Men Host co-Ivy Leader Yale in Rare Mid-Week League Showdown

Tuesday, February 22

Hanover, N.H.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Yale

Head coach David McLaughlin talks to his team during a timeout against Cornell, Feb. 18, 2022

Photo by: Ed Moran

Men Host co-Ivy Leader Yale in Rare Mid-Week League Showdown

2/21/2022 11:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Tuesday, February 22 ESPN+Audio Broadcast Live Stats @DartmouthMBB Dartmouth Notes Series History

The Big Green will attempt to split the season series with the Bulldogs after losing by three in New Haven

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (7-15, 4-7)
vs. YALE (15-10, 9-2)
Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022 | 6 PM | ESPN+
Leede Arena | Hanover, N.H.

Crucial Game for Both Teams
• This game between Dartmouth and Yale has huge implications for both teams in regard to the Ivy League Tournament.
• The Big Green need a win to keep their hopes alive of earning the fourth and final spot in Cambridge in a two and a half weeks.
• The Bulldogs, meanwhile, are aiming to pull ahead of Princeton by half a game in the race for the top seed in the tournament.
• Dartmouth took care of business over the weekend, defeating Cornell and Columbia by a combined 41 points.
• The 79-50 win over Columbia was Dartmouth's largest margin of victory over an Ivy League opponent in 25 years, also against the Lions.
• Brendan Barry, the Big Green's leading scorer on the season, rained down six 3-pointers in the 79-50 win over Columbia, giving him 233 in his career, nine shy of the program record held by legendary marksman Jim Barton '89.
• Dame Adelekun did not miss a single field goal attempt over the weekend, going 7-of-7 while scoring 19 points against Cornell and 5-of-5 versus the Lions to contribute 10 points.

Series vs. Yale
• Dartmouth has played the Bulldogs 217 times with Yale holding a 119-98 advantage.
• The Bulldogs have won the last 11 meetings — eight by double figures — since Dartmouth denied Yale the outright Ivy League title and eventually an NCAA berth in the final game of the 2014-15 season.
• Earlier this month, Yale avoided an upset on its home court in a 72-69 contest as Brendan Barry and Bulldog Azar Swain both scored 25 points.
• The Big Green are 15-18 all-time against the Bulldogs at Leede Arena.
• The Bulldogs have won 36 of the 43 meetings this millennium and not been swept by Dartmouth since 1999.

Scouting the Bulldogs
• The preseason favorite was inconsistent during non-conference play but is now tied atop the Ivy League standings with a 9-2 record.
• The Bulldogs had their seven-game winning streak snapped on Saturday by Princeton, 81-75.
• The Yale defense makes it tough on opposing shooters, leading the league in field goal and 3-point field goal percentage defense at .420 and .312, respectively.
• Guard Azar Swain is the focal point of the offense as he leads the team in scoring (18.9 ppg), assists (36) and free throw percentage (.897) while ranking second in rebounding (4.2).
• The other player averaging double figures is guard Jalen Gabbidon at 12.4 ppg, while another guard, Matthue Cotton, pitches in 8.0 ppg and is the most prolific 3-point threat after Swain with 38 triples.
• The Bulldogs are very adept at getting to the foul line having attempted more free throws than any other team in the league, converting at a 75.3 percent clip, second only to Dartmouth.
• Head coach James Jones (Albany '86), the longest tenured Ivy League coach in his 23rd year, enters this game with an overall record of 348-290. Six years ago he led the Bulldogs to 23 wins, a league title and their first victory in the NCAA Tournament ever, then took them back to the Big Dance in 2019 with 22 wins and his fourth of five Ivy crowns.

Weekend Sweep!
Dartmouth picked up a pair of double-digit victories over the weekend, defeating Cornell, 71-59, followed by a 79-50 romp over Columbia, to give the Green their first weekend sweep since taking two from those same two teams nearly two years ago (Feb. 28-29, 2020). The win over Columbia also gave Dartmouth a series sweep of the Lions for the second straight year and sixth win in the last seven meetings between the two.

