Men Return to Leede Arena to Play Cornell, Columbia

GAMEDAY INFORMATION vs. CORNELL BIG RED // COLUMBIA LIONS
Date & Time	Friday, February 13, 7 p.m. // Saturday, February 14, 7 p.m.	Dartmouth	Stats	Cornell	Columbia
Location	Hanover, N.H.	8-12, 1-5	Record	11-11, 3-3	11-9, 3-3
Arena (Capacity)	Leede Arena (2,100)	Lost 4	Streak	Won 1	Won 1
All-Time Series	Tied 104-104 // Lions lead 109-97	61.7	Scoring	64.2	64.8
Tickets	Information	.425	FG%	.400	.442
Broadcast vs. Cornell	Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network	.335	3FG%	.319	.371
Broadcast vs. Columbia	Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network	5.7	3FG/g	6.2	8.9
Logistics	Directions // Parking // Seating Chart	.645	FT%	.741	.710
Twitter	@DartmouthMBK // @DartmouthSports	+0.9	Reb Margin	-1.5	+3.5
Dartmouth Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes // Live Stats	12.4	Assists	11.1	12.5
Cornell Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	12.7	TO	12.7	12.1
Columbia Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	7.5	Steals	6.7	5.0

Finally Back at Leede
•   For the first time in four weeks, Dartmouth gets the opportunity to play on its home court, and it could use a little home cooking. The Big Green lost the last four games during a five-game road trip, their longest streak of any kind this season.
•   Last weekend the Green fell at Yale, 81-66, and again at Brown in a game that came down to the final seconds in a 67-64 defeat.
•   Miles Wright starred for Dartmouth in the two games, earning Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors as he topped 20 points in both games and swiped the ball six times without turning it over.
•   It had been nearly two months since a Big Green player hauled in 10 or more rebounds until Gabas Maldunas snared 15 at Brown, the most by anyone on the team this year and two shy of his career best.
•   Dartmouth's leading scorer, Alex Mitola, has found scoring opportunities to be few and far between in Ivy play, averaging just 8.7 points. At Brown, he had 10 points, ending a string of three straight games in single digits.
•   Offense as a whole has been scarce in the six league games. After shooting 43.5 percent overall and 35.9 percent behind the arc against non-conference foes, Dartmouth has seen its percentages drop to 39.9 and 27.2 against Ivy foes.

Series vs. Cornell
•   Dartmouth has played the Big Red 208 times entering this game, more than any other opponent, and both teams have won 104 games.
•   The two squads split the series each of the last two years with each one winning on its home court, a trend the Big Green would like to see continue for the time being.
•   Cornell won the first game last year in Ithaca, 70-67, in the only game decided by less than seven points all season for the Green, before Dartmouth responded with an 87-78 triumph in Hanover.
•   Dartmouth is 16-11 versus Cornell in Leede Arena having won three of the last four meetings.
•   Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier is 9-13 against the Big Red during his career.

Scouting the Big Red
•   The return of Shonn Miller from injury has allowed Cornell to rebound from a difficult 2-26 campaign last year to 11-11 thus far in 2014-15.
•   Last weekend, the Big Red split games at home with a 71-69 loss to Penn before responding with a 68-60 triumph over Princeton.
•   The aforementioned Miller leads the Ivy League in scoring (16.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.0 rpg), and is second in free throw percentage (.852), plus tops Cornell with 44 blocks and 32 steals.
•   Aside from Miller, the Big Red rely on Robert Hatter (11.4 ppg), Devin Cherry (10.3) and Galal Cancer (9.7) for offense. No one else on the roster averages more than 3.1 points a night.
•   Cornell is adept at getting to the free throw line and converting, leading the league by a wide maring at 74.1 percent.
•   The Big Red may be last in FG percentage (.400) and seventh in 3FG percentage (.319), but lead the Ivies in FG percentage defense (.378).
•   Head coach Bill Courtney (Bucknell '92) is in his fifth year with a record of 48-88. Prior to coming to Ithaca, he had assistant jobs at Va. Tech, UVA, Providence, George Mason and Bowling Green.

Series vs. Columbia
•   These two teams have squared off 206 times to date with the Lions leading, 109-97. Head coach Paul Cormier is 11-11 versus Columbia.
•   While Dartmouth swept the season series in 2012-13, the Lions returned the favor last year with a 69-59 win in New York and an 84-72 victory in Hanover.
•   Columbia's Alex Rosenberg and Maodo Lo scored 50 and 38 points, respectively, in the two games, with Rosenberg hitting 31-of-32 free throws.
•   The Big Green, meanwhile, got 32 and 30 from Connor Boehm and Tyler Melville.
•   Dartmouth has gone 16-11 against Columbia in Leede Arena, 49-43 in Hanover since 1923.
•   Last year's 84-72 final at Leede was the first time since 2006 that either team had 70 or more points against the other.

