Road Trip Takes Big Green to Penn, Princeton This Weekend

DARTMOUTH (11-12, 2-4)
at PENN (14-8, 2-4)
and PRINCETON (12-7, 4-2)
Friday/Saturday, Feb. 15/16, 2019 | 7 PM | ESPN+
The Palestra (8,722)/Jadwin Gym (6,854) | Philadelphia, Pa./Princeton, N.J.

• Dartmouth will conclude the 2018-19 season with three of its last four weekends on the road, beginning with the Penn-Princeton gauntlet.
• This trip historically has not been terribly favorable for the Big Green, having won both contests just once (2009) while getting swept 51 times since Ivy League play began in 1956-57.
• Last week, Dartmouth ended a four-game slide with a resounding 82-66 victory over Columbia on Saturday, giving the Green a 3-2 record over the Lions during head coach David McLaughlin's tenure.
• Five players scored in double figures in both games last weekend, the only times Dartmouth has had five do so in a game against a Division I opponent this year.
• Junior Brendan Barry had his first 20-point game since a career-high 31-point showing versus Boston University on Dec. 13 by hitting blackjack against Columbia. He is second nationally in 3-point accuracy (.493) after hitting 3-of-6 versus the Lions.
• Sophomore Chris Knight posted a career-high 27 points in the 83-80 loss to Cornell on Friday, as he knocked down 10-of-14 field goals and 7-of-9 at the foul line.
• As a team, Dartmouth is shooting 46.0 percent from the floor; the last time the Big Green shot at least 46 percent was in the 1992-93 season (.463). The 39.1 percent behind the arc is the highest since 2002-03 (.392).
• Nine of the 12 players on the roster that have attempted more than one free throw are shooting at least 80 percent at the foul line, led by junior Ian Sistare at 87.2 percent (41-of-47). Well, Guilien Smith is 8-of-8, so in this scenario, he is the leader.

Series vs. Penn
• Dartmouth has squared off against the Quakers 215 times with Penn holding a 153-62 advantage.
• The Big Green had won three straight in the series for the first time since 1958-59 — and four straight at Leede Arena — before the Quakers swept Dartmouth last year — 64-61 in Hanover and 74-46 here at The Palestra.
• Penn held the Green to 30.8 pct. from the floor and 16.7 pct. from long range in the two games.
• Chris Knight led Dartmouth in Philly with 15 points, but the team was 0-for-17 behind the arc.
• Since the Palestra opened on Jan. 1, 1927, the Big Green have posted a 19-72 record against the Quakers there, and won just five of their last 59 in the arena (but three in the last 10 years).

Scouting the Quakers
• Penn won the Big 5 title outright but got off to a rough start in Ivy play, losing four of its first six with road wins at Columbia and Brown.
• The Quakers were 12-4 in non-conference play, their best record in 17 years.
• This is Penn's first home game in over a month and second of the 2019 calendar year.
• Penn has scored one fewer point this season but also allowed one fewer point than Dartmouth.
• Forward A.J. Brodeur leads the team in scoring (15.8 ppg), rebounding (8.1 rpg), assists (3.7 apg) and field goal percentage (.515).
• Devon Goodman is the other Quaker scoring in double figures (13.5 ppg) while three others are over nine points a night — freshmen Michael Wang and Bryce Washington, as well as veteran Antonio Woods.
• Free throw shooting has been an Achilles' heel this year at 62.8 percent (bottom 20 in NCAA).
• Steve Donahue (Ursinus '84) is in his fourth year guiding Penn with a 62-49 record entering the weekend. No stranger to the Ivy League, Donahue led Cornell to the Sweet 16 back in 2010. He is 262-263 in his 18th year as a Division I head coach.

Series vs. Princeton
• This is the 216th game in the series (just like Penn) that dates back to 1905. The Tigers are one game worse than the Quakers — 152-63.
• Princeton is 102-23 against the Big Green since the inaugural Ivy season in 1956-57, losing consecutive games just twice in that span with Dartmouth sweeping the season series only once (2007).
• The two teams split the series last year with the Big Green posting a 72-56 victory in Hanover (the second-largest margin of victory in the series since 1979 for Dartmouth) before falling to the Tigers in New Jersey, 64-47.
• Even with the split last year, Princeton has won 16 of the last 18 meetings.
• The last Big Green victory at Princeton came on Feb. 21, 2009, one of three wins at Jadwin Gym (1987, 2007) in the 49 Big Green games there.

