TV Game at Columbia, Quick Turnaround at Cornell for Men

GAMEDAY INFORMATION at COLUMBIA LIONS // CORNELL BIG RED
Date & Time	Friday, February 27, 8 p.m. // Saturday, February 28, 6 p.m.	Dartmouth	Stats	Columbia	Cornell
Location	New York, N.Y. // Ithaca, N.Y.	10-14, 3-7	Record	13-11, 5-5	12-14, 4-6
Arena (Capacity)	Levien Gym (2,500) // Newman Arena (4,473)	Won 1	Streak	Won 2	Lost 3
All-Time Series	Lions lead 109-98 // Big Red lead 105-104	62.0	Scoring	64.4	63.1
Tickets	Columbia // Cornell	.429	FG%	.444	.396
Columbia Broadcast	American Sports Network (and ILDN) — Carl Reuter (pbp) and Emmett Davis (analyst)	.348	3FG%	.371	.320
Cornell Broadcast	Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network	5.9	3FG/g	8.7	6.1
Columbia Logistics	Directions // Parking	.639	FT%	.717	.744
Cornell Logistics	Directions // Parking	+0.9	Reb Margin	+2.7	-2.8
Twitter	@DartmouthMBK // @DartmouthSports	12.4	Assists	12.1	10.4
Dartmouth Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes // Live Stats	12.7	TO	12.0	12.5
Columbia Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	3.4	Blocks	3.8	5.0
Cornell Links	Home // Roster // Schedule // Stats // Notes	7.5	Steals	5.0	6.4

American Sports Network Channel List

To find out how to watch the ASN broadcast of the Big Green game at Columbia on Friday at 8 p.m., check out the channel listing.

Last Road Trip of the Season
•   Dartmouth has its work cut out for it if it is to reach a .500 record for the first time in 16 years, beginning with the suddenly hot Columbia Lions in a game televised by the American Sports Network followed by a trek to Cornell on Saturday.
•   The Big Green earned a season split with Penn last Saturday, knocking off the Quakers in Leede Arena, 67-62. But Princeton rallied in the second half the night before to finish a sweep of Dartmouth, 63-56.
•   Dartmouth's leading scorer, Alex Mitola, had his highest output in four weeks with 18 points against Penn. The 5-11 guard is seventh in the league with 12.7 points per game.
•   Gabas Maldunas has scored in double figures in nine of the 10 conference contests and leads the Big Green with 11.9 ppg to go with 7.6 rebounds a night, fifth best in the Ivy League.
•   Freshman Miles Wright cooled off against Penn with just two points after tallying 17.0 ppg over the previous six games while being named Ivy Rookie of the Week twice.
•   Dartmouth leads the league in both steals (7.5 pg) and turnover margin (+0.8), but need to improve its foul shooting, a league-worst 63.9 percent.

Series vs. Columbia
•   These two teams have squared off 207 times to date with the Lions leading, 109-98. Head coach Paul Cormier is 12-11 versus Columbia.
•   Dartmouth is trying to continue a recent trend of series sweeps — the Big Green swept the season series in 2012-13, the Lions returned the favor last year, and now Dartmouth won the first meeting on Valentine's Day, 61-49.
•   The Big Green jumped out to a 19-2 lead two weeks ago, allowed Columbia to briefly go up before a 13-0 run in the second half to put the game away. Wright led all players with 16 points.
•   Dartmouth has gone 16-23 in Columbia's Levien Gymnasium since it opened in 1974.
•   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
•   Since losing to the Big Green on Feb. 14, Columbia swept a road weekend at Brown (76-59) and Yale (56-50), knocking the Bulldogs out of a tie for the league lead with Harvard.
•   Maodo Lo, the Lions' leading scorer, exploded for 53 points in the two games, including 35 against the Bears, and averages a league-best 17.1 ppg.
•   Along with Kyle Castlin (10.0 ppg) and Steve Frankoski (8.0), Columbia's top three scorers are all guards and have combined for 128 three-pointers at a 40.9 percent clip.
•   On the boards, 6-11 Cory Osetkowski (5.6 rpg) and Isaac Cohen (5.5) do the heavy lifting, though Lo (4.7) grabs his share as well as the Lions outrebound their opponents by 2.7 a game.
•   Columbia is second in the league in FG percentage (.444) and three-point percentage (.371).
•   The Lions also get it done at the other end of the court, holding opponents to 41.4 FG percentage and a league-best 31.6 percent from deep.
•   Kyle Smith (Hamilton '92) is in his fifth year as head coach of the Lions with a record of 76-67 after nine years as an assistant at St. Mary's.

