Three-Game Swing in New York Starts at Colgate

The Game: Dartmouth (3-7) at Colgate (4-5)
Location: Cotterell Court (3,100), Hamilton, N.Y.
Tipoff: Monday, December 19 at 7 p.m.
Series Record vs. Colgate: Raiders lead, 20-18
Live Video - GateTV ($)
Live Audio - WUVR 1490 AM (Dave Collins, play-by-play)
Live Stats
Complete Game Notes

New York State of Mind
•    Dartmouth begins a three-game trip in the state of New York in Hamilton in a showdown against the Colgate Raiders.
•    This is the second of four games in a seven-day stretch that started with Saturday's 62-54 home victory over Elon. This is also the seventh of nine games away from Hanover in a 10-game span. Dartmouth has won just one of the first six, a 64-52 win at Alaska Anchorage.
•    The win over Elon ended a four-game skid and improved the Big Green to 2-1 on their home court.
•    Two freshmen — Gabas Maldunas and John Golden registered double-doubles in the victory. Maldunas scored a season-high 17 points to go along with his 10 rebounds while Golden tallied 10 points and snared 11 boards, the most by any Dartmouth player this season.
•    Maldunas and junior R.J. Griffin share the team lead in scoring at exactly 10 points a game, although Griffin is going through a six-game stretch of scoring in single digits.
•    Although Elon hit 9-of-26 (.346) of its three-pointers, the Dartmouth defense has been quite tough on long-range shots. Over the past six games, opponents are shooting 22.7 percent (25-of-110) behind the arc, including a season-worst 9.1 percent (1-of-11) by IPFW on Dec. 13.
•    Senior David Rufful has been the Green's most accurate long-range shooter, connecting on 16-of-29 (.552) from downtown.

Series vs. Colgate
•    This is the 39th meeting between the schools on the hardwood, and the 16th straight year they have squared off against each other. The Raiders own a slim 20-18 advantage overall.
•    Last year the two played at each team's venue with the home team defending its own court. The Big Green knocked off Colgate in Hanover, 80-63, but the Raiders avenged their loss with a 67-64 triumph in Hamilton.
•    Over the past 15 seasons, Colgate has had the upper hand, winning 12 of the 17 meetings.

Scouting the Raiders
•    Colgate, while just 4-5 on the season, has won each of its three home games, defeating Eastern Michigan in between the St. Francises (Pa. and N.Y.).
•    The first two of the Raiders' losses came on the road at Wisconsin (by 27 points) and at now-top-ranked Syracuse (by 45).
•    Three Raiders — Pat Moore, Mitch Rolls and Mike Venezia — average at least 9.7 points a game and shoot at least 41.5 percent on threes.
•    Moore leads the team at 12.3 ppg, but Rolls is popping treys at about the same rate as Rufful (21-of-38, .553).
•    Colgate opponents, on the other hand, have not converted three-point shots particularly well (.297), but they do have a solid overall field goal percentage (.450).
•    The fourth-leading scorer, Sterling Melville, is the older brother of Dartmouth point guard Tyler Melville. The elder is scoring nearly nine points a game with a rebounding average of 3.2.
•    Colgate will turn the ball over, having coughed it up an average of 19 times a night, among the worst 10 in the country.
•    Colgate is led by first-year coach Matt Langel, a 2000 Penn grad who scored nearly 1,200 points in his career. For the previous seven years he was an assistant at Penn and Temple for Fran Dunphy.

Dartmouth, Cormier vs. Patriot
Dartmouth has played nearly 200 games against teams currently in the Patriot League with an overall record of 74-122. Nearly half (97) of those meetings have come against Holy Cross. Head coach Paul Cormier is looking to even his record against Patriot League teams, entering today's contest with a mark of 10-11, but he is 4-2 against Colgate with two of those wins coming at Fairfield.

That's Why We Play the Games
The game against Elon would have been considered a lopsided match-up, what with the Phoenix entering the game with an RPI of 101 and Dartmouth at 338. But the Big Green didn't let the numbers concern them as they went out and knocked off Elon by eight, 62-54. Dartmouth has never beaten an opponent ranked that high in the RPI by season's end since collegerpi.com has kept the rankings (1993-94). The next day, Elon's RPI fell all the way to 163, while the Green's climbed just 15 spots to 323.

Double the Double-Doubles
Last year Dartmouth players had the grand total of three double-doubles. In the first nine games, the Big Green had two. But against Elon, freshmen Gabas Maldunas and John Golden each reached double figures in points and rebounds. Maldunas tallied a season-high 17 while snaring 10 off the glass, while Golden chipped in 10 points and 11 rebounds, the most by a Dartmouth player all season.

Family Reunion
Expect the Melville clan to be out in full force for the Colgate game as Dartmouth sophomore guard Tyler Melville will square off against his older brother, Sterling, who plays for the Raiders. Last year each outplayed the other on their respective home court, but there is just one game this year. Which one will emerge victorious?

Schedules