Scouting the Lions
•   A run at the Ivy League title was put in doubt before the season when star Alex Rosenberg was sidelined for the year, but Columbia has proven to be a tough foe, most notably in a hard-fought loss at No. 1 Kentucky by just 10 points.
•   Known more for terrific team defense, the Lions are also long-ball threats with 177 three-pointers, second only to Princeton in the league.
•   Maodo Lo has taken over as the top scorer, second in the league at 16.2 ppg while shooting 42.4 percent from behind the arc.
•   Kyle Castlin also averages in double figures (10.3 ppg) with a 50.3 field goal percentage.
•   On the boards, Cory Osetkowski (6.0 rpg) and Isaac Coehn (5.8) do the heavy lifting, though Lo (4.7) grabs his share as well.
•   The Lions are second in the league in FG percentage (.442) and lead the loop in three-point percentage defense (.305).
•   Like the Big Red, Columbia shoots better than 70 percent at the foul ine (.710), though the team gets there less often than anyone in the league.
•   Kyle Smith (Hamilton '92) is in his fifth year as head coach of the Lions with a record of 74-66 after nine years as an assistant at St. Mary's.

The Wright Rookie of the Week
Although Dartmouth lost games at Yale and Brown last weekend, freshman Miles Wright was selected as the Ivy League's Rookie of the Week to no one's surprise. The Boston native dropped a season-high 20 points on Yale before one-upping himself the next night with 21 more against the Bears. For the two games, Wright hit 15-of-29 field goals (.517), 2-of-7 three-pointers and 9-of-13 free throws (.692). in addition, the youngster swiped the ball three times in each game without turning it over even once.

Mitola Academic All-District
Junior guard Alex Mitola was chosen for the Capital One Academic All-District I Team due to excellence on the court and in the classroom. The economics major currently owns a 3.47 cumulative grade point average and leads the Big Green in scoring (12.9 ppg), three-pointers made (52) and free throw percentage (.867), plus is second in the Ivy League in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4). His selection on the district team earns him a spot on the ballot for Academic All-America, which will be revealed on Feb. 26.

Maldunas Nearing 1,000 Points
It has been more than six years since a Dartmouth player has reached the 1,000-point milestone, but senior Gabas Maldunas is on the verge of changing that. The 6-9 Lithuanian enters the Valentine's weekend with 975 career points, making it very likely that he will become the 26th player in program history to score in four figures during this four-game homestand.

Crescenzi Crescendo?
Junior Kevin Crescenzi got off to a good start this season with his outside shooting, rattling home 13 of his 30 three-point attempts (.433). But over the next eight games, he managed just two in 13 tries (.154). This past weekend at Yale and Brown, the guard appeared to find his stroke, knocking down 4-of-7 (.571) in the two games.

First Streak Longer Than Two
With the losses at Yale and Brown, Dartmouth has now fallen in four straight games, its longest streak — good or bad — of the season. As a matter of fact, until dropping an 81-66 contest at Yale on Feb. 6, the Big Green had not won or lost more than two consecutive games over the first 18 games, the longest such stretch since the 1983-84 campaign. The school “record” is 22 games set in 1969-70 after Dartmouth started the season with three straight wins, then won or lost no more than two in a row the rest of the year.

Honor Among Thieves
Stealing is not frowned upon in basketball, and Dartmouth has been racking up the thefts this year, especially since Ivy play began. The Big Green have swiped the ball 150 times in 20 games to date, allowing them to lead the league with 7.5 per game. That rate is more pronounced in six conference games at nearly 10 a game (9.7), easily the most in the Ancient Eight. Twice Dartmouth has stolen the ball 13 times (vs. NJIT, at Harvard), and Malik Gill leads the team with 28 pilfers with Miles Wright and Gabas Maldunas right behind with 27 apiece.

Board Scores
Before the loss at Brown, Dartmouth players had a total of four instances of snaring 10 or more rebounds in a game, led by Connor Boehm's 14 against IPFW in late November. But Gabas Maldunas added to that total by topping Boehm with 15 caroms against the Bears, just two shy of his career high of 17 achieved last year against UMass Lowell.

Most Telling Statistic
Dartmouth has had an up and down season, only recently posting a streak of longer than two games with this four-game slide. But one statistic at the end of every game has been a solid indicator as to whether or not the Big Green won — opposing field goal percentage with the dividing line being 40 percent. When Dartmouth opponents shoot at least 40 percent, they are 11-1. When they shoot worse than 40 percent, they are 1-7.

Schedules