Men Welcome Defending Champs for Ivy League Opener

GAMEDAY INFORMATION vs. HARVARD CRIMSON
Date & Time	Saturday, January 10, 7 p.m.	Dartmouth	Stats	Harvard
Location	Hanover, N.H.	6-6	Record	9-3
Arena (Capacity)	Leede Arena (2,100)	Won 1	Streak	Won 2
All-Time Series	Big Green lead 94-84	64.1	Scoring	65.2
Tickets	Information	.436	FG%	.452
Broadcast	Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network - Drew Galbraith play-by-play	.366	3FG%	.374
Logistics	Directions // Parking // Seating Chart	.648	FT%	.696
Twitter	@DartmouthMBK // @DartmouthSports	+3.3	Reb Margin	+2.3
Dartmouth Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes // Live Stats	13.7	Assists	13.0
Harvard Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	12.3	TO	13.1

Ivy Season Begins With Harvard
•   For the 28th straight year, Dartmouth opens up its Ivy League season by playing the Crimson of Harvard, which is the league favorite once again after winning at least a share of the last four conference crowns and the last three outright.
•   The Crimson have the edge in these consecutive conference openers, emerging victorious in 17 of the 27 games entering this one.
•   Dartmouth has played well for the past month, however, winning five of its last seven games, including its most recent contest at Bryant on New Year's Eve, a 76-59 triumph.
•   Power forward Connor Boehm led the Green with a season-high 20 points against the Bulldogs, knocking down 7-of-9 field goals with a pair of three-pointers to double his season total.
•   Guard Alex Mitola, the Big Green's leading scorer, was the only other Dartmouth player in double figures with 14 points. His 14.9 ppg ranks fourth in the Ivy League, and he leads the loop with 3.2 three-pointers per game.
•   Both Boehm and center Gabas Maldunas average in double figures as well at just under 11 ppg, making Dartmouth the only school in the league with three players among the top 15 scorers.
•   One area in which the Green need to improve is at the foul line where they have converted just 64.8 percent, last among Ancient Eight schools.
•   As a team, Dartmouth is third in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage, and third in defensive FG and 3FG percentage.

Series vs. Harvard
•   While Dartmouth has a 94-84 advantage all-time, Harvard has won the last 10 encounters.
•   Last year the Crimson pulled away in the second half for a 61-45 victory in Cambridge despite 23 points from Gabas Maldunas, then won by 30 in Hanover as the Big Green played without an injured Maldunas for the first time.
•   At Leede Arena, Dartmouth has a 10-17 mark, but its last win in the series at home came seven years ago in a 73-56 triumph.
•   Paul Cormier is 12-13 all-time against Harvard.
•   While Dartmouth dominated the first 60 years of the series with a 56-14 record through 1960, the Big Green have mustered just a 38-70 mark since then, including a 5-25 record the last 15 years.

Scouting the Crimson
•   Harvard is 7-0 at home but just 2-2 on an opponent's court. Granted, those two losses came at Virginia and Arizona State, but the Crimson needed overtime to win at Vermont, 64-52.
•   Wing Wesley Saunders is the only Harvard player scoring in double figures at 16.7 points per game, third in the league, while shooting 51.5 percent from the floor, good for fourth.
•   Siyani Chambers runs the offense with a team-high 5.0 assists per game, plus can shoot the long ball with 16 three-pointers to boost his 8.7 ppg.
•   On the boards, forward Steve Moundou-Missi leads Harvard by averaging 6.7 rebounds a night, while Saunders chips in 5.8 as well.
•   The Crimson have attempted fewer three-pointers per game than any other Ivy school, but make them at a 37.4 percent clip, second in the league.
•   Corbin Miller, who spent two years on a Mormon mission, is back this year and is Harvard's top three-point shooter with 29 triples.
•   Harvard has held opponents to a paltry 38.6 field goal percentage, thanks in part to leading the loop with 75 blocked shots, 24 by Moundou-Missi and 20 courtesy of center Kenyatta Smith.
•   Tommy Amaker (Duke '87) is in his eighth season at Harvard's helm with a 148-74 record in Cambridge and 324-213 in his career that has taken him to Seton Hall for four seasons (68-55) and Michigan for six (108-84).

Boehm Bombs Bryant
The first time Connor Boehm played at Bryant, he was merely a freshman. But in that game he recorded a career-high 24 points. Then on New Year's Eve, the Illinois native returned to Smithfield, R.I., and poured in 20 against the Bulldogs to lead Dartmouth to a convincing 76-59 victory. Boehm has topped 20 or more points in two other games in his career, one of which was at Brown last year, meaning three of his four career 20-point games have come in the state of Rhode Island.

Mitola Hangs with the Big Boys
Alex Mitola may be just 5-11 in stature, but he played much bigger against the Bryant Bulldogs on New Year's Eve. Known more for his three-point prowess (he currently leads the Ivy League with 3.2 triples per game), the point guard hauled in a career-best nine rebounds to lead all players and help give Dartmouth a 43-30 advantage on the glass. He also chipped in 14 points, extending his streak of double-digit scoring games to 16, the longest since Alex Barnett '09 had at least 10 points in 22 consecutive games during the 2007-08 season.

Gill Giveth and Taketh Away
Malik Gill has provided quite a spark off the bench as a habitual helper and pesky defender. The 5-9 guard leads Dartmouth with 41 assists and 19 steals, plus ranks second in the Ivy League in assist-to-turnover ratio having coughed the ball up just 15 times. Most recently at Bryant, Gill dished out five dimes in just nine minutes, plus stole the ball twice to become the 16th player in program history to amass 100 steals in a career.

Golden Rediscovering His Shot
Having missed the first month of the season with a knee injury, ending his streak of consecutive starts at 58 games, John Golden had struggled with his outside shot since returning against Jacksonville State. But at Bryant, the senior wing drained his first two three-pointers of the year within one minute of action. He needs to average one per game the rest of the way to reach 100 triples in his career.

Starting the New Year Even
With the 76-59 victory at Bryant on New Year's Eve, Dartmouth begins the 2015 calendar year with a 6-6 record. It is the second straight year in which the Big Green were at .500 or better on New Year's Day (7-4 in 2013-14) after 11 straight seasons under the mark. The 2001-02 squad was the last Dartmouth team to reach .500 going into the new year with a record of 6-6.

50 Percent Threshold
Connor Boehm enters the weekend leading the Ivy League in field goal percentage at .549, making him one of just four players hitting at least half of their shots. Even more impressive is that Boehm is shooting better than 50 percent for his career (.506), a mark only seven other Dartmouth players with at least 200 field goals have achieved, led by Brian Burke '84 (.572, 406-of-710).

Others Among the League Leaders
Entering this game, junior Alex Mitola is leading the Ivy League in minutes played (35.4 per game) and three-pointers per game (3.2) and is third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.6). He and Malik Gill make for a good combination in that latter category as Gill is second with a 2.7 ratio. Gill is also third in steals (1.6), while Gabas Maldunas is fifth in blocked shots per game (1.8) and sixth in field goal percentage (.476).

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