Rematch on Tap Against Harvard at Leede Arena on Saturday

Saturday, January 25

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Samuels and Knight men's basketball action versus Vermont

Taurus Samuels (left) and Chris Knight are looking to lift Dartmouth to a home win.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Rematch on Tap Against Harvard at Leede Arena on Saturday

1/23/2020 3:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Dartmouth is looking for a season split for the second straight year

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (7-9, 0-1)
vs. HARVARD (12-4, 1-0)
Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020 | 7 p.m. | ESPN+
Leede Arena (2,100) | Hanover, N.H.

• Dartmouth returns to Leede Arena for a rematch of last week's 67-62 defeat at Harvard while looking to snap a four-game skid.
• The Big Green led nearly the entire first half in Cambridge last Saturday, but the Crimson returned the favor in the second half and survived a 12-5 Dartmouth run in the final two minutes.
• Aaryn Rai produced a team-high 13 points — eight in the last two minutes — along with seven rebounds and three assists to lead the Green.
• As a team, Dartmouth shot 40 percent (8-of-20) from behind the arc with Ian Sistare leading the way, drilling 3-of-5 among his 11 points to go with a game-high eight rebounds.
• Both Chris Knight and Ian Carter contributed 10 points to the Big Green ledger, the latter going for a season high.
• James Foye is on the verge of becoming the 17th player in Dartmouth history to make 100 3-pointers in a career. He enters this game with 99 while shooting at a 48.6 percent clip from the perimeter this season.
• The Big Green not only have allowed the second-fewest points among Ivy League schools this season (64.4 points per game), they also have the third best scoring margin (+2.5).

Series vs. Harvard
• Dartmouth has a 97-92 advantage all-time — its best against any Ivy League opponent — though the Crimson have won 18 of the past 21 games. Last year here at Leede Arena, Dartmouth defeated the Crimson by 18, 81-63, shooting a blistering 68.1 percent for their best accuracy ever on this court.
• The 81 points were the most for Dartmouth against Harvard since an 86-70 win back in 1993.
• Chris Knight has averaged 11.4 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 53.7 percent against the Crimson over five games in his career.
• Head coach David McLaughlin is 1-6 against Harvard, while Tommy Amaker is 20-5 versus Dartmouth.
• At Leede Arena, the Big Green are 13-20 against Harvard, splitting the last four games including an overtime loss two years ago.

Scouting the Crimson
• Harvard, receiving votes in the AP Top 25, has not lost since Dec. 1, taking six straight games including road wins at California and San Francisco.
• The Crimson are third in the league in both scoring offense (73.8 ppg) and defense (65.4 ppg).
• Star point guard Bryce Aiken is averaging 16.7 points, but has only played in seven games this year, missing the last five.
• Forward Chris Lewis, finally a senior, averages 11.9 points on 64.1 percent shooting, 6.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He posted 18 points and three blocks last week.
• Noah Kirkwood adds 10.7 points a night and is one of several 3-point threats on the roster, including Rio Haskett (21-of-46, .457).
• Freshman Chris Ledlum has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week four times and averages 8.4 points and 3.7 rebounds a game. He came off the bench to produce 18 points with four triples against the Green last week.
• Tommy Amaker (Duke '87) is in his 13th season at Harvard's helm with a 242-135 record in Cambridge and a 418-274 mark in a career that has taken him to Seton Hall for four seasons (68-55) and Michigan for six (108-84). He also has six Ivy regular-season titles in the past eight seasons.

Coaches vs. Cancer
This week is Coaches vs. Cancer week across the NCAA, and the Dartmouth coaching staff will be wearing sneakers with their suits on the sideline against Harvard to raise awareness for the fight against cancer and the American Cancer Society.

Senior CLASS Candidate
James Foye was named one of the 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, given to a senior with notable achievements in four areas — community, classroom, character and competition. An economics major with a 3.97 GPA, Foye was an second-team Academic All-American last year and is one of the best 3-point shooters in the Ivy League and the country at 48.6 percent this season. He has also volunteered for the Upper Valley Haven After School program as well as the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD). The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists in February, and the winner will be announced during the Final Four.

