Big Green Look to Extend Win Streak at River Hawk Invitational

DARTMOUTH (2-0)
at RIVER HAWK INVITATIONAL
Merrimack (1-1) | Friday, Nov. 15, 2019 | 4:30 PM | AETV
Jacksonville (1-2) | Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019 | 1:30 PM | AETV
UMass Lowell (2-2) | Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ESPN3
Costello Athletic Center | Lowell, Mass.

• Dartmouth is off to its first true 2-0 start since the 1996-97 season. We aren't going to count the 2004-05 campaign in which a loss in the second game became a forfeit win after the season.
• Last Monday, the Big Green won a defensive battle against FGCU in their home opener, 55-49.
• The Dartmouth defense held the Eagles to 34 percent shooting from the floor for the game and just four points over the final minutes.
• The Big Green had shooting woes of their own, hitting 35.0 percent of their field goals but did have three players score in double figures — Chris Knight (13), James Foye (12) and Aaryn Rai (10).
• Knight and Rai are the only two Dartmouth players scoring in double figures for the season with the former at 15.5 ppg and the latter 11.0.
• For the second straight game, 6-4 guard Ian Sistare led the Dartmouth efforts on the glass with eight rebounds. He has averaged 10.5 per in the first two games.
• The opposition has shot just 34.7 percent from the floor this year, putting the Dartmouth defense among the top 40 nationally.

Quick Scout of Merrimack
• The Warriors are in the first year as a Division I program.
• In their first game, Merrimack lost by 20 points at Maine. But two days later, the Warriors handed Northwestern a 71-61 defeat on the Wildcats' home court.
• Guard Juvaris Hayes does just about everything for his team with 14.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game.
• Swing man Devin Jensen is the top sharp shooter, hitting 8-of-17 from long range. The rest of the team has combined to hit seven 3-pointers at a 17.1 percent clip.
• As a team, Merrimack has shot just 38.9 percent from the floor and 25.9 percent from long range.

Quick Scout of Jacksonville
• The Dolphins have played three games entering the weekend, dropping double-digit losses to 19th-ranked Xavier and future Dartmouth opponent Bowling Green while beating Johnson University, 83-65.
• Aamahne Santos is the leading scorer at 14.7 ppg while shooting 51.6 percent overall and 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from 3-point range.
• Bryce Workman has been a force off the bench, providing 10.3 points and 8.3 rebounds a game, hitting nearly 70 percent inside the arc.
• The Dolphins have another strong rebounder in David Bell averaging 9.3 boards a night, and Destin Barnes adds a little more offense at 9.0 ppg.

Quick Scout of UMass Lowell
• The River Hawks already have four games under their belt, beating Long Island and UMass Boston while falling to UMass and No. 18 Ohio State.
• In its two losses, UML has shot worse than 40 percent overall and 30 percent on threes, but in the wins it has drained 10 triples while shooting at 43 percent from the floor.
• The offense relies heavily on Christian Lutete (24.0 ppg) and Obadiah Noel (17.0 ppg), both of whom are shooting over 50 percent overall and at least 45 percent from 3-point range.
• Lutete adds 8.5 boards a game, while Connor Withers provides 7.8 more.
• The River Hawks enter the tournament having won their last six non-conference home games.

The Series Against Each
• This is the first meeting between Dartmouth and Merrimack.
• The Big Green have played against Jacksonville just once previously, that coming in 1967, a game the Dolphins won, 69-59.
• Dartmouth's last trip to the Costello Athletic Center came in December of 2014 when the Green handed UMass Lowell a 69-48 defeat to improve to 2-0 against the River Hawks.
• The year prior, Dartmouth beat UML in Hanover by a 77-59 final.
• Back before Lowell Tech became a part of UMass Lowell, the Big Green faced that school three times through 1932, going 2-1 against the school.

ESPN+
Every Ivy League game, all home games and select road non-conference games will be streamed live on ESPN+, including this game against the Eagles. Fans can sign up for a monthly ($4.99) or annual ($49.99) subscription and see 20 of the 29 scheduled Big Green games this season. Visit espn.com/watch to find out how to subscribe and catch Dartmouth online all season.

First 2-0 Start in 23 Years
With the 55-49 win over FGCU on Veterans Day, Dartmouth improved to 2-0 on the young season. It had been nearly a quarter of a century since the Big Green won their first two games, going back to the 1996-97 campaign when they beat Colgate and Lafayette, both at home, then improved to 3-0 with a win over Wagner at an in-season tournament. That scenario sounds familiar, hmm …

55-Point Win
It isn't terribly often that Dartmouth wins a game when scoring fewer than 60 points. But the Big Green managed to pull off that trick against FGCU on Nov. 11, 55-49. It was the first Dartmouth win when scoring under 60 points since the buzzer-beating triumph over Yale in the 2014-15 regular-season finale that allowed the Green to qualify for postseason play for the first time since 1959. To find the last time Dartmouth scored no more than 55 in a win you have to go back to a 48-44 win over Columbia in February of 2010.

Defense! Defense!
Dartmouth held FGCU to just 20 points in the second half, the third time in the last two seasons that an opponent scored no more than 20 in the second stanza. Prior to those three contests, you have to go back to November of 2011 to find the last time the big Green D was that stingy. And both of Dartmouth's first two opponents shot less than 36 percent from the floor, the first time that had happened in consecutive games since the end of February in 2015 when the Big Green were in the midst of a five-game winning streak to end the season, qualifying them for postseason play.

Ary-Turner the Corner
Trevon Ary-Turner saw his first game action for Dartmouth after practicing with the team all last year while sitting out after transferring from Weber State. He didn't seem rusty against Buffalo, coming off the bench to score seven points and dish out three assists in 22 minutes to contribute to the win. He followed that up with a trio of triples for nine points, four rebounds and three more helpers.

Freshman Firsts
Rookies Paul Hudson and Nate Ogbu both have played in each of the first two games, but it took until the second one for them to score their first points. Ogbu provided his bucket on a fast-break layup in the middle of the first half against FGCU, while Hudson got his on a layup late in the opening stanza for the Big Green's final points before the intermission.

Schedules