Bears Beat Big Green 62-50
Saturday, February 02, 2013
Sophomore center Rafael Maia scored a career high 21 points on sizzling 10-of-11 shooting from the field to lead Brown to a 62-50 Ivy league win over Dartmouth at Leede Arena.
Brown extended its record to 8-9 overall, 2-1 in the Ivy League, heading into tomorrow night’s key match-up against Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. Dartmouth falls to 4-13, 0-3 in the Ivy League.
Maia scored all of his points in the paint in a dominating performance, with his only miss an unexpected three-point attempt in the opening half. Maia also had four rebounds and three assists for the Bears.
“Our focus and energy was extremely good tonight,” said Brown head coach Mike Martin. “Rafael is very hard to guard in the paint. There aren’t many players who can cover him in the post.”
Junior guard Sean McGonagill ran the point for the Bears and scored 12 points, while handing out five assists and grabbing five rebounds. Junior Tucker Halpern also scored in double figures for Brown with 10 points. Senior Matt Sullivan led the Bears with six rebounds as Brown out-rebounded Dartmouth by a 27-23 margin.
The Big Green had one player in double figures, freshman Connor Boehn, who netted 16 points.
Brown broke out on top of the Big Green and built a nine-point lead, 18-8, on two free throws by senior Tyler Ponticelli with 11:32 left in the opening half. Halpern helped Brown extend its lead to 23-11 on a trey two minutes later.
Maia controlled the opening 20 minutes, scoring 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field as the Bears built a 33-23 lead at the half.
Brown kept up the pressure in the second half, and led by as many as many as 19 points, 48-29, an a trey by senior Stephen Albrecht with just over 12 minutes left in the game.
Dartmouth made a run at the Bears, cutting Brown’s lead to 10 points, 52-42, with 5:00 remaining. But a trey by Albrecht and a fast-break lay-up by Maia quickly extinguished the Big Green hopes and put the Bears back on top, 57-42.
Brown heads to Boston for a 7 pm match-up with Harvard tomorrow evening, February 2, at Lavietes Pavilion.
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