Winners of Three of Last Four, Men Return Home to Host NIU

GAMEDAY INFORMATION vs. NORHTERN ILLINOIS HUSKIES
Date & Time	Friday, December 19, 7 p.m.	Dartmouth	Stats	NIU
Location	Hanover, N.H.	4-5	Record	4-3
Arena (Capacity)	Leede Arena (2,100)	Won 1	Streak	Won 1
All-Time Series	Huskies lead 1-0	65.1	Scoring	66.7
Tickets	Information	.457	FG%	.404
Broadcast	Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network - Drew Galbraith play-by-play	.400	3FG%	.281
Logistics	Directions // Parking // Seating Chart	.662	FT%	.711
Twitter	@DartmouthMBK // @DartmouthSports	+3.7	Reb Margin	+11.3
Dartmouth Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes // Live Stats	13.7	Assists	8.7
NIU Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	13.0	TO	17.3

Stopover in Hanover vs. NIU
•   After playing four of its last five games on the road, Dartmouth returns to Leede Arena to host Northern Illinois on Friday evening.
•   The Big Green played their first-ever game against a school from the state of Georgia on Tuesday and made it a memorable one by defeating Mercer, 67-51. It was the Bears' first home non-conference loss in over three years.
•   Alex Mitola has been Dartmouth's most consistent scorer, reaching double figures in every contest to average 14.9 points a game. The junior drained four three-pointers at Mercer to score 14 points and tie Miles Wright for the team lead.
•   All 14 of Wright's points came in the first half as he carried the Green to an 11-point halftime lead.
•   Joining Mitola with four three-pointers on Tuesday was Kevin Crescenzi, who did not miss a single shot from beyond the arc. His performance complemented Wright as all of those triples came in the second half for a season-high 12 points.
•   Dartmouth features one of the top rebounders in the league in Gabas Maldunas at 7.3 per game. Over his last three contests, the 6-9 Lithuanian is averaging 9.3 boards a night.
•   As a team, the Big Green lead the league in three-point accuracy at exactly 40 percent with Mitola knocking down 30-of-66 (.455) and Crescenzi 11-of-26 (.423).
•   The defense has been a big factor in Dartmouth winning three of its last four games. In each of those victories, the opposition has shot less than 40 percent and scored no more than 51 points.

Series vs. Northern Illinois
•   This is just the second meeting on the hardwood between these two schools with the Huskies emerging victorious last year on their floor, 64-57.
•   A 21-point run in the first half by NIU doomed the Big Green, although they did rally and owned a two-point lead with 4:31 to play before faltering.
•   Gabas Maldunas led all players with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Darrell Bowie paced the Huskies with 12 points and seven caroms.
• Against current MAC schools, Dartmouth is just 3-11, with six of those losses coming to Toledo.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 5-6 in his career against MAC schools.

Scouting the Huskies
•   Northern Illinois may be 4-0 at home and 0-3 on the road, but it has played at both Iowa and DePaul helping to lead to that disparity.
•   Surprisingly, there has been one common opponent for the two teams — Maine. While Dartmouth beat the Black Bears by 23 points, 74-51, the Huskies squeaked by them at home, 61-56.
•   While NIU has struggled shooting the ball (.404), especially from three-point range (.281), it is one of the best rebounding teams in the country with a margin of over 11 per game (sixth nationally).
•   Three players put up 10-plus points a night, led by 6-5 guard Aaric Armstead (12.9 ppg) and 6-7 wing Darrell Bowie (12.3).
•   Bowie also grabs 7.3 rebounds a game, but 6-9 center Jordan Threloff is king of the glass at 9.3 rpg to go with his team-leading 55.8 FG pct.
•   The team shooting woes have not extended to the foul line where it converts 71.1 percent, including 82.9 percent by Armstead.
•   The Huskies have two sets of brothers — Aaric and Aaron Armstead, and twins Keith and Kevin Gray.
•   Mark Montgomery is in his fourth year at the helm of NIU with a record of 29-71. For the 10 years prior to his hiring, he was an assistant for Tom Izzo at Michigan State. Last year he led the Huskies to their best record in eight years at 15-17.

Georgia on Their Minds
Prior to the game at Mercer on Dec. 16, Dartmouth had never played against any school from the state of Georgia spanning 2,669 games dating back to the start of the varsity program in 1900, nor had it played within the state of Georgia. To commemorate the special occasion, the Big Green dominated the Bears in a 67-51 win, holding the lead for the final 33:29 and maintaining at least an eight-point advantage for the final 23:33.

Tale of Two Halves
Freshman Miles Wright and junior Kevin Crescenzi made for a perfect 1-2 punch off the bench at Mercer as each scored in double figures, all coming in one of the two halves. Wright provided a spark in the opening stanza, exploding for 14 points and four rebounds in just nine minutes as Dartmouth took a 33-22 lead at the break. After the intermission, Crescenzi ripped off a career-high four three-pointers in as many attempts for a crucial 12 points in 15 minutes on the floor.

Beating a Tournament Team
With the 67-51 triumph over Mercer, the Big Green had their first victory over a team that had won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament since a 64-57 win over Cornell on Jan. 28, 2011. Mercer beat Duke in the tourney last year, while the Big Red advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2010.

Three-Pointers Galore
Dartmouth continued to be the most accurate team in the Ivy League on long-range shots by knocking down 10 in just 19 attempts (.526) — its most since canning 12 against Cornell on March 1 — in the 67-51 win at Mercer. As a team, the Big Green are shooting an even 40 percent (64-of-160) to rank 33rd among Division I schools. Junior Alex Mitola leads the charge with 3.3 treys per game (20th in the nation) at 45.5 percent (39th) and is a career 41.3 percent shooter from deep.

Mitola Doubling Up on Digits
Alex Mitola has scored in double figures in each of the first nine contests this season and ranks fourth in the league at 14.9 ppg. He is the first Big Green player with 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 (Connor Boehm has a current seven-game streak as well). Going back to last season, Mitola's streak stands at 13 games.

600 Rebounds
With eight rebounds at Mercer on Dec. 16, Gabas Maldunas became the seventh Big Green player ever to accumulate 600 boards in a career. Should he continue at his current pace of 7.3 per game (which is both his season and career average), he will finish his stay in Hanover fourth all-time with over 700 rebounds.

50 Percent Threshold
Connor Boehm and Gabas Maldunas are two of just seven players in the Ivy League hitting at least half of their shots. Boehm is third in the conference at .536 while Maldunas is sixth at .513 (Alex Mitola is 10th at .485). Even more impressive is that Boehm is shooting a touch better than 50 percent for his career, a mark only seven other Dartmouth players with at least 200 field goals have achieved, led by Brian Burke '84 (.572, 406-of-710).

Among the League Leaders
Entering this game, junior Alex Mitola is leading the Ivy League in two statistical categories — three-pointers per game (3.3) as well as assist-to-turnover ratio (3.1). He and Malik Gill make for a good combination in that latter category as Gill is third with a 2.2 ratio. Gabas Maldunas is fifth in blocked shots per game (2.0) and tied for sixth in rebounding at 7.3 boards a night.

Schedules