Two-Game Swing to the South Starts at Jacksonville State

GAMEDAY INFORMATION at JACKSONVILLE STATE GAMECOCKS
Date & Time:	Sunday, December 14, 2 p.m. (CST)	Dartmouth	Stats	JSU
Location:	Jacksonville, Ala.	3-4	Record	5-4
Arena (Capacity):	Pete Mathews Coliseum (2,100)	Won 2	Streak	Lost 1
All-Time Series:	Big Green lead 1-0	64.6	Scoring	64.9
Tickets:	Information	.454	FG%	.381
Broadcast // Stats:	Gamecock Sports Network / Live Stats	.402	3FG%	.281
Logistics:	Directions // Parking (at the Coliseum) // Seating Chart	.624	FT%	.682
Twitter:	@DartmouthSports // @DartmouthMBK	+3.9	Reb Margin	-2.4
Dartmouth Links:	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	12.9	Assists	12.3
Jacksonville State Links:	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	13.4	TO	13.9

Two-Game Southern Swing
•   Riding a modest two-game win streak, Dartmouth plays a pair of games down south beginning with the Jacksonville State Gamecocks on Sunday afternoon.
•   Both of the Big Green wins this month have been by 20-plus points, besting Maine at home, 74-51, then handling UMass Lowell on the road, 69-48.
•   Alex Mitola continued his sharp-shooting ways with a season-high five three-pointers and a game-high 19 points on Wednesday against the River Hawks. The co-captain leads the Ivy League with 3.3 triples per game and ranks fourth at 15.3 ppg.
•   Showing the form prior to his knee surgery last winter was the other co-captain, Gabas Maldunas. He registered his 11th career double-double at UMass Lowell with 13 points and 10 rebounds and is currently averaging 9.9 ppg and 6.9 rpg.
•   Connor Boehm gives Dartmouth a trio of scorers as the forward not only contributes 10.4 points a night, but also ranks third in the Ivy League with 8.0 rebounds as well.
•   As a team, Dartmouth leads the league and ranks 34th nationally in three-point percentage at 40.2.
•   When the Big Green need a spark off the bench, they usually turn to 5-9 point guard Malik Gill, who leads the team with 25 assists and 12 steals, plus is 8-of-19 (.421) from long range.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier reaches a milestone with this game — 500 games as a collegiate head coach between Dartmouth and Fairfield.

Series vs. Jacksonville State
•   This is just the second meeting between the two schools on the hardwood. Dartmouth won the first last year in Hanover, 76-46.
•   Alex Mitola led four Big Green players in double figures with 16 points, while Gabas Maldunas filled up the stat sheet with eight points, 11 boards, five assists and five blocks.
• This is just the fourth game against a current Ohio Valley Conference team for the Big Green. Aside from last year's contest in Hanover, Dartmouth split two games with Tennessee State (winning in 1975 and losing in 1997), both at neutral sites.
•   Cormier is 2-1 in his career against OVC teams, the first two games coming at Fairfield as he split two contests with Southeast Missouri State.

Scouting the Gamecocks
•   Jacksonville State is having a similar season to Dartmouth's last opponent, UMass Lowell. After starting the season with three losses on the road, the Gamecocks won five straight (four of which came at home) before dropping its latest contest at Alabama State, 80-55.
•   In the first nine games, six different players have led the team in scoring, and Darion Rackley tops JSU with 12.1 ppg.
•   Jeremy Watson, who scored 28 of the 55 Gamecock points at Alabama State, may average 10.0 points a game, but it is his contributions on the glass (8.1 rpg) that make him stand out.
•   Four of the top five scorers on the squad are shooting under 37.5 percent from the floor with only Watson above that mark (.482).
•   The player most likely to shoot a three-pointer is Avery Moore, who is 20-of-58 (.345) behind the arc. All but four of his field goals are trifectas.
•   As a team, Jacksonville State has had its share of troubles with shooting accuracy. It is hitting on just 38.1 percent overall and 28.1 percent of three-pointers (although the three most prolific long-range shooters are at about 35 percent combined).
•   Veteran head coach James Green (Mississippi '83) is in his seventh season at JSU and 18th overall having had stints at Southern Mississippi (8 years) and Mississippi Valley State (3). He has a 74-115 record with the Gamecocks and 241-265 overall.

Back-to-Back 20-Point Wins
Dartmouth has won its past two games by at least 20 points, beating Maine by 23 and UMass Lowell by 21. It had been more than 15 years since the Big Green had 20-point wins in consecutive games having last accomplished the feat Jan. 23 and 30 in 1999 against Denver (75-50) and Brown (70-46).

500 and 300
Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier reached a second milestone in less than two weeks when the Big Green beat UMass Lowell on Dec. 10 — his 500th as a collegiate head coach between Dartmouth and Fairfield. He also coached his 300th game as Dartmouth's head coach on Nov. 30 against his alma mater, New Hampshire. Only two other coaches in program history have guided the squad for more games — Alvin “Doggie” Julian oversaw 419 games from 1950-66, and Cormier's former assistant Dave Faucher coached 344 contests from 1992-2004.

Maldunas Double-Double
A welcome sight for Big Green fans was Gabas Maldunas getting his first double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds at UMass Lowell on Dec. 10. It was the first for the senior in almost a full calendar year (Dec. 18, 2013 at UNH — about a month before a season-ending knee injury) and the 11th of his career. Only Yale's Justin Sears has more (13) among current Ivy Leaguers.

Mitola Doubling Up on Digits
Alex Mitola has scored in double figures in each of the first seven contests this season and ranks fourth in the league at 15.3 ppg. No Big Green player has had more than five in a row in one season since Alex Barnett '09 had at least 10 in his last 15 games in 2008-09. Going back to last season, Mitola's streak stands at 11 games.

50 Percent Threshold
Connor Boehm and Alex Mitola are two of just seven players in the Ivy League hitting at least half of their shots. Boehm is third in the conference at .538 while Mitola is tied for sixth at an even .500. Even more impressive is that Boehm is shooting better than 50 percent for his career, a mark only seven other Dartmouth players with at least 200 field goals have have achieved, led by Brian Burke '84 (.572, 406-of-710).

Swipe Right and Left
Stealing isn't normally a character trait that one would find appealing, yet the Dartmouth Big Green went ahead and stole away, then stole some more. Against Maine on Dec. 6, Dartmouth swiped the ball 10 times in a 23-point win. The success made the Big Green bolder, so they went and took the ball a dozen times at UMass Lowell with Kevin Crescenzi leading the crime spree with a career-high five steals. The last time Dartmouth had 12 steals came last February against Yale.

Schedules