New Year's Eve Matinee at Bryant for Men's Basketball

GAMEDAY INFORMATION at BRYANT BULLDOGS
Date & Time:	Wednesday, December 31, 1 p.m.	Dartmouth	Stats	Bryant
Location:	Smithfield, R.I.	5-6	Record	3-5
Arena (Capacity):	Chace Athletic Center (2,600)	Lost 1	Streak	Won 2
All-Time Series:	Bulldogs lead 2-1	63.0	Scoring	61.0
Tickets:	Information	.436	FG%	.386
Broadcast // Stats:	NEC Front Row // Live Stats	.364	3FG%	.364
Logistics:	Directions // Parking // Seating Chart	.635	FT%	.684
Twitter:	@DartmouthSports // @DartmouthMBK	+2.4	Reb Margin	-5.3
Dartmouth Links:	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	13.3	Assists	9.6
Bryant Links:	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	12.5	TO	12.2

Another Game on New Year's Eve
•   Dartmouth has made it a habit of playing on New Year's Eve in recent years as this game against Bryant extends the streak to four years.
•   The Big Green pounded Lesley last year, 85-47, but lost at Boston College on this date in 2012, 79-58, and against Holy Cross the year prior, 65-61.
•   Last time out, Dartmouth struggled through the first half at Penn State and eventually lost by 20 points to the Nittany Lions, 69-49, on Dec. 22.
•   Guard Alex Mitola, the Big Green's leading scorer, was the lone player in double figures with 13 points. His 15.0 ppg ranks fifth in the Ivy League.
•   Two other Dartmouth players average in double figures — center Gabas Maldunas (11.2) and forward Connor Boehm (10.1). They are the team's leading rebounders as well with 7.0 and 6.6 a night, respectively.
•   The Big Green were leading the conference in three-point percentage before sinking just 2-of-20 at Penn State. But with Mitola ranking fifth as an individual (.434) and guard Kevin Crescenzi eighth (.406), Dartmouth still ranks second as a team (.364).
•   One area in which the Green need to improve is at the foul line where they have converted just 63.5 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. Bryant
•   These two teams are meeting for the fourth straight year since starting the series in the 2011-12 campaign.
•   Dartmouth won that initial contest, 66-62, but the Bulldogs have gotten the better of the Big Green the last two seasons.
• Dyami Starks poured in 35 points last year to lead Bryant to an 87-77 victory in Leede Arena. Gabas Maldunas had a double-double (14 pts., 11 reb.) and Alex Mitola led Dartmouth with 15 points.
•   Dartmouth is 9-11 all-time against Northeast Conference schools.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 1-2 against Bryant, and 8-4 against current NEC schools.

Scouting the Bulldogs
•   Bryant got off to a slow start, losing five of its first six games, but has won its last two on the road, winning at Army, 80-73, and Denver, 48-46.
•   The Bulldogs began the month of December with back-to-back losses to a pair of Ivy League schools — 67-60 to Yale and 69-62 at Brown.
•   Dyami Starks is the star of the team, averaging nearly a third of the team's points at 19.8 per night while shooting over 40 percent from long range.
•   As a team, Bryant is shooting just 38.6 percent from the floor, and no one that has tried at least 10 field goals is hitting better than 42 percent.
•   The opposition has grabbed five more rebounds a game on average, but forward Dan Garvin leads the Bulldogs at 6.0 boards per game.
•   Bryant shoots 68.4 percent at the charity stripe, but the Big Green should be wary about sending Starks (.885) or Hunter Ware (.917) to the line.
•   The Bulldogs do a good job of taking care of the ball, turning it over about a dozen times a game, plus snag close to six steals a night.
•   Curtis Oakley, the nephew of long-time NBA player Charles Oakley, has played in all eight games, starting three.
•   Tim O'Shea is in his seventh season at Bryant with a 60-130 record, but 37 of those wins came in the last two years. He also guided Ohio for seven years and has a combined record of 180-225.
•   Associate head coach Happy Dobbs is a former Dartmouth assistant under Paul Cormier, back during Cormier's first stint in Hanover (1984-91).

Looking for Another Win
Dartmouth has won four of its last six games, and a win over Bryant would allow the Big Green to start the new year with a .500 record at 6-6. In the last decade, only last year's squad at 7-4 has been at .500 or better when the calendar changed years.

Low-Scoring Halves
When Dartmouth managed just 13 points in the second half against Northern Illinois, it was the lowest-scoring half for the Big Green since hitting a baker's dozen in the first half against Cornell on Jan. 29, 2010. They then came back with 16 points in the opening stanza at Penn State, giving them their lowest score in consecutive halves in at least a decade.

Mitola Doubling Up on Digits
Alex Mitola has scored in double figures in each of the first 11 contests this season and ranks fifth in the league at 15.0 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 matches Barnett's at 15.

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 season pace of 7.0 per game, he will finish his stay in Hanover fourth all-time with over 730 rebounds.

50 Percent Threshold
Connor Boehm is one of just four players in the Ivy League hitting at least half of their shots. Boehm is second in the conference at .524, but two others rank among the top 10 with Gabas Maldunas knocking on the door of 50 percent in sixth at .496, and Alex Mitola ninth at .472. Even more impressive is that Boehm is shooting better than 50 percent for his career (.502), 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 three-pointers per game (3.3) and is second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5). He and Malik Gill make for a good combination in that latter category as Gill is third with a 2.4 ratio. Gill is also fourth in steals (1.5), while Gabas Maldunas is fourth in blocked shots per game (1.9) and sixth in rebounding at 7.0 boards a night.

Schedules