FORT WAYNE – A beauty contest this wasn’t, on the night the Ivy League came to Fort Wayne. There was no tiara, no warbling old Bert Parks, no obligatory leaky tear ducts.
There was only this Tuesday night for IPFW: The clanking of wayward basketballs colliding with unyielding rims and a smack upside the head that happened with about five minutes to play against Dartmouth.
That’s when Jabari Trotter jarred a three-pointer to give Dartmouth, which refused to go away, its first and only lead. And it set in motion a series of events that would wind up with IPFW pulling out an unpretty but satisfying 56-51 win in front of 1,232 in Memorial Coliseum.
“Kind of stayed the course again,” IPFW coach Tony Jasick said.
“Those games are always fun,” added senior forward John Peckinpaugh, one of the heroes down the stretch. “I think when you have to make big plays down the way to win, I don’t know how that could not be fun.”
If that’s the case, the fun part did not happen early, when the Mastodons (6-3) jetted to an 8-0 lead after two minutes and a 27-22 lead at halftime. The culprit for Dartmouth (2-7) was 7-of-24 shooting in the first half plus nine turnovers, which kept the Big Green adrift of an IPFW team that made just 10 of 26 shots in the first half.
“I kept on hoping we’d pull away, but it just didn’t happen,” said center Trey McCorkle, who finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
It got worse in the second half, as the Big Green heated up from three-point range and the Mastodons just got chillier, eventually finishing 21 of 50 (42 percent) including 1 of 11 from beyond the arc.
But then Trotter gave Dartmouth its only lead – and the Mastodons stirred to life, limiting the Big Green to one field goal in the last 5:08 and outscoring it 10-4 to secure a victory.
“I think it kind of clicked in that, wow, we’re losing this game, we’ve got to kick it up,” McCorkle said. “It shouldn’t come down to that, but it did.”
IPFW responded behind McCorkle, who scored on a reverse layup and a baby hook down the stretch; Frank Gaines, who scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the second and gave IPFW the lead back for good at 48-47 on a pair of free throws with 2:43 to play; and Peckinpaugh taking a couple of charges and diving to the floor to force a jump ball in those final key minutes.
“I don’t if you can put a value on those guys,” Jasick said. “Trey, I think every time he gets the ball he kind of provides a calming presence. There’s no hesitation when he gets ball inside what the objective is. And I think John; … the stats aren’t what he’s about.”
The victory itself, on the other hand, was another valuable lesson.
“We have to learn how to play in different type situations,” Jasick said, “The gritty type game when shots aren’t falling, how do we respond?”
