Tough Test out of Town for Big Green at Penn, Princeton

DARTMOUTH (7-11, 1-3) vs.
PENN (6-11, 0-3)/PRINCETON (12-5, 2-1)
FRIDAY, FEB. 5 AT PENN • 6 P.M.
THE PALESTRA (8,722), PHILADELPHIA, PA.
TV/Video: American Sports Network/NESN+ and Ivy League Digital Network
Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com
All-Time Series vs. Penn: Quakers lead 150-59
Last Meeting vs. Quakers: Feb. 21, 2015 — Dartmouth 67, Penn 62

SATURDAY, FEB. 6 AT PRINCETON • 6 P.M.
JADWIN GYM (6,854), PRINCETON, N.J.
Video: ESPN3 and Ivy League Digital Network
Live Stats: DartmouthSports.com
All-Time Series vs. Princeton: Tigers lead 147-62
Last Meeting vs. Tigers: Feb. 20, 2015 — Princeton 63, Dartmouth 56

•    Dartmouth, which just finished a five-game homestand with a 3-2 record, will try to boost its Ivy League record back to .500 with games at Penn and Princeton.
•    Both games will not only be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network, but on other broadcast platforms as well. American Sports Network is televising the game at Penn on NESN-plus and numerous other stations across the country (channel list), while the Princeton game will be streamed on ESPN3 as well.
•   Historically speaking, this trip has always been difficult for the Big Green. Since their last Ivy League title in 1959, Dartmouth has won a grand total of eight games at the two venues — combined.
• This past weekend, Columbia and Cornell handed the Green a pair of losses to snap a three-game winning streak. The Lions won by 17, 77-60, while the Big Red rallied from a nine-point deficit in the final 3:32 to defeat Dartmouth, 77-73.
•   Senior Connor Boehm became the 28th player in Big Green history to score 1,000 points in a career when he put up 22 against Cornell.
•   Even with Boehm's scoring output, it was freshman Evan Boudreaux who led Dartmouth with 24 points and a season-high 16 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year.
•   Boudreaux leads the Big Green in both scoring (16.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.9), both of which rank among the top four in the Ivy League.

Series vs. Penn
•   Dartmouth has squared off against the Quakers 209 times previously with Penn holding a lopsided 150-59 advantage.
• The two teams split the series last year with each school winning on its home court. The Quakers held off the Big Green at The Palestra, 58-51, before Dartmouth salvaged the split in Hanover with a 67-62 triumph.
•   Connor Boehm has averaged 10.3 points in six career games against Penn.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 7-17 against Penn in his collegiate coaching career.
•   Since the Palestra opened on Jan. 1, 1927, the Green have posted an 18-71 record against the Quakers there, but have won just four of their last 56 in the arena (two in the last seven years).

Scouting the Quakers
•   Since starting the season with three straight wins, Penn has lost 11 of 14, including its first three Ivy League games.
•   The Quakers, already without the services of point guard Antonio Woods for the rest of the season, suffered another loss last weekend with an injury to their second-leading scorer and top rebounder, Darien Nelson-Henry. His status is uncertain.
•   Penn still features two other players scoring in double figures in Matt Howard (12.1 ppg) and Sam Jones (10.1), the latter the team's top perimeter shooter (45 three-pointers).
•   Jackson Donahue has stepped up without Woods, averaging 14.8 ppg in the last four games.
•   When it comes to accuracy, Penn is last in the Ivy League behind the arc (.304), and next-to-last in field goals (.426) and free throws (.613).
•   Steve Donahue may be in his first year guiding Penn, but is no stranger to the Ivy League having led Cornell to the Sweet 16 back in 2010. He is 206-225 in his 15th year as a Division I head coach.

Series vs. Princeton
•   This is the 210th game in the series that dates back to 1905. The Tigers have the edge at 147-62.
•   Princeton swept the two games last year by similar scores, 64-53 in Jadwin and 63-56 in Hanover.
•   The last Big Green victory at Princeton came on Feb. 21, 2009 by a final of 66-63, one of just three wins at Jadwin Gym (others in 1987, 2007) in the 46 times Dartmouth has played there.
•   The Tigers have won 11 of the last 12 games dating back to that Big Green win at Jadwin.
•   In his first two games against Princeton, sophomore Miles Wright averaged 13.0 ppg while shooting 60 percent from the floor.
•   Big Green coach Paul Cormier is 5-19 versus the Tigers during his collegiate coaching career.

