Danes get drubbed in Northern Ireland
Dartmouth shoots better than 50 percent from behind 3-point line in win
The consolation prize for the University of Albany basketball team is that it will get another chance to play Dartmouth. The first go-round Friday wasn’t so great for the Danes.
Dartmouth, second among 351 Division I schools in 3-pointers made per game (13.5), made 17 of 33 from beyond the arc and cruised to a 91-77 victory over Ualbany in the consolation game of the Belfast Classic in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Those same teams will meet again Saturday, Dec. 15, in a nonconference game at SEFCU Arena.
The Great Danes (2-6) never led in losing their fourth straight. They looked a step slow, especially in the early going, after their fast-paced game Thursday night against Liubrooklyn, which won 87-84.
The Big Green (4-4) made only 9 of 24 from 3-point territory in their 76-58 loss to Marist in the opening round of the Classic.
“You don’t want to hope somebody misses,” coach Will Brown
said in his postgame radio interview. “So it’s on us. They made the shots. We didn’t do a good enough job.”
As was the case in its loss to Liu-brooklyn, Ualbany got most of its offense from three players. Cameron Healy scored 24, Ahmad Clark 23 and Adam Lulka 14. Senior Devonte Campbell, the only returning starter from last year’s team, continued to struggle offensively, scoring two points. He was 1-for-12 from the field in the tournament.
Ualbany trailed by as many as 28 in the first half. Dartmouth made 15 of its first 20 shots, including 9 of 12 from 3-point range, and was ahead 43-15 with 7:27 to go.
The Danes finally got heated up toward the end of the half, going on a 12-0 run. Clark scored six points in that stretch, and Ualbany cut its deficit to 14 until James Foye’s 3-pointer with 18 seconds left put the Big Green up 49-32 at the break. It was Dartmouth’s 11th 3-pointer of the half.
“We are not built right now to outscore teams,” Brown said. “The problem is, we’re not built to grind games out right now. We’re stuck in the middle. We don’t get enough (defensive) stops, and it puts a lot of pressure on our offense. And our offense today is Clark, Healy, Lulka, and it stops right there right now.”
Brown used much of the second half to look at his bench players. Sophomore Sasha French played 20 minutes, and started the second half. He had six points and two rebounds before fouling out with 5:03 to play. Freshman Malachi de Sousa matched a career high with 19 minutes, contributing eight points and three rebounds.
Ualbany will return home Saturday and takes the court again Saturday, Dec. 8, at home against Dartmouth.