home and desperately needed a win or face early elimination.
Kalu Anya, Nana Owusu-Anane, and Paxson Wojcik all had 16 points to lead the Bears. Anya's 16 were a career-high, while he also contributed nine rebounds. Owusu-Anane had 10 boards, for his second double-double in the last three games, and three assists. Wojcik had five rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Kino Lilly Jr. was the fourth Bear in double figures as he posted 10 points and three assists.
"I'm really happy for our team," head coach Mike Martin said. "One of the best things about these [Ivy League] back-to-backs when you have a hard loss like we had last night, you get to quickly come right back.
"I talked to these guys this morning and I thought that if we wanted to win this game tonight, we had to win our walkthrough and shootaround. We had to have elite mental focus. We're a young team that's still learning, but I thought we really helped win this game today from 12:45 to 2:00 in our film session and walkthrough. Obviously, when you shoot the ball the way we did that helps too."
Another key to the night's game was Brown's free throw shooting. The Bears shot 86% (12-for-14) from the line, their best mark of the season. Over the closing minutes of the second half, Brown was a perfect 8-for-8 from the line to help seal the victory.
The Bears led by seven at halftime, which equaled their largest lead of the first 20 minutes. Wojcik hit a three at the halftime buzzer to push the lead back to seven after the Big Green had cut it to as little as two during the final five minutes of the half.
Brown opened the second half on a 12-4 run to stretch the lead to 15 at 55-40 at the 14:42 mark. The Bears' largest lead of the game came with 7:46 to play following a pair of free throws by Anya. They put the Bears up 17 at 68-51.
Dartmouth would attempt to stage a comeback as the Big Green pulled within six with 1:23 left. But after a Brown miss on their offensive end, a steal and a fastbreak dunk by Dan Friday with 39 seconds to play killed any momentum that Dartmouth had.
Anya, Owusu-Anane, and Wojcik were all perfect from the free throw line on the night with Owusu-Anane going 6-for-6 and Anya 4-for-4.
Brown shot 51.9% from the field on the night, including a 45% (9-for-20) clip from beyond the arc.
Next, the Bears will play their fourth straight Ivy League game at home when they take on Princeton on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 2 p.m.