Dartmouth Begins December with Twin State Battle

DARTMOUTH (3-1)
at VERMONT (5-3)
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 | 7 PM | ESPN3
Patrick Gymnasium | Burlington, Vt.

Three-Game Win Streak on the Line
• Dartmouth has won three in a row, the most recent in overtime at Bryant, 63-61, thanks to an Aaryn Rai layup with 0.9 seconds remaining in the extra session.
• The win was the 1,300th in the history of Dartmouth men's basketball.
• A victory over Vermont would give the Green three straight wins on the road, something they have not accomplished in 25 years.
• Dartmouth had 11 3-pointers in the win at Bryant, marking just the sixth time ever that it has hit double-digit triples in three straight games or more.
• Brendan Barry, the nation's leader in threes per game at 4.5, had five of those 11 treys, including one with 2.4 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 49 and send it to overtime.
• Four players scored in double figures, led by Barry's 15. Taurus Samuels (13), Ryan Cornish (12) and Cam Krystkowiak (10) were the others with 10 or more points.
• Although the Big Green shot a season-low 36.4 percent, they held the Bulldogs to 35.3 percent overall and 25.0 percent from distance, both of which are season lows for opponents.
• In a game that Dartmouth was beat on the boards by a 53-33 margin, Rai led all players with a career-high 15 rebounds.
• Other career highs achieved in the contest were six steals for Barry and five assists (without a turnover) for Samuels.

Series vs. Vermont
• In 104 games to date with the Catamounts, Dartmouth has the advantage, 57-47, despite UVM winning the last 12 in the series and 20 of the last 21.
• Not counting last year during the pandemic, the Big Green and Vermont have played at least once every year since the 1962-63 campaign.
• The Catamounts have had the upper hand with a 39-14 mark over the past 48 seasons, which includes the 77-68 defeat of Dartmouth at Leede Arena on Jan. 2, 2020.
• The Big Green have not won on the floor in Burlington in 23 years (Nov. 18, 1998), a 69-64 victory.
• Dartmouth dominated the series through 1972, winning 44 of 51 games against Vermont.

Scouting the Catamounts
• Vermont is coming off a 54-51 loss at UNC Greensboro on Saturday after winning two of three at the Gulf Coast Showcase.
• Two of the Catamounts' three losses are by a total of five points, and the other was an 11-point defeat against No. 21 Maryland.
• Like the Big Green, Vermont plays at a deliberate pace with about 66 possessions per game, which has helped hold opponents to under 57 points a game, 20th in the nation.
• Don't expect to see too many 3-pointers; Vermont is hitting about a quarter of its attempts from downtown while allowing opponents to shoot just 29.3 percent.
• The top three scorers are also the top three rebounders for the Catamounts — Ryan Davis (16.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Ben Shungu (12.8, 5.0) and Isaiah Powell (11.3, 7.0).
• John Becker (Catholic '90) is in his 11th year at the helm of the Catamounts with a record of 234-99, a .703 winning percentage. He has guided UVM to America East regular-season titles six times, including each of the last five years, and the NCAA Tournament in 2012, '17 and '19. He was the NABC District I Coach of the Year in both 2018 and '19 as well.

Getting Better Overtime
Thanks to Aaryn Rai's layup with 0.9 seconds left in overtime, Dartmouth emerged with a 63-61 victory at Bryant. It was the Big Green's first overtime game in nearly two years (83-80 loss at Georgia State on Dec. 2019) and first overtime win in just over two years (80-75 at Merrimack on Nov. 17, 2019). Dartmouth is now 3-4 in overtime games under head coach David McLaughlin and 46-54 all-time in overtime. That's right, this was the 100th overtime game in program history.

Speaking of History …
Not only was the 63-61 win at Bryant on Nov. 28 the 100th overtime game in program history, but it was also the 1,300th win for Dartmouth. The first victory came in the inaugural 1900-01 season over the St. Johnsbury Guards, but the first win against a collegiate team came on Dec. 15, 1900 against none other than Vermont, 46-10.

Leading the Nation
Since struggling with his 3-point stroke in the season opener, Brendan Barry has been back to his old sharp-shooting ways, connecting on 16-of-28 triples (.571) in the last three contests with at least five long balls in each of those games. With 4.5 treys per game on the season, Barry leads all Division I players, plus is fifth among active players in career 3-point percentage (.448).

Defense Leads to Victory
As Dartmouth was shooting just 36.4 percent from the floor at Bryant, the defense dialed in and held the Bulldogs to a mere 35.3 percent, which included an 8-for-32 (.250) showing behind the arc. Both percentages are season lows for the opposition in the young season thus far, and the 13 steals (a career-high six swiped by Brendan Barry) were the most for the team since the regular-season finale in 2015 vs. Yale.

Taurus Drives it Home
While Brendan Barry and Aaryn Rai came up with the obvious clutch plays in the 63-61 win at Bryant on Nov. 28, Taurus Samuels was the player holding everything together. The senior finished the game with 13 points and a career-high five assists with nary a turnover, but it was his play in overtime that really made the difference. Samuels produced five points and assisted on three other buckets, then put the game-winning play into motion by slapping the ball into the hands of Ryan Cornish, who tossed the pass that Rai converted into the game-winning bucket.

Career Highs
Aaryn Rai did the lion's share of the work on the glass for the Big Green. The fifth-year senior brought down a career-high 15 rebounds in the contest, nearly half the 33 for Dartmouth as a team. He is the first Big Green player with 15 or more boards in a game since Evan Boudreaux snared 16 against Cornell on Feb. 19, 2016. Brendan Barry showed he isn't just a shooter, stealing the ball a career-high six times, the most by a Dartmouth player since Malik Gill picked Harvard's collective pockets six times on Jan. 26, 2014.

Scouting the Perimeter
Over the last three games, Dartmouth has knocked down 41-of 99 3-point shots (.414), hitting 11 or more in each contest. It is just the sixth time in program history the team has hit 10 or more triples in three straight games with the longest streak being six in a row from Feb. 2-22, 2002. And the Big Green only once have hit more trifectas in a three-game stretch in a single season, that being 50 to start the 2018-19 campaign.

Samuels Finds His Stroke
Entering the 2021-22 season, Taurus Samuels had shot just 28.6 percent from behind the arc. But at Georgetown, he showed off his improved accuracy, raining down 6-of-10 3-pointers against the Hoyas to contribute to a career-high 23 points. He is currently hitting 47.8 percent of his long-range shots, second in the Ivy League and 30th in the nation.

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