Dartmouth to Host Vermont for 100th Game in Series

DARTMOUTH (1-2) vs.
VERMONT (3-4)
LEEDE ARENA, HANOVER, N.H.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2, 2015 • 7 P.M.
Video: Ivy League Digital Network — Jay Burnham (play-by-play)
All-Time Series: Big Green lead 57-42
Last Meeting: Jan. 14, 2015 — Vermont 55, Dartmouth 52

Twin-State Rivalry
•    Coming off a convincing 79-56 victory over LIU Brooklyn, Dartmouth looks to start a winning streak with twin-state rival Vermont in town for the 100th game in the series.
•   Dating back to last year, the Big Green have won their last four home games and five of their last six.
•   After scoring just nine points in the first two games on the road, sophomore Miles Wright enjoyed coming home so much that he tied the Leede Arena record with 39 points against the Blackbirds, earning Ivy League Player of the Week honors along the way.
•   Dartmouth made it a clean sweep of the league's weekly honors as freshman Evan Boudreaux earned the Rookie of the Week award for the second time in three weeks with his 13 points and seven rebounds.
•   What would a Big Green Big Wheel be without a third wheel? Connor Boehm recorded his fifth career double-double with 11 points and rebounds to complement the award-winning duo.
•   Boudreaux is tied for the league lead at 18 points a game while Wright quickly jumped up to seventh at 16.0 ppg.
•   One catalyst for the offense has been point guard Malik Gill, who leads the Ivy League in both assists (6.3) and steals (2.3) per game.

Series vs. Vermont
•   In the first 99 games of the series, the Big Green have the edge, 57-42.
•   This is the 54th consecutive year they have met on the hardwood, the longest streak for any Dartmouth non-conference opponent.
•   The Catamounts have had the upper hand over the past 42 seasons with a 34-14 mark, while winning the last seven and 15 of the last 16.
•   The lone Big Green win in the last 16 years came at Leede Arena seven years ago, 76-75.
•   The Big Green dominated the series through 1972, winning 44 of 51 games against Vermont.
•   Last year, Vermont held off Dartmouth in Burlington, 55-52, in a game that featured 13 ties and nine lead changes. Catamount Hector Harold led all players with 12 points, while Connor Boehm and Alex Mitola each had 11 for the Green.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 5-9 in his career against Vermont.

Scouting the Catamounts
•   Only one of Vermont's seven games have been decided by less than 13 points, including blowout losses to start the year against Eastern Michigan and Purdue, and a 26-point home win over Marist, a team Dartmouth lost to on the road by 10.
•   Four players average in double figures for a Catamount team scoring 73.7 points a game and shooting nearly 47 percent from the floor and 38 percent from long range.
•   Trae Bell-Haynes leads the team not only in scoring at 13.4 ppg, but turnovers as well with 27.
•   Ernie Duncan is the biggest outside threat with all but two of his field goals being three-pointers at a 50 percent clip while averaging 12.3 ppg.
•   Joining Kurt Steidl (7.0 rpg) and Ethan O'Day (5.7) on the glass is Dre Wills, who missed the first five games but had a double-double in the win over Marist (10 pts., 11 reb.).
•   O'Day, scoring 12.3 ppg, is one of the only players struggling at the foul line (.593) as Vermont makes free throws at a 78.7 percent rate.
•   The defense is more likely to force a bad shot than a turnover with opponents coughing the ball up barely 10 times a game.
•   John Becker (Catholic '90) is 90-53 in his fifth year at the helm of the Catamounts and was the 2014 America East Coach of the Year.

The Wright Stuff
Easy headline, I know, but how else to describe sophomore Miles Wright tying the Leede Arena record with a career-high 39 points, more than any Dartmouth player has scored in a game since Jim Barton set the Big Green single-game record with 48 at Brown in 1987? Wright took home Ivy League Player of the Week honors as he cashed in 13-of-22 field goals, 7-of-9 from deep (5-of-5 in the second half) and 6-of-7 free throws. It was his third weekly honor having been the league Rookie of the Week twice last year.

Wright Amount of Tidbits
•   Vermont's Eddie Benton held the Leede Arena scoring record all by himself for over 21 years after scoring 39 against Dartmouth on Jan. 11, 1994 in a game the Catamounts won, 87-82.
•   Before that, the record was held by Lynn Suber of Texas A&M who may have scored 37 points against none other than LIU Brooklyn (then known as Long Island) on Dec. 16, 1989 in the Lobster Classic. I say “may have” because his stat line only added up to 36 points.
•   The first player to top 30 points in Leede Arena was (appropriately enough) Jim Barton '89, Dartmouth's all-time leading scorer, who poured in 36 against Boston College on Nov. 29, 1988, exactly 27 years prior to Wright's 39-point outburst.
•   Only one other Big Green player has had 30 in a game in the building in the last 14 years, that being Alex Mitola when he tallied 33 thanks to 8-of-9 three-pointers in an 87-78 win over Cornell on March 1, 2014.

Evan Almighty
For the second time in the first three weeks of the 2015-16 season, freshman Evan Boudreaux was chosen as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. This time he merely scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the 79-56 win over LIU Brooklyn in Dartmouth's home opener. In case you are wondering, the Big Green record for most rookie weekly honors in one season is six set by Leon Pattman in 2003-04.

Here Comes the Boehm
Eh, that's close enough to “boom” to make it work. Senior Connor Boehm recorded his fifth career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in the 79-56 win over LIU Brooklyn on Nov. 29. He also continued to climb closer to 1,000 points as he needs 154 more to become the 28th player in program history to reach the milestone.

Hot Shots Part Boudreaux
After scoring 25 points in his collegiate debut at Seton Hall, (the most by any Big Green freshman in a season opener ever), Evan Boudreaux provided an encore of sorts with his 16 points and 12 rebounds at Marist for his first career double-double. The rookie currently leads the Ivy League in scoring at 18.0 points per game while ranking fifth in rebounding (8.3 rpg).

Dropping a Quarter
Dimes are for point guards, such as Malik Gill who leads the Ivy League with 6.3 assists per game. But quarters are for scorers as Evan Boudreaux torched Seton Hall for 25 points, the most by a freshman in any game since Alex Mitola dropped 27 against Yale in his rookie campaign in the 2012-13 season. Over the last 40 season openers, the most points by any Dartmouth player is 35 — Jim Barton against Hartford in 1986-87 and Sea Lonergan versus Colgate in 1996-97.

Three-Point Thrills
With Miles Wright doing most of the heavy lifting outside the arc by hitting 7-of-9 three-pointers against LIU Brooklyn, Dartmouth shot 66.7 percent (8-of-12) from long range for the game. It was the most accurate performance for the Big Green since hitting 3-of-4 (.750) against Princeton on Feb. 6, 2010. If you want more attempts, then you have to go back to Dec. 4, 2003 for 15-of-21 (.714) in a 95-60 win over Tufts.

Year 3 of Ivy League Digital Network
All home games and every Ivy League contest — a total of 22 games — will be streamed live in high-definition this season through the Big Green Insider channel on the Ivy League Digital Network. Visit DartmouthSports.com, the official website of Dartmouth athletics, for information on how to subscribe and watch the action on your computer, tablet or phone.

Schedules