Scouting the Tigers
•   Princeton had its five-game win streak halted at Yale, and of its five losses, all have been on the road and come against teams in the top 85 of the RPI.
•   At the same time, the Tigers have not beaten a team higher than 179 in the RPI.
•   Three players score in double figures, led by Henry Caruso at 16.6 ppg (third in the Ivy League) while shooting a robust 56.5 percent overall and 46.7 percent (21-of-45) from long range.
•   Add two others to the mix putting up close to nine points a night in Amir Bell and Steven Cook, and Princeton has a very solid nucleus.
•   Spencer Weisz runs the offense with a stellar 60-19 assist-to-turnover ratio to go with 10.4 ppg and 5.5 rebounds to boot. Only Caruso grabs more at 6.6 rpg for a team that has the second-best rebound margin in the league (+4.6).
•   The Tigers boast the highest scoring offense in the league at 78.4 ppg while ranking second in FG percentage (.450) and fourth in 3FG pct. (.359).
•   Mitch Henderson (Princeton '98) is in his fifth year guiding his alma mater with a 86-51 record entering the weekend. He played in three NCAA Tournaments with the Tigers and spent 11 years as an assistant at Northwestern.

Houses of Horrors
The trip to Penn and Princeton has rarely been kind to Dartmouth throughout the years. Since the Big Green's last Ivy League title in 1959, they have won just four games at The Palestra against the Quakers. In that same time span, Dartmouth has just five wins at Princeton and is 3-43 at Jadwin Gym. Only once have the Green won both games, that coming in the 2008-09 season.

Heartbreaker in Battle of Bigs
Dartmouth missed out on a golden opportunity to start the Ivy season at 2-2 for just the fourth time in the past 18 seasons when it led Cornell by nine with 3:40 to play at Leede Arena on Jan. 30. But the Big Red, which tallied just one field goal for the rest of the game, took advantage of numerous trips to the foul line, hitting 14-of-18 in that span while the Big Green did not attempt even a single free throw. That allowed Cornell to steal a 77-73 victory and keep Dartmouth from a .500 record in league play.

Tractor Boehm to 1,000
Needing just seven points against Cornell on Jan. 30 to become the 28th player in Dartmouth history to score 1,000 points in a career, senior Connor Boehm made sure he cleared the hurdle by tallying 22 in the 77-73 defeat. He hit 8-of-10 shots (the lone misses were on three-pointers) and 5-of-9 at the line for his sixth career 20-point game and second this season. With 1,015 points on his ledger, he is 25th all-time at Dartmouth.

Boudreaux Boudreaux Golly!
Freshman Evan Boudreaux recorded his sixth double-double with 24 points and a season-high 16 rebounds in the 77-73 loss to Cornell on Jan. 30. He is the first Big Green player with that many double-doubles in a season since Alex Barnett '09 matched that total in the 2007-08 campaign (the year before he earned Ivy League Player of the Year). Boudreaux has led Dartmouth in scoring in 11 of the first 18 games, including the last five, and in rebounding a dozen times. All of his exploits have so far earned him Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors six times, tying the school record and leaving him two shy of matching the league record.

Teammates Top 20
For the second time this year, Dartmouth teammates scored 20 or more points in a game when Evan Boudreaux posted 24 and Connor Boehm 22 in the loss to Cornell. Earlier in the year, Miles Wright and Boudreaux each topped 20 points when the former dropped 23 (while adding a team-high three blocks and four steals) and the latter 21 in the loss at Harvard on Jan. 9. It was the first time Dartmouth teammates each scored at least 20 points in a game since Tyler Melville '14 and Connor Boehm did so in a 75-68 win over Brown two years ago.

Top Freshman Scorers
Boudreaux is 13th nationally in scoring among freshmen (16.3 ppg), which would be the second-highest ever for a Big Green freshman, behind only Dartmouth legend Ed Leede, who tallied 16.5 ppg in a 14-game schedule in 1944-45. Only two Ivy League freshmen (since the league was formed in 1956) have ever averaged more in a season — Brown's Earl Hunt in 1999-2000 (17.0) and Yale's Ed Peterson in 1988-89 (16.4), though Cornell's Matt Morgan (18.3) is currently ahead of Boudreaux as well.

Making the Most of Freebies
Dartmouth is one of the most adept teams in the Ivy League at getting to the free throw line this year, averaging nearly 22 attempts per game (only Columbia and Yale take more). But the Big Green have been the most accurate at the charity stripe at 72.3 percent, just ahead of the Lions at 72.1 and Brown at 71.9. A good chunk of that success can be attributed to Evan Boudreaux who is shooting 80.9 percent and has attempted more freebies than any two of his teammates combined (93-of-115).

Threadbare Three-Pointers
Dartmouth ranks last in the Ivy League in three-pointers per game (5.4), but was making them at a decent clip (.343) before the final weekend of January. But against Columbia and Cornell, the Big Green hit just 6-of-33 shots (.182) from downtown.

Field Goals vs. Free Throws
Freshman Evan Boudreaux is very close to matching his total field goals made to his free throws made (95-93 entering the weekend). Only seven players in Dartmouth history have averaged at least eight points a game and had more free throws than field goals, the most recent being Jvonte Brooks in 2011-12 (80 FG, 121 FT). That difference of 41 is by far the largest in program history no matter the scoring minimum.

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