Hope Remains for Hoops on Senior Day Against Penn

DARTMOUTH (7-16, 4-8)
vs. PENN (12-13, 9-3)
Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022 | 2 PM | ESPN+
Leede Arena | Hanover, N.H.

Hope Floats
• Dartmouth plays host for one final time this season with the Quakers of Penn in town for a Saturday matinee before which the five seniors/graduates will be recognized.
• The Big Green's chances of qualifying for the Ivy League Tournament took a huge hit with the 66-61 loss to Yale on Tuesday night, but the team is not eliminated from the race.
• What will it take for Dartmouth to get the fourth seed? First, the Green need to win their last two games. The rest of the details can be found after the Quaker scouting report.
• Dartmouth has had more than its share of tough luck this year. In league play, five of its losses have been by no more than five points, including Tuesday night's 66-61 defeat at the hands (paws?) of Yale. The two losses to the Ivy leader were by a combined eight points.
• Brendan Barry was the show at the start of the Yale game as the graduate scored the first 13 points. The second half belonged to Aaryn Rai, who scored 