Yearsley scores 22 but Men’s Basketball falls to Dartmouth 107-52

Courtesy of Dartmouth Sports Information

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's basketball team erased any doubt early, opening a 10-point lead less than six minutes into Saturday's contest, and later outscoring MCLA 46-22 in the second half, on the way to a 107-52 win in Leede Arena. Junior Robert McRae III scored a career-high 18 points to lead the offense, with classmate Dusan Neskovic adding 16. Freshman Jackson Munro also got into double figures for the first time in his very young career. In total, 13 Big Green scored points while all 15 players who dressed played at least seven minutes of action.

Saturday gave the Big Green their first win of the season, as they moved to 1-2. Out of the Division III's Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, MCLA falls to 1-2. Noah Yearsley led the Trailblazers with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

McRae finished 5-of-7 from the field, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Neskovic was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field. Sophomore Ryan Cornish rounded out the Big Green in double figures, scoring 10 points as well for his third straight game in double figures to begin the season.

It only took 5:37 for the Big Green to open a double-digit advantage as a Munro basket gave him four early points and gave Dartmouth a 19-9 lead.

The Big Green lead swelled to 14 after a Jackson Blaufeld free throw made the score 30-16. Blaufeld finished the evening with six points and his first three career steals.

MCLA posted a mini 7-0 run to cut its deficit in half, but the Big Green went on to outscore the Trailblazers 31-7 the rest of the half. In that time, McRae III scored eight points in the span of 1:04, including what ended up being an improbable three quarter's pass, turned shot (since it went through the hoop).

Dartmouth ended the half with seven consecutive points, capped off by a layup from senior Cam Krstkowiak at the buzzer to give the Big Green a 61-30 halftime advantage.

After MCLA scored first in the second, Dartmouth immediately responded with 12 consecutive points, capped off by a Neskovic dunk to put the Big Green up by 40 for the first time, 73-32, with 16:56 on the clock.

The lead kept getting larger as the half progressed, reaching 50 for the first time midway through the half following a Johnson fastbreak layup, which made the score 89-38. Just over a minute later, Christensen converted a layup for his first collegiate points. Two McRae III free throws got Dartmouth over 100 points for the first time since last Nov. 16.

An MCLA 3-pointer with 1:12 remaining made the score 107-52, which proved to be the final. It also ended the Trailblazers' scoreless drought of 6:07, as the Dartmouth defense was strong until the final whistle.

For the game, Dartmouth shot 58.2 percent from the floor (39-of-67), including 44.8 percent from 3-point range (13-of-29). MCLA finished at 33.9 percent (21-of-62) and 25.0 percent from behind the arc (5-of-20). The Big Green won the battle of the boards, 49-23.

The Big Green will now hit the road for four straight beginning on Tuesday at Quinnipiac. MCLA will next travel to NVU Johnson for a Tuesday evening tip-off at 7pm.