Rematch Saturday as Big Green Look to Sweep Harvard

Saturday, January 26

Cambridge, Mass.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Junior Brendan Barry

Photo by: Herb Swanson

Rematch Saturday as Big Green Look to Sweep Harvard

1/24/2019 1:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball

January 26, 2019 Lavietes Pavilion NESN ESPN+ Broadcast Live Stats Twitter Updates Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth shooting for first win in Cambridge in four years

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (10-7, 1-0)
at HARVARD (7-7, 0-1)
Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019 | 2 PM | NESN and ESPN+
Lavietes Pavilion (1,636) | Cambridge, Mass.

• After beating Harvard in the Ivy League opener for the first time in a dozen years, Dartmouth is shooting for its first season sweep of the Crimson in two decades when these two squads square off at Lavietes Pavilion, televised on NESN and streamed live on ESPN+.
• This is Suits and Sneakers Week, and the coaching will be wearing sneakers on the bench in support of Coaches vs. Cancer, which helps the American Cancer Society.
• The Big Green shot 68.1 percent (32-of-47) from the floor in the 81-63 victory two weeks ago, their most accurate game in almost 37 years.
• All eight players that saw action for Dartmouth hit more than half of their field goals, led by Chris Knight with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
• Knight leads the Big Green in scoring (15.6 ppg), rebounding (7.6 rpg) and blocked shots (25), all of which put him among the Ivy League's top five.
• Dartmouth as a team ranks sixth nationally in 3-point field goals made per game (10.8) and seventh in 3-point percentage (.408).
• Junior Brendan Barry leads the nation in long-distance accuracy at 51.8 percent, while classmates James Foye (49.3) and Ian Sistare (48.4) are second and third in the league, respectively.
• Barry also excels and taking care of and distributing the basketball, leading the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.87).

Series vs. Harvard
• Dartmouth has a 97-90 advantage all-time, though the Crimson have won 16 of the last 19.
• Two weeks ago, the Big Green shot 68.1 percent from the floor in an 81-63 victory over Harvard, the second-highest percentage by any team in Leede Arena (Princeton in 2003, 69.4).
• The 81 points were the most for Dartmouth against Harvard since an 86-70 win back in 1993.
• Chris Knight had his fourth career 20-point game, while three others reached double figures.
• At Lavietes Pavilion, the Big Green are 12-23, and their last win here was four years ago thanks to a 26-2 second-half run in a 70-61 triumph.
• While Dartmouth dominated the first 60 years of the series with a 56-14 record through 1960, Harvard is 76-41 mark since then, including a 31-8 record this millennium.

Scouting the Crimson
• Harvard has split its first 16 games, including a pair of road wins at UMass and St. Mary's.
• Last time out, the Crimson defeated Howard on the road, 84-71.
• Point guard Bryce Aiken played for the first time in nearly a year, producing 16 points and five assists in 29 minutes on the court.
• Last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, Seth Towns, has yet to see action this season.
• Forward Chris Lewis is the team's leading scorer at 13.1 ppg while shooting 64.9 percent.
• Justin Bassey, who led Harvard with 18 points at Howard, and rookie Noah Kirkwood both average just over 10 points a night while Bassey also leads the team with 7.0 rpg and 16 steals.
• As a team, the Crimson have shot well at 47.6 percent overall and 36.4 percent behind the arc, but just 66.1 percent at the foul line (though they did convert 22-of-24 against Howard.
• Turnovers have hurt Harvard, coughing the ball up an average of 16.5 times a game, which ranks among the bottom 15 in the nation.
• Tommy Amaker (Duke '87) is in his 12th season at Harvard's helm with a 218-126 record in Cambridge and a 394-265 mark in a career that has taken him to Seton Hall for four seasons (68-55) and Michigan for six (108-84).

Suits and Sneakers
The Dartmouth coaching staff will be wearing sneakers on the bench against Harvard as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Week, which takes place Jan. 21-27. But the staff is so geared up to help raise awareness for the fight against cancer, they will also wear sneakers at Leede Arena against Brown on Feb. 1.

First Win in Ivy Opener in 12 Years
Dartmouth hosted Harvard — the preseason favorite in the Ivy League polls — in the conference opener for both teams, and for the first time in a dozen years, the Big Green came away victorious in the game in convincing fashion, 81-63. It was also the largest margin of victory for Dartmouth against the Crimson since Dec. 16, 1998. And a victory in the rematch would give the Green their first sweep of Harvard since that same 1998-99 campaign.

Scalding Shooting
In the 81-63 win over Harvard, Dartmouth hit shots at a rate unmatched in the Big Green annals for 37 years, connecting on 32-of-47 field goals. That 68.1 shooting percentage was last attained in the 1981-82 season finale against Yale when Dartmouth posted those same totals. That victory also ended an 11-game skid and kept the Green from a suffering a winless Ivy campaign.

20 Points of Knight
Chris Knight hit 8-of-10 field goals, including his only 3-point attempt, to lead the team in scoring with his fourth career 20-point game (exactly 20) in the 81-63 win over Harvard. The sophomore also reached a modest milestone, scoring the 500th point of his career with his very first bucket of the game midway through the first half. And I absolutely will have a note entitled "1,000 Points of Knight" should he reach that milestone in the future.

More Than Half
As Dartmouth was hitting shots at a rate unheard of around Hanover in decades, the individual players were all on target as well. Each of the eight players that saw action in the game hit more than half of their field goal attempts. Not at least half, more than half. I am going to guess that hasn't happened very often in NCAA history, let alone at Dartmouth. But yeah, I'm not looking that up …

Bench Backing
Much of Dartmouth's production this season has come from its five starters. But in the 81-63 win over Harvard, the three reserves that saw action — Aaryn Rai, Taurus Samuels and Wes Slajchert — all provided important minutes, not to mention 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting with seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks and a steal. Slajchert notably had his highest scoring output of the season (7 points) against a Division I opponent; Samuels hit both of his field goals and free throws to go with three boards and assists; and Rai hit his only 3-point attempt and grabbed four rebounds. All three players blocked a shot as well.

Lighting It Up
• Dartmouth enters this game ranked sixth in the nation in 3-pointers made (10.8 per game) and seventh in percentage as a team (.408).
• Brendan Barry leads the country at 51.8 percent (57-of-110) behind the arc while James Foye (34-of-69, 49.3) and Ian Sistare (30-of-62, 48.4) are 1-2-3 in the Ivy League (minimum 1.0 3-pointers per game).
• In 10 of the first 17 games, the Big Green have hit at least 10 treys. That is the second-most such games in a Dartmouth season; the school record is 16 set in 2001-02.
• The Big Green are well on pace to shatter the program record of 263 3-pointers made — set in that same 2001-02 season — with 183 treys after just 17 games. At that rate, Dartmouth would finish the regular season with 323.
• Dartmouth started the year with four straight games with at least 10 3-pointers, its longest such streak since a six-game stretch in 2002.
• The Big Green hit 22 trifectas in the season opener, breaking the team record of 18 set in a win over Albany on Jan. 20, 2001.
• Dartmouth has had 15 or more 3-pointers in a game three times this season after reaching that total just four times previously since the 3-point line was instituted in 1986-87.