Pre-Christmas Challenge: Dartmouth Travels to 11-1 Penn State

GAMEDAY INFORMATION at PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS
Date & Time:	Monday, December 22, 4 p.m.	Dartmouth	Stats	Penn State
Location:	University Park, Pa.	5-5	Record	11-1
Arena (Capacity):	Bryce Jordan Center (15,261)	Won 2	Streak	Won 9
All-Time Series:	Tied 2-2	64.4	Scoring	72.2
Tickets:	Information	.445	FG%	.433
Broadcast // Stats:	Big Ten Network Plus // Live Stats	.392	3FG%	.325
Logistics:	Directions // Parking // Seating Chart	.642	FT%	.701
Twitter:	@DartmouthSports // @DartmouthMBK	+3.4	Reb Margin	+2.8
Dartmouth Links:	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	13.8	Assists	9.8
Penn State Links:	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	12.7	TO	13.4

Visit to Streaking Penn State
•   Winners of four of its last five contests, Dartmouth travels to University Park, Pa., to take on an even hotter team in Penn State, which has run off nine straight victories.
•   Last time on the court, the Big Green were able to defeat Northern Illinois in overtime, 58-55, avenging a 64-57 loss in DeKalb, Illinois, last year.
•   Dartmouth's leading scorer, point guard Alex Mitola, was also its savior in the extra period, providing all 12 points with four three-pointers, including the game-winner as time expired.
•   Mitola's final shot was the second successful buzzer-beater for the Big Green this year. Forward Connor Boehm drained a triple at the end of regulation to defeat IPFW on Nov. 28, 68-67.
•   Along with Mitola's 15.2 points per game, two other Big Green players average in double figures — center Gabas Maldunas (11.4) and Boehm (10.3). They are the team's leading rebounders as well with at 7.3 and 7.0 a night, respectively.
•   With Mitola ranking fifth in three-point percentage (.461), Dartmouth tops the circuit in that statistical category (.392). Guard Kevin Crescenzi is another long-ball threat at 43.3 pct. (13-of-30).
•   One area in which the Green need to improve is at the foul line where they have converted just 64.2 percent, last among Ancient Eight schools.
•   Dartmouth has been quite active on the defensive end of late, collecting at least 10 steals in three of the last five games, including a dozen twice.

Series vs. Penn State
•   These two teams have met four times previously with each side winning twice. The last encounter came 41 years ago, a 72-67 overtime victory for the Nittany Lions on their home court.
•   Thirty-one years before that, Dartmouth defeated Penn State in the 1942 NCAA Eastern Region Semifinals in New Orleans, 44-39. The Big Green advanced to the championship game, but fell victim to Stanford, 53-38.
• The Big Green are 7-25 all-time against current Big 10 schools with other wins over Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin.
• The most recent showdown with a Big 10 school came last year at Illinois, a 72-65 defeat.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 0-6 against current Big 10 teams, including two losses to Wisconsin.

Scouting the Nittany Lions
•   Penn State has proven it knows how to finish close games with a 6-0 record in games decided by five points or less, including a 72-71 win over Ivy League member Cornell on Nov. 21.
•   This is the final non-conference game for the Nittany Lions, who open Big Ten play at Wisconsin on New Year's Eve.
•   Look no further than D.J. Newbill for a star on this roster. The 6-4 senior guard has led the team in scoring in all but one game and averages 21.8 points a night. He also tops the squad with 37 assists and 17 steals.
•   Newbill, along with Brandon Taylor and Shep Garner — the other two Nittany Lions averaging in double figures — are all three-point threats with 20 or more apiece.
•   On the boards, Ross Travis leads a solid Penn State rebounding effort with 7.6 rpg, while Taylor and Newbill add 6.5 and 5.0, respectively.
•   The defense has held opponents to just 38.0 percent shooting and 31.9 percent behind the arc, but PSU has turned the ball over more often.
•   Patrick Chambers is in his fourth season guiding the Nittany Lions and has posted a 49-60 record there to date. He previously was the head coach at Boston University, going 21-14 in each of his two seasons, including a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2010-11.

Looking for Another Win
Dartmouth has won four of its last five games, and a win over Penn State would give the Big Green their first 5-1 stretch since the 2006-07 squad won six of seven.

Overtime a Good Time
In each of the past four seasons, Dartmouth played exactly one overtime game. After losing the first three of those contests, the Big Green defeated Princeton after regulation last year, 78-69. Now with the 58-55 OT win over Northern Illinois, Dartmouth has won back-to-back overtime duels for the first time since the 2008-09 team topped Harvard and Brown.

40 Percent Threshold
Despite shooting just 33.9 percent from the floor against Northern Illinois, Dartmouth managed to beat the Huskies in overtime, 58-55. That win ended a streak of 67 consecutive losses when shooting less than 40 percent, dating back to the 2008-09 campaign. And the last time the Big Green shot worse than they did against NIU and still won came on Dec. 18, 2006, in a 56-53 win over Quinnipiac when they hit 19-of-56 field goals (.322).

Mitola Doubling Up on Digits …
Alex Mitola has scored in double figures in each of the first 10 contests this season and ranks fourth in the league at 15.2 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 points in the last 15 games in 2008-09. Going back to last season, Mitola's streak stands at 14 games.

… While Boehm's Streak Ends
Connor Boehm had matched Mitola by scoring in double figures for seven straight contests. But his offensive success came to an end when he posted just seven points against Northern Illinois on Dec. 19. The junior is still averaging 10.3 points a game while shooting 51.3 percent from the floor.

Another Buzzer-Beater
For the fourth time already this season, Dartmouth took a shot at the buzzer with a chance to win the game when Alex Mitola launched a three-pointer in overtime against Northern Illinois on Dec. 19. He did not disappoint the home crowd, swishing the shot for a 58-55 victory.
The first three potential game-winning shots came in three consecutive games, starting with IPFW on Nov. 28. Connor Boehm began the stretch well by draining a three-pointer against the Mastodons to lift Dartmouth to a 68-67 triumph. Two days later, Malik Gill put up a frantic three-point try from 25 feet, but only drew iron in a 65-63 loss to New Hampshire. Then on Dec. 3, Mitola gave it a go with a 12-footer in the lane at Longwood, only to have it bounce off the back of the rim and leave the Green on the wrong end of a 74-73 score.

Three-Pointers Galore
Dartmouth is the most accurate team in the Ivy League from behind the arc, and knocked down a season-high 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 39.2 percent (73-of-186) to rank 39th among Division I schools. Junior Alex Mitola leads the charge with 3.5 treys per game (11th in the nation) at 46.1 percent (30th) and is a career 41.5 percent shooter from deep.

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 fifth in the conference at .513 while Maldunas is sixth at .511. Even more impressive is that Boehm is shooting exactly 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 (3.5) as well as assist-to-turnover ratio (2.9). He and Malik Gill make for a good combination in that latter category as Gill is second with a 2.5 ratio. Gill is also third in steals (1.7), while Gabas Maldunas is fifth in blocked shots per game (1.9) and seventh in rebounding at 7.3 boards a night.

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. Malik Gill matched those five steals when Dartmouth came away with 12 more pilfers against Northern Illinois.

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