March 7, 2008
HANOVER, N.H. - Travis Pinick scored 12 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds as Yale edged Dartmouth 50-48 in an Ivy League game at Leede Arena. Eric Flato added nine points and Ross Morin scored seven for the Bulldogs, who completed a season sweep of the Big Green for the second straight year.
Yale (12-15, 6-7 Ivy) trailed 42-39 with 8:41 left, but scored seven straight points over the next three minutes. Flato started the run with a three-pointer, Garrett Fiddler followed with a short jumper in the lane and Pinick capped the spurt with a layup.
The Big Green pulled within 47-46 on two Alex Barnett free throws with 3:59 left, but Flato answered with a three-pointer from the wing. Elgin Fitzgerald scored the game's final points with 41 seconds remaining.
Yale missed the front end of three one-and-ones in the final 52 seconds to give Dartmouth a chance, but Barnett missed a jumper with two seconds left, and Nick Holmes batted the rebound away as time expired.
"Defense won the game for us," said James Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "We were a little shorthanded, but Travis was all over the place. We got good contributions from our bench. I thought they gave us a lot of energy."
Yale's bench outscored Dartmouth's 18-8. Fiddler and Alex Zampier both scored six points. Porter Braswell, Jordan Gibson and Paul Nelson all contributed two points. The Bulldogs were without the services of Matt Kyle, who missed the game with an injury. Kyle had 19 points in the first meeting between the teams, a 97-58 Yale win on Feb. 9.
Pinick was 5 of 11 from the field. Seven of his rebounds came on the offensive end, and he also did an outstanding defensive job on Barnett, who was held to six points, nearly 10 below his team-leading average.
"Travis is the one player in the Ivy League with the length to guard Barnett," Jones said.
Pinick is the first Yale player with at least 15 rebounds in a game since Dominick Martin grabbed 15 during the 2005-06 season. The last Bulldog to grab 20 rebounds in a game was Chris Dudley in 1987.
DeVon Moseley paced the Big Green (10-17, 3-10) with 10 points. Fitzgerald and Michael Giovachini both finished with eight points.
Yale held the Big Green to 37.3 percent shooting from the field.
The game featured 12 ties and seven lead changes. The Bulldogs' biggest lead was four with 5:45 left in the second half, while Dartmouth's biggest advantage was five midway through the first half.
Yale closes out its season at Harvard on Saturday night at 7 p.m. A victory would give the Bulldogs a 7-7 Ivy mark, their eighth straight year with a .500 or better record in league play.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity
