Men End Four-Game Road Swing at Princeton Saturday Afternoon

DARTMOUTH (5-14, 2-6)
at PRINCETON (16-5, 6-2)
Friday, Feb. 12, 2022 | 4 PM | ESPN+
Jadwin Gym | Princeton, N.J.

Looking for the Turnaround
• Dartmouth is aiming to end its four-game road swing by shifting its momentum going into the last few weeks of the season, but will need to defeat Princeton on its home court Saturday afternoon to do so.
• The Big Green suffered two grueling defeats at Yale and Brown last weekend, falling by three to the Bulldogs and two to the Bears.
• Graduate Brendan Barry heated up from the perimeter, drilling 11 3-pointers in the two games, including a season-high seven in 12 tries at Brown, scoring a combined 46 points.
• Barry is eighth among active Division I players in 3-point percentage (.438) and needs 18 triples in the final six games to break the program career record held by Jim Barton '89.
• Dartmouth shot a season-low 33.9 percent from the floor against Brown as a team, which was only minimally worse than its 33.9 percent in the first meeting with the Bears. Yet the Big Green outscored Brown by 10 points over the two games.
• Adelekun has come on strong in league play, averaging 11.0 ppg and 9.3 rpg since the start of the new year after posting numbers of 1.0 ppg and 2.2 rpg in non-conference action.
• Odd statistical quirk: the opposition for Dartmouth and Princeton have hit exactly 139-of-395 3-point attempts this season.

Series vs. Princeton
• This is the 221st game in the series that dates back to 1905 with the Tigers leading, 157-63.
• Princeton is 107-23 against the Big Green since the inaugural Ivy season (1956-57), losing consecutive games just twice in that span with Dartmouth sweeping the series once (2007).
• Brendan Barry has averaged 13.7 points in seven meetings with the the Tigers, including a pair of 20-point games, the most recent just three weeks ago when he tallied 21.
• Aaryn Rai also has a 20-point game against the Tigers, hitting blackjack as a sophomore at Leede Arena.
• Princeton has won 21 of the last 23 meetings.
• The last Dartmouth victory at Princeton came on Feb. 21, 2009, one of only three wins at Jadwin Gym (1987, 2007) in its 51 games there.

Scouting the Tigers
• Princeton has dropped two of its last three Ivy games after starting league play 5-0 with losses to Yale and Cornell.
• In non-conference play, the Tigers picked up impressive victories over South Carolina (neutral site) and Oregon State on the road.
• Princeton's loss to the Bulldogs two weeks ago was its first at home this year (11-1).
• The Tigers are averaging nearly 81 points a game while shooting 48.7 percent from the floor and 37.8 percent from the perimeter; each figure ranks among the top 25 in the country.
• Three players are averaging between 15-16 ppg — Ethan Wright (15.7), Jaelin Llewellyn (15.3) and Tosan Evbuomwan (15.2).
• Wright been particularly effective, shooting over 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from distance.
• Evbuomwan is the most accurate shooter (.534) as well as the top distributer (Ivy-best 5.1 apg).
• Mitch Henderson (Princeton '98) is in his 11th year guiding his alma mater with a 178-106 record and an Ivy title to his credit (2016-17) entering the weekend. He played in three NCAA Tournaments with the Tigers and spent 11 years as an assistant at Northwestern.

Barry the 3
Pretty sure I've used that note headline more than a few times now, but it fits! Brendan Barry showed off his shooting prowess at Yale and Brown on Feb. 4-5, knocking down 11-of-20 3-point attempts in the two games, including seven triples against the Bears. Not only does that match the most made by an Ivy player in a game this season, it is also Barry's most ever in an Ivy game (previous high "only" four). Those 11 trifectas in the two games matched his total from the previous five contests, ending a mini-slump at worst for the sharpshooter who is eighth nationally among all active Division I players in career 3-point accuracy (.438) and ninth in 3-pointers per game this season (3.47).

17-Point Plan
Dartmouth has put together a total of 10 runs thus far this season of at least 10 points. The most recent was the longest as the Big Green rattled off 17 straight points at Brown late in the second half, turning an 11-point deficit into a six-point lead. Three of the runs came in one game (NVU-Lyndon), and two other games featured two such runs (Georgetown and the first Brown matchup). The common feature for each of the games with a run of 10 or more points was a Dartmouth win … until the two-point loss at Brown.

What Can Brown Do To You?
Brown has apparently figured out how to harass Dartmouth's shooters as the Big Green's two lowest field goal percentages of the season came against the Bears. In the first meeting, Dartmouth shot 33.9 percent from the floor (19-of-56) but still won by 12 thanks to smothering Brown into 30.4 percent shooting. In the second meeting, the Green shot a slightly worse 33.9 percent (21-of-62). But it was the season-low 58.3 percent at the foul line that ultimately did in Dartmouth in the 62-60 defeat.

Repeat Offender
In the final eight games of the 2021 calendar year, Dartmouth has had the ball in the final seconds trailing by three, and twice hit a 3-pointer to tie the game, winning the first of those contests. That tired scenario played out again at Yale and Brown with Dartmouth missing a game-tying three twice against the Bulldogs and never got a chance to shoot the trey against the Bears as they purposely fouled in both opportunities for the Big Green to tie the game. With all these close defeats (not to mention the one-point loss to Harvard and four-point loss to Princeton), it's no wonder that Dartmouth enters the weekend among the bottom 10 teams in KenPom.com's Luck rating. And despite being outscored by the grand total of three points in eight Ivy games, the Big Green sit at just 2-6 when 4-4 would be more likely with that scoring differential.

100 Games
At Yale on Feb. 4, Aaryn Rai became the 44th player in Dartmouth history to play in 100 games in a Big Green uniform. And the very next night, it was Brendan Barry's turn to reach the milestone. Should they see action in each of the final six games, they will both rank in the top 20 in games played in program history. The most games played is 114 by David Rufful '12.

There Is Nothing Like A Dame
Don't expect Dame Adelekun to show up in a production of South Pacific anytime soon, but everyone is waiting to see what he will do for an encore after starting Ivy League play starring for the Big Green. First he posted a then-career-high 14 points at Cornell, followed by his first career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds in the win over Brown. After hauling in 10 more boards at Penn, Adelekun dropped 14 points and snared eight caroms against Harvard on Jan. 17. He then registered another double-double against Princeton with a dozen points and rebounds — in just 17 minutes — and chipped in 12 more points in the win at Columbia. His outing at Yale has been his best to date, however, with career-highs of 17 points and 15 rebounds. Adelekun is averaging 11.0 ppg and 9.3 rpg in conference play, with the latter stat putting him second in the league.

Barry the Lead(ing Scorer)
That's a little journalism humor for you. With his 21-point showing at Brown, Brendan Barry has led the team in scoring nine times this season. He has also reached double figures in 16 of the 19 games, topping 20 five times, all of which top the Big Green. The recent 1,000-point scorer also moved up into 25th on Dartmouth's all-time points leaders, just ahead of Gabas Maldunas '15 with 1,085. And his 225 career 3-pointers are good for third on the career charts, but to break the school record, Barry will need to hit 18 more in the remaining six games.

Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood
Izaiah Robinson has been showing how far out his neighborhood stretches throughout Ivy play. The sophomore has hit 44 percent of his 3-point attempts (11-of-25, only Barry has more on the team) while averaging 6.6 points off the bench since conference play began. He also matched a personal high with 10 points in the 72-69 loss at Yale, hitting 3-of-4 from the floor and the line with a 3-pointer throw into the mix.

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