Scouting the Tigers
• Princeton turned a corner back in December, winning seven straight until dropping road games at Yale and Brown last weekend.
• The Tigers are 4-2 on their home court with losses to Fairleigh Dickinson and Saint Joseph's.
• While Princeton is the league's top free-throw shooting team (.745), it ranks dead last in field goal percentage (.404) and 3-point percentage (.304).
• By the time this game is played, Devin Cannady will rank second or third in the Ivy League in scoring, currently 19.0 ppg and is the only Tiger on the team with more than 16 3-pointers (49).
• The trio of Myles Stephens (6.6 rpg), Cannady (6.1) and Richmond Aririguzoh (5.9) clean the glass effectively on a nightly basis.
• Stephens (13.6 ppg) and Aririguzoh (11.4) are the other Tigers scoring in double figures.
• Jose Morales leads Princeton in both assists (39) and steals (28).
• Mitch Henderson (Princeton '98) is in his eighth year guiding his alma mater with a 144-83 record entering the weekend. He played in three NCAA Tournaments with the Tigers and spent 11 years as an assistant at Northwestern.

Back to Bombs Away
Dartmouth had been held to five or six 3-pointers in its three previous games — its longest stretch all season without having at least 10 in a contest — when it dropped 10 on Columbia in an 82-66 victory. The Big Green are now 8-4 this season when hitting double digits from downtown, and with two more long balls will be second only to the 2001-02 squad in most threes made in a season (263).

Barry Hits Blackjack
Junior Brendan Barry had not topped 20 points in a game since pouring in a career-high 31 against Boston University back on Dec. 13. That changed when he led Dartmouth with 21 in the 82-66 win over Columbia on Feb. 9. He was one of five Big Green to score in double figures for the second straight night, something the team had not done even once against a Division I opponent this season.

Welcome Back Carter … Again
After missing his sophomore season last year, Ian Carter returned to floor this year and scored 15 points against Elms College in his fourth game back on Nov. 13. But after scoring seven more against nationally ranked Buffalo a week later, he had played just six minutes, mostly due to injury. Carter returned to the court for the first time in two months on Feb. 8 and had a field goal, then poured in 11 points in the win over Columbia the next night, a personal best against a Division I team.

Barry Burying Threes
Brendan Barry commands a lot of attention from defenses as the junior is second in all of Division I in 3-point percentage (.493) while ranking second in the Ivy League with 3.1 triples per game. His 69 long balls are tied for fifth in the single-season Big Green annals, and he needs just 11 more to become the first player in 20 years to knock down 80. At his current pace, he would fall four shy of the school record (98) set 30 years ago by Jim Barton '89.

Channel Flannel Every Night
Perhaps Dartmouth should consider every game to be Flannel Night. The Big Green hosted its second annual Flannel Night against Columbia and disposed of the Lions by an 82-66 final. Last year's celebration of the fabric produced a 16-point victory as well, 72-56 over Princeton.

Career Knight Overshadowed
Sophomore Chris Knight did all he could to help Dartmouth defeat Cornell on Feb. 8, tallying a career-high 27 points on 10-of-14 field goals and 7-of-9 at the line. Unfortunately, Big Red senior guard Matt Morgan had a night for the ages with a career-high 41 points of his own, breaking the Leede Arena record and matching the arena's 20-year-old record with nine 3-pointers, originally set by Greg Buth '01. The scoring record had stood since 1994, though it was tied by Miles Wright '18 three years ago.

Lighting It Up
• Dartmouth has hit at least five 3-pointers in every game this year and enters the weekend 15th in the country in both triples per game (10.0) and 3-point percentage (.391).
• The Big Green's accuracy of 39.1 percent is their best since the 2001-02 team hit 39.2 percent.
• Twelve of the 14 players on the active roster have recorded at least one 3-pointer, and the two that haven't made one have attempted a total of three from the perimeter.
• In 12 of the first 22 games, the Big Green have hit at least 10 treys. That is second only to the 2001-02 squad that hit double digits 16 times.
• 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 220 treys after 22 games. At the current rate, Dartmouth would finish the regular season with exactly 300.
• 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.

54 Percent Not Enough
Dartmouth lost to Cornell on Feb. 8, 83-80, despite shooting 54.2 percent from the floor. Since 1975, the Big Green have hit at least 54 percent of their shots 131 times, winning 97 of those contests for a winning percentage of .740. The last time they lost when shooting at least that well was just last year, coincidentally at Cornell, 86-85, after hitting 30-of-54 from the floor (.556).

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