On Saturday afternoon, the men’s basketball team (5-14, 1-3 Ivy) faced the Big Green (5-12, 1-3 Ivy) in Hanover, New Hampshire. During Dartmouth’s alumni weekend contest, the Bears looked to rebound from last week’s one-point loss to Cornell, while Dartmouth — egged on by a crowd of over 800 — sought to clinch their first Ivy League victory of the season.
After taking a resounding 14-point lead in the first half, the Bears ultimately fell to the Big Green 75-71.
“I know this group will come together and figure out the shortcomings that we have had,” Malachi Ndur ’24 — who posted 14-points and three rebounds with three blocks — wrote to The Herald, following the loss. “As a team, we want to bounce back from the performance and outcome against Dartmouth. I know we will turn things around and make it to the Ivy League tournament.”
Brown’s offense was led by Nana Owusu-Anane ’25, who delivered a season-high 21-point performance last week. The 6’8” forward dominated the glass again on Saturday, posting 20 points and notching nine rebounds. Alongside Owusu-Anane, the starting five comprised Kino Lilly Jr. ’25 — the Ivy League’s leading scorer — Felix Kloman ’24, Aaron Cooley ’25 and Kalu Anya ’26.
Just six minutes into the game, the Bears went on a crushing 10-0 run to claim a 12-3 lead. Spurred by Lilly’s lethal three-point game and the performance of both Anya and Owusu-Anane, Brown’s offense overwhelmed the struggling Dartmouth defense. Converting 87.5% of free throws and going 8-11 from the field, Brown buried the Big Green with a game-high 14-point lead halfway through the first.
But it was the complementary play of the defense that launched Brown’s offensive flurry. The Bears kept their would-be attackers out of the paint, employing a press-heavy defense that forced the Big Green to shoot from deep. Capitalizing on dominant defensive stands — including fourteen defensive rebounds, five steals and three blocks — the Bears then pushed in transition, scoring seven points off turnovers in the first ten minutes alone. By the end of the first half, Brown had proven its prowess, entering the locker room 37-26.
Coming out of halftime, Dartmouth revived their offense, cutting Brown’s lead to a slim one-point margin in ten minutes. With a dwindling clock and a roaring crowd at their back, the Bears found themselves pitted in an offensive shootout.
Bruno tried to combat the 21 points the Big Green generated off three pointers in the second half, looking to a distance game of their own. Ndur hit triple after triple, knocking down 100% of his attempts from beyond the arc.
“I always try to let things flow naturally,” Ndur wrote in a message to The Herald. “I was in the right spots at the right time. I have the confidence in myself and from my teammates and coaches to shoot when I am open, so I kept getting opportunities and capitalizing on them.”
Combined with Ndur’s performance, stellar play by an elusive Kimo Ferrari ’24 gave Bruno a 2-point lead with two minutes left.
“I think we let Dartmouth get some confidence and rhythm too early in the second half,” wrote Ndur in a message to The Herald. “After we let them get into rhythm, they started hitting some tough shots, and things compiled from there. I think, as a unit, we have to be better about putting teams away and finishing games.”
In the final minutes, the Big Green capitalized by drawing fouls, claiming a 75-71 victory.
The Bears now prepare for this weekend’s double-header at the Pizzitola Sports Center, where they will host Penn at 7 p.m. on Friday night, and Princeton at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Lydell Dyer is a Senior Staff Writer for the sports section. A sophomore hailing from Bonn, Germany, Lydell is studying nonfiction English and political science, and if he's not off "making words sound pretty," you can find him lifting heavy circles at the Nelson.
