Thanksgiving Homestand on Tap for Men's Basketball

The Game: Dartmouth (1-3) vs. Quinnipiac (2-1)
Location: Leede Arena (2,100), Hanover, N.H.
Kickoff: Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 7 p.m.
Series Record: Quinnipiac leads 8-4
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Complete Game Notes

Road Split
•    Dartmouth is returning to Leede Arena for a two-game homestand after splitting a pair of games on the road. Last Friday, the Big Green had a convincing 71-57 triumph at Hartford, ending a 16-game road losing streak dating back to Feb. 21, 2009, before dropping a 73-59 contest at Loyola (Md.).
•    The win over the Hawks ended not only an eight-game losing skid against Hartford, but also a 16-game slide in the state of Connecticut that dated back to 2001.
•    The Big Green offense is led by junior Jabari Trotter, who is shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and behind the arc while averaging 15 points a game, including a career-best 24 at Hartford.
•    Not only did junior David Rufful score a season-high 17 points at Loyola, he posted a career high in rebounds against the Hawks with 11. The 6-4 Rufful has led the Green in rebounding in each of the first four games, averaging 5.3.
•    Dartmouth has shot at least 56 percent in the first half in each of the last three games. But twice in the second half, the Big Green shot less than 30 percent, costing themselves a chance to win those battles.

Series vs. Quinnipiac
•    Since first playing in 1999, Dartmouth and the Bobcats have played at least once every year with Quinnipiac holding an 8-4 advantage.
•    Last year the Bobcats beat Dartmouth by 22 in Hamden, Conn., 73-51.
•    In Leede Arena, the Big Green have beaten Quinnipiac three of the five meetings.
•    The Bobcats have won the last three encounters, but only won by two here two years ago, 76-74.
•    Matt LaBove was the only Big Green player in double figures with 13, while James Feldeine had 18 and Justin Rutty posted a double-double with 10 points and 14 boards for Quinnipiac.

Scouting the Bobcats
•    Picked to win the Northeast Conference in the preseason poll, Quinnipiac has opened the season with two wins in its first three games, including an 84-75 win over Yale to start the year.
•    This is the first true road game of the year for the Bobcats, who are coming off a 79-75 loss to Vermont at home.
• Quinnipiac has four players who provide most of the scoring, led by guard James Johnson at 19.0 points per game.
•    Last year's NEC Player of the Year, forward Justin Rutty, averages a double-double thus far (16.0, 10.3) while shooting 61.1 percent from the floor.
•    While Johnson is an accurate shooter at the line (11-of-12), the charity stripe is Rutty's Achilles' heel (4-of-9).
• Quinnipiac is coached by Tom Moore, currently sporting a 55-42 record in his fourth year with the Bobcats. Last year he led the team to a 23-10 record and an NEC regular-season championship and a spot in the NEC title game before participating in the NIT. Moore also spent five seasons as a head coach at Worcester State in the early '90s before serving as an assistant at the University of Connecticut for 13 years.

Friendly First Half
Since getting through the first-game jitters at Providence, the Big Green have burst out of the gate, shooting at a 58.9 percent clip (43-of-73) including 6-for-12 on three-pointers during the first half of play. Dartmouth held 15-point leads at the break in two of those three games, and was tied at 33 with Loyola.

Rufful the Rebounder
I am going to start calling junior David Rufful “Curtains” due to the fact that when a ball comes off the rim, it is curtains for anyone else trying to grab the rebound. When a 6-4 player playing power forward averages 7.3 rebounds a game and leads the team in rebounding in every game thus far (including a career-high 11 at Hartford), the dude deserves a nickname. And curtains have ruffles …

Hot to Trotter
Junior Jabari Trotter has started the year shooting 51.2 percent on field goals (22-of-43) and 52.4 percent on three-pointers (11-of-21). Against Hartford, he rarely missed while scoring a career-high 24 points, sinking 9-of-12 from the floor and 5-of-7 from long range. The field goals and three-pointers made were also career highs for the guard, which he had set during the first two games of his collegiate career. Trotter will be attempting to score in double figures for the fourth straight game tonight, something he has accomplished just twice in his career.

All Or Nothing (Or A Lot or A Little)
Dartmouth is generally shooting at the extremes this year, connecting on at least 56 percent of its field goal attempts in three of the eight halves, and less than 27 percent in four of the others. Only in the second half at Hartford did the Big Green produce a more moderate rate of success at 47.6 percent. Ralph Waldo Emerson most certainly would be happy that the moderate success led to Dartmouth's lone win thus far.

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