Big Green Fall in First Ivy Outing, 79-71

Sunday, January 2

Ithaca, N.Y. / Newman Arena

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-9,0-1Ivy League

Cornell

9-3,1-0Ivy League

Dartmouth

Cornell

Garrison Wade had 15 points including this dunk on Sunday afternoon.

Photo by: Eldon Lindsay/Cornell Athletics

1/2/2022 4:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (HTML)Box Score ESPN+ Highlights Postgame with Coach McLaughlin

Four players scored in double figures for the shorthanded men's team on Sunday afternoon

By: Rick Bender

ITHACA, N.Y. — Playing with nearly half of its roster unavailable, the Dartmouth men's basketball team could not quite pull out a victory in its Ivy League opener on Sunday afternoon at Newman Arena with Cornell (9-3, 1-0 Ivy) staving off the Big Green (3-9, 0-1 Ivy), 79-71. Fifth-year Aaryn Rai led four Dartmouth players in double figures with 16 points, but Dan Noll came off the bench to score 20 for the Big Red.

The Big Green shot a solid 48.1 percent for the game and 43.5 percent (10-of-23) from the perimeter — their ninth game with at least 10 triples — but Cornell sizzled at 60 percent from the floor in the second half (51.8 percent overall) while sinking 15-of-19 (.789) at the line for the game. The Big Red also turned 15 Dartmouth turnovers into 15 points and held a slim 29-27 advantage on the boards.

"I thought we had the pace of play the way we wanted in the first half and did a good job withstanding those runs," head coach David McLaughlin said. "In the second half, they had a couple of early, quick possessions that got them to the rim and it got them going a bit. In the end, they made plays and we didn't. You cannot win a league game when a team shoots 60 percent — especially on their home court in the second half. We need to be able to finish plays and get a stop on command."

Cornell was the first one to take command in the game, utilizing a 10-point run early in the first half fueled by four layups to take a 16-7 lead. Graduate Brendan Barry, one of the top long-range shooters in Division I, ended the spurt with a corner 3-pointer, his second (and what turned out to be final) triple of the afternoon.

The difference remained between four and seven points until the Big Red's Greg Dolan laid one in to boost the home team's bulge to nine at 27-18. But Rai and senior Garrison Wade chipped away, producing the next nine Dartmouth points to bring the Big Green within three at 30-27.

For the first 17 minutes of the opening half, Dartmouth relied almost exclusively on Barry, Rai and Wade as the trio had 25 of the 27 points for the Big Green. But it was the contributions of junior Dame Adelekun and sophomore Izaiah Robinson at the end of the stanza that pushed Dartmouth back into the lead before the intermission. Adelekun hit his first two foul shots of the season, then dropped in a layup, and Robinson cranked a corner three to give Dartmouth its first lead since a 7-6 advantage 14 minutes earlier.

The second half started with a bang for the Big Green as senior Wes Slajchert rained down a long 3-pointer from the top of the key. But Cornell scored the next eight points on layups from four different players to turn a four-point deficit into a four-point lead, 41-37.

Dartmouth would never reclaim the lead the rest of the day, though it would tie the game on two occasions, the first of which came with just over 12 minutes to play when Adelekun scored one of his five field goals en route to a career-high 14 points, knotting the score at 49.

That is when Noll took over for the Big Red as the veteran scored the next 10 Cornell points, beginning and ending with three-point plays, that gave his squad a 59-53 edge. Not even an authoritative Adelekun slam in traffic during his streak could slow him down. His scoring was critical during this stretch as three of his teammates (two starters) all picked up their fourth foul within a minute of each other and more than nine minutes still to play.

The Big Red lead opened up to eight on a pair of Guy Ragland Jr. free throws with 6:57 showing on the clock, but Dartmouth roared back with the next eight points to tie the score once more. Both Rai and Wade connected from behind the arc, while Adelekun squeezed in a pair of free throws between the two treys, leaving the game up in the air with 5:24 to play.

Twice the Big Green had an opportunity to take the lead, but an offensive foul and a shot off the mark foiled those opportunities. Chris Manon, who was one of the Cornell players with four fouls, returned to the court and drilled a 3-pointer with 4:18 remaining.

Three points still separated the two teams after Noll drained a long ball and Adelekun answered by tossing in a hook shot with 1:30 to play to make it a 71-68 Big Red advantage. Wade's third triple of the game was made moot by the four free throws and breakaway layup that came before it as Cornell held on to beat a Dartmouth team that had swept it in the most recent season.

Rai was 6-of-12 from the floor in scoring his 16 points to go with six rebounds, tying Wade for team-high honors. Like Adelekun, Wade also produced a career-high, tallying 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting with his three triples, while Adelekun was 5-of-7 to go with a perfect 4-of-4 at the charity stripe. Barry added 12 on 4-of-11 field goals.

Noll not only led the Big Red with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting with two treys and 4-of-4 at the foul line, but also topped the team with seven rebounds. Manon was his lone teammate in double figures with 16 on 7-of-11 field goals with two more 3-pointers.

Dartmouth will play its first home games in four weeks when it hosts Yale (6-8, 0-0 Ivy) and Brown (8-8, 0-1 Ivy) on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively. Both games tip off at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Bob Lipman and Dave Faucher calling the action. A free audio feed featuring Brett Franklin and Bill Murphy will be available as well through the official website of Dartmouth Athletics, DartmouthSports.com.

Notes: The Big Green have lost eight straight games and dropped its Ivy opener … senior Taurus Samuels was one of the players unavailable for the Big Green, missing a game for the first time in his career.