Looking to Finish Homestand with a Winning Record

DARTMOUTH (1-3) vs.
HARTFORD (3-5)
LEEDE ARENA, HANOVER, N.H.
SATURDAY, DEC. 5, 2015 • 2 P.M.
Video: Ivy League Digital Network — Jay Burnham (play-by-play)
All-Time Series: Hawks lead 10-6
Last Meeting: Nov. 19, 2014 — Hartford 53, Dartmouth 48

More from the America East Conference
•    Following a 68-63 defeat against twin-state rival Vermont, Dartmouth dives right back into the America East Conference by hosting Hartford.
•   The loss to the Catamounts was the eighth straight against Vermont and snapped a four-game home win streak that dated back to last season.
•   Reigning Ivy League Player of the Week Miles Wright didn't score 39 points again, but he did register his first career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds in the defeat.
•   The Rookie of the Week, Evan Boudreaux, nearly matched Wright in the two categories as he equaled his league-leading season average of 18 points to go with nine boards.
•   Senior Kevin Crescenzi provided a spark off the bench with six points and four assists, the latter matching a personal best set in the season opener.
•   Speaking of assists, point guard Malik Gill leads the Ivy League with 5.3 helpers per game, but he also taketh away as his 2.5 steals sit atop the league as well.
•   Last year the Big Green had the Ivy League's worst team free throw percentage at .646. Yes, it's early, but Dartmouth leads the loop at .733 thanks in large part to Boudreaux who has attempted more than a third of those foul shots at an 81.3 percent clip.

Series vs. Hartford
•   Dartmouth has taken on the Hawks 16 times on the hardwood and is 6-10 in the series that began in 1984 with the first game Hartford played at the Division I level, a 55-52 Big Green win in overtime.
•   That overtime win was the first game as a head coach for Paul Cormier, who is 8-3 against Hartford.
• Last year the Hawks survived a defensive struggle by besting Dartmouth, 53-48. Gabas Maldunas and Alex Mitola combined to score 28 points at Hartford, but no one else had more than four as the Green turned the ball over 19 times.
•   Dartmouth is 2-4 against the Hawks in Leede Arena, last winning here six years ago, 68-56.
•   Against current America East teams, Cormier sports a record of 29-25.

Scouting the Hawks
•   Each of Hartford's three wins have been hotly contested, with the season opener going to overtime and victories over Saint Peter's and Niagara coming by a combined five points.
•   The losses haven't generally been as kind, though playing St. Louis, Louisville and Providence can do that to a team.
•   The stats show these two teams as pretty evenly matched with Hartford slightly ahead in scoring (68.6 to 68.0) and field goal accuracy (.398 to .394), while the Big Green have slim edges in accuracy from the three-point line (.359 to .350) and free throw line (.733 to .732).
•   Forward George Blagojevic leads four Hawks scoring in double digits at 13.0 while shooting between 50 and 60 percent from the floor, the charity stripe and the three-point line.
•   Point guard Justin Graham provides 10.8 points a night while hitting 11-of-25 (.440) from distance and dishing out three assists per game.
•   Rebounding has been an issue as opponents have an edge of more than eight per game. Hartford's top rebounder thus far is no-brainer all-name team Pancake Thomas, who just returned from a three-game absence, at 5.8 per game.
•   John Gallagher (St. Joseph's '99) is in his sixth season at the helm of the Hawks with a 71-93 record to date. The 2012-13 America East Coach of the Year led Hartford to its only Division I postseason berth that year in the CIT and has averaged 16 wins over the last three seasons.

Vermont Wins 100th Meeting
The twin-state rivals squared off for the 100th time on Dec. 2, and although Dartmouth owns the lead in the all-time series, Vermont won its eighth straight meeting with the Big Green and 16th in the last 17, 68-63. Dartmouth doesn't have to worry quite yet about the Catamounts catching up with a 57-43 all-time advantage.

Ivy Block Record Tied
Brown's Cedric Kuakumensah tied the Ivy League's career record for blocked shots during the Bears' last game with his 252nd swat. Why is this in Dartmouth's notes, you ask? The record he tied belongs to the Big Green's Brian Gilpin, who had been the sole owner of it since graduating in 1997. Oddly enough, Kuakumensah tied the mark on the same day Dartmouth failed to record even one block against Vermont.

On the Rebound
Since getting outrebounded in the season opener at Seton Hall by a wide 45-27 margin, Dartmouth has hauled in more caroms than its opponent in each of the next three contests, and by exactly three each time. That still leaves the Big Green with a negative rebound margin of 2.3 per game, but give it a little more time and they will be in the black again.

Dynamic Duo
Evan Boudreaux and Miles Wright provided a good portion of the offense in the 68-63 loss to Vermont as each recorded 18 points. They also nearly matched on the glass as well as Wright grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double, while Boudreaux snagged nine boards. The two combined to hit 13-of-33 field goals, 4-of-10 from distance and 6-of-7 at the line with 19 rebounds. The rest of the team was 10-of-23 from the floor, 2-of-5 on three-pointers and 5-of-8 at the foul line with 16 boards.

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. With 10 more points against Vermont, he needs 144 more to become the 28th player in program history with 1,000 in a career.

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.

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 is currently second in the Ivy League with 18.0 points per game and fourth with 8.3 rebounds each time out.

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