Biggest Ivy Win in 25 Years
With the 79-50 victory over Columbia on Saturday, the Big Green enjoyed their largest margin of victory over an Ivy League team since Valentine's Day in 1997 when they handed the Lions an 82-47 defeat. The 29-point win is tied for the seventh-largest margin in a Dartmouth Ivy win, the biggest coming back in 1959 (the last time the Green qualified for the NCAA Tournament), again versus Columbia, 95-55.

Barry the 3
Pretty sure I've used that note headline more than a few times now, but it fits! Brendan Barry is finishing his Big Green career with a flourish in February, hitting 19-of-41 (.463) 3-point attempts thus far this month. His most recent outing produced six triples (five in the first half) as he scored a team-high 18 points in the 29-point victory over the Lions. Back on Feb. 5, he rained down a season-high 7-of-12 long balls that produced 25 of the Big Green's 60 points at Brown. The sharpshooter is 10th nationally in 3-pointers per game this season (3.36), 27th in accuracy from behind the arc at 41.1 percent (which also leads the Ivy League among qualified players) and 12th among all active Division I players in career 3-point accuracy (.436).

Aim Like Adelekun
Junior Dame Adelekun had quite the weekend as he knocked down every one of his 12 field goal attempts in the two victories. First, he sank seven shots while scoring a career-high 19 points to lead Dartmouth to the win over Cornell. The next night, he dropped in five field goals in contributing 10 points to the win over Columbia. In Ivy games only, he leads the league in field goal percentage (.672) and for the season overall is shooting a robust 61.3 percent.

Samuels Turns the Tide
Right after Cornell took a 55-53 lead with under four minutes to play on Feb. 18, Taurus Samuels took matters into his own hands. The senior guard launched a 3-pointer from in front of the Big Green bench, rattling home the shot as the shot clock expired to give Dartmouth a one-point advantage. After a defensive stop, Brendan Barry fed Samuels the ball a little further into the corner by the bench, and his shot swished through for a sudden four-point lead. The Big Red never had the ball again with a chance to tie or take the lead as the Green pulled away for a 12-point victory, 71-59.

49, 49 … Do I Hear 50?
Dartmouth and Cornell were engaged in quite the defensive struggle in the first half of their game with the Big Red leading at the break, 24-22. But in the second half, the Big Green exploded for 49 points, their most against a Division I opponent in any half this season, while Cornell added just 35 more and finished with a season-low 59 points, 22 below its average. The very next night, Dartmouth lit up Columbia for 49 points in the first half and cruised to the 79-50 win. The last time the Green topped 50 in a half versus a D-I opponent? Dec. 18, 2016 at LIU Brooklyn with 51 second-half points in an 82-68 win.

Rai Academic All-District
Fifth-year senior Aaryn Rai was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District I Team on Thursday, giving Dartmouth someone on the prestigious team in each of the program's last three seasons. Rai is a neuroscience major with a 3.55 GPA and is one of just four players in the Ivy League who rank among the top 17 in the league in scoring (11.3 ppg, 14th), rebounding (6.9 rpg, fourth), assists (1.8 per game, 17th), blocked shots (0.5 per game, seventh) and steals (1.0 per game, 16th). He will now go on the ballot for Academic All-America honors, which will be announced on March 15. To celebrate his inclusion, he went out and collected his first double-double of the season against Cornell with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Free Throw Follies
Dartmouth has been one of the most accurate teams at the foul line this year, shooting 75.9 percent, which ranks 38th among Division I teams. Percentages are available back to the mid-1960s, and only one Big Green team has ever shot better than 75 percent from the charity stripe — the 1983-84 squad that hit 76.7 percent. Dartmouth attempted 407 free throws that year in 26 games; this year's team is on pace for around 344 attempts in 25 games.

17-Point Plan
Dartmouth has put together a total of 12 runs thus far this season of at least 10 points. The most recent came against Columbia with two such runs — 15 points in the first half and 10 more in the second. But the longest stretch came at Brown when the Big Green rattled off 17 straight points 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 besides Columbia (Georgetown and the first Brown matchup). The common feature for every one of those games with a run of 10 or more points is a Dartmouth win … except for the game with the longest run.