Another 5-Point Loss to Harvard
The last four times the Big Green have entertained the Crimson, Dartmouth has won one by 18 points and lost the other three by exactly five. Two years ago, Harvard rallied late and went on to beat the Green in overtime here at Leede Arena, 62-57. And in the last two meetings, the Crimson sent the Green home from Cambridge with losses by scores of 64-59 and 67-62. All three losses were one-possession games in the last 20 seconds. The only saving grace was the 81-63 victory here last year when Dartmouth shot 68.1 percent from the floor, its best ever at Leede Arena.

Shooting Touch Returns
After shooting under 40 percent in its previous two games and 25 percent or worse from behind the arc its last four, Dartmouth has started the new year on target. The Big Green knocked down 52.2 percent (24-of-46) from the floor and 40 percent (6-of-15) from long range against Vermont, then drilled 40 percent from deep (8-of-20) again at Harvard. Ian Sistare appears to have found his stroke, popping 5-of-9 from the perimeter over the two games after hitting only 12-of-52 (.231) in the first 14 contests.

Closing in on 100 Triples
Senior James Foye enters today's game having rained down 99 3-pointers in his career. The next long ball he drains will make him the 18th player in Big Green history to amass 100 triples. Of the first 17, only three have made them at a 40 percent clip or better — Len Bazelak '88 (.466), Jim Barton '89 (.455) and current teammate Brendan Barry '20 (.445). Foye would join them as he has shot 41.4 percent (99-of-239) to date.

Get Carter
With Chris Knight in early foul trouble at Harvard on Jan. 18, forward Ian Carter was called upon to provide plenty of minutes for the Big Green. The senior came through with a season-high 10 points on 3-of-6 from the floor and a perfect 4-of-4 at the foul line, plus grabbed five rebounds and dished out an assist without a turnover during his 20 minutes on the court. Those 10 points were more than the entire bench had provided in two of the three previous games.

Rebounding Trio
Dartmouth has three players among the top 12 in the Ivy League, the only team that can boast such a claim — Aaryn Rai (6.7 rpg, 6th), Ian Sistare (6.0, 10th) and Chris Knight (5.8, 12th). The only other year the Big Green had three players average at least five boards a game in the last 38 seasons came in 2012-13, courtesy of Gabas Maldunas '15 (6.9), Jvonte Brooks '15 (5.9) and Connor Boehm '16 (5.4). And the last time three players averaged six caroms a night was 45 years ago, back in the days of Jim Beattie '76 (8.8), Bill Healey '76 (8.5) and Gene Matthews '75 (6.8). If Knight ups his production just slightly, it could be a historical rebounding season for the Big Green.

Defense is the Key to Victory
It should come as no surprise that the single biggest factor in Dartmouth's victories this season has been its defensive play. Six times the Big Green have held opponents under 40 percent from the floor, and all six times they have emerged victorious. The only game in which Dartmouth's opponent shot better than 40 percent and lost was the 80-75 overtime win at UMass Lowell on Nov. 17. For the season, opponents have hit on 41.6 percent of their field goals, the third lowest mark in the Ivy League, and 32.5 percent from the perimeter, second in the conference.

Free Throws Hardly Free
For some reason, neither Dartmouth nor its opponents have had much success at the charity stripe this season, though that was not the case at Harvard on Jan. 18. The Big Green entered that game shooting 63.9 percent at the line — last in the Ivy League — but converted 12-of-14 (.857) against the Crimson to nearly pull off an upset on the road. It was just the fourth time Dartmouth converted even 70 percent of its free throws. Opponents, however, were having an even worse time at a woeful 57.7 percent entering that game, a mark worse than all but two of the 1
350 Division I teams. Of course, Harvard knocked down 18-of-24 (.750), the second-best accuracy for an opponent this season and third time above 70 percent.

Rai and Shine
In the first 16 games, Aaryn Rai has hit at least half of his field goal attempts 10 times, including five straight around the Thanksgiving holiday. Against Vermont, he canned 8-of-9 shots while scoring a team-high 18 points. For the season, the junior forward is shooting 51.9 percent, which is the fourth best in the Ivy League (minimum four FG per game) with Chris Knight sixth (.506).

Saturday and 20: Kisses of Death
Dartmouth has not found any success when playing on Saturday, dropping nine straight on that day of the week dating back to last season. And while four different Big Green players have scored 20 or more points in a game this season, Dartmouth would rather get better scoring balance. In all four games the Big Green had someone go for 20-plus points, they ended up losing.