Series vs. Cornell
•   Dartmouth has played the Big Red 209 times entering this game, more than any other opponent, with Cornell taking a slim 105-104 lead in the series thanks to its overtime win two weeks ago, 81-72.
•   The Big Green led by six with five minutes to play, then had to get a putback by Gabas Maldunas in the final minute to force overtime. Cornell scored off the tap three seconds into the extra period and never trailed from that point.
•   Miles Wright had 19 points for Dartmouth, as did Robert Hatter for the Big Red while Shonn Miller posted a 17-point, 15-rebound double-double.
•   The Big Green are 7-16 versus Cornell in Newman Arena, having lost the last nine (the longest current skid at any Ivy venue) after winning five straight here.
•   Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier is 9-14 against the Big Red during his career.

Scouting the Big Red
•   Since that overtime win at Leede Arena, Cornell has dropped three straight, including a last-second, 57-56 defeat at Brown last Friday.
•   But the return of Shonn Miller from injury has allowed Cornell to rebound from a difficult 2-26 campaign last year to 12-14 thus far in 2014-15.
•   The aforementioned Miller is second in the Ivy League in scoring (16.2 ppg) and rebounding (8.2 rpg), and converts 83.5 percent of his free throws plus tops Cornell with 50 blocks and 34 steals.
•   Aside from Miller, the Big Red rely on Robert Hatter (11.5 ppg), Devin Cherry (10.4) and Galal Cancer (9.9) for offense. No one else on the roster averages more than 3.2 points a night.
•   Cornell is adept at getting to the free throw line and converting, leading the league by a wide maring at 74.4 percent.
•   The Big Red may be last in FG percentage (.396) and seventh in 3FG percentage (.320), but lead the Ivies in FG percentage defense (.385).
•   Head coach Bill Courtney (Bucknell '92) is in his fifth year with a record of 49-92. Prior to coming to Ithaca, he had assistant jobs at Va. Tech, UVA, Providence, George Mason and Bowling Green.

Friday Game on TV
The game at Columbia on Friday night has been moved to 8 p.m. to accommodate the American Sports Network as it will televise the game. The network syndicates the broadcast, which will be shown in select markets on various stations, but subscribers of Big Green Insider will also be able to watch via the Ivy League Digital Network. Carl Reuter and former Colgate head coach Emmett Davis will call all of the action.

Need to Win Out to Reach .500
Dartmouth needs to win its final four games in order to reach the .500 mark for the season, both overall and in conference play. The last time the Big Green achieved both in the same season came 16 years ago when the 1998-99 squad went 14-12 and 10-4 in the Ivy League. But Dartmouth did post a 7-7 mark against the league in 2008-09 and 2004-05.

Back-To-Back Home Wins vs. Penn
The 67-62 victory over Penn on Feb. 21 was the second straight time the Big Green beat the Quakers at Leede Arena. It may not seem like much, but this is the first time since a three-season stretch in 1988-90 that Dartmouth has managed to win consecutive contests at home against Penn.

Most Telling Statistic
Dartmouth has had an up and down season, only recently posting a streak of longer than two games with the five-game slide that ended with the win over Columbia. 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 less than 40 percent, the Green are 12-1. When they shoot at least 40 percent, they are 2-9, with the win over Penn being the second of those two victories.

Mitola Breaks Loose
Opposing Ivy teams have done everything they can to contain junior guard Alex Mitola this season, and for the most part have limited his scoring opportunities. But the Big Green's leading scorer could not be contained any longer against Penn as he knocked down 7-of-12 shots, including 4-of-5 from downtown, to lead the way in the 67-62 victory with 18 points. The four triples were his most since raining down five in an overtime win against Northern Illinois on Dec. 19.

Gabas Reaches Milestones
In the first meeting against Columbia on Feb. 14, Gabas Maldunas converted a free throw in the final two minutes to finish the game with exactly 1,000 points, becoming the first Dartmouth player to reach the milestone since Alex Barnett '09 did six years ago, and the 26th player overall. And last weekend he registered his 700th career rebound, joining an exclusive Big Green club now made up of four players. He is the first Dartmouth player since Rudy LaRusso '59 to reach both marks in a career.

Showing Off Carpenter-y Skills
Throughout his career, junior Tommy Carpenter has been a useful role player. But lately, he has upped his offensive game, most notably against Penn on Feb. 21. The 6-7 forward not only scored a career-high 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, but also handed out a career-best five assists without committing a turnover. The week prior, he scored in double figures for the first time in his career with 10 points against Cornell.

Dickinson — Good Luck Charm
With Connor Boehm unavailable against Columbia on Feb. 14, sophomore Wesley Dickinson stepped into the starting role for the first time in his career. The forward proceeded to block a career-high four shots and help Dartmouth win, 61-49. Boehm returned to the lineup against Princeton, a game the Green lost by seven. So Dickinson was inserted back in the lineup versus Penn, and lo and behold, Dartmouth picked up a five-point win. Coincidence? Who cares if it works?

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 180 times in 24 games to date, allowing them to lead the league with 7.5 per game. That rate is more pronounced in six conference games at 8.8, easily the most in the Ancient Eight. Twice Dartmouth has stolen the ball 13 times (vs. NJIT, at Harvard), and Malik Gill along with Miles Wright lead the team with 34 pilfers with Gabas Maldunas (31) not far behind.

Three-Pointers Rediscovered
Through the end of the 2014 calendar year, three-pointers were a common occurence for the Big Green having shot 36.6 percent (82-for-224) from long range with at least seven in eight of the 12 games. But once the calendar turned to 2015, triples became scarce as Dartmouth managed just 32 in 116 attempts (.276) over the next eight contests with no more than six in any one game. Over the last two weeks, the trend has reverted back to early-season form with 27 treys in 65 attempts (.415), including eight against both Cornell and Penn.

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.

No Rest for the Weary
Well, Alex Mitola may not be weary, but the junior point guard has seen plenty of action this season and his entire career. He has started each of Dartmouth's 80 games since arriving on campus and has averaged close to 33 minutes a game. This year, he leads the Ivy League lead at 34:35 played per game. Mitola has played at least 32 minutes in every game except two this year, with a low of 25 at Yale.

Also Among the Ivy Leaders
Dartmouth has a number of players among the league leaders in various statistical categories:
•   Alex Mitola is among the top 10 in six other categories — FT percentage (.873, 1st), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2, 2nd), 3FG per game (2.5, 2nd), scoring (12.7 ppg, 7th), 3FG percentage (.385, 8th) and assists (2.8 apg, 10th).
•   Gabas Maldunas is fourth in locks (1.8), sixth in rebounding (7.0), ninth in FG percentage (.471), ninth in steals (1.3) and 10th in scoring (11.2).
•   Malik Gill ranks in three categories — assist-to-turnover ratio (1.9, 3rd), steals (1.4, t-5th) and assists (3.0, 8th).
•   Connor Boehm is fourth in FG percentage (.506).
•   Miles Wright is tied for fifth in steals (1.4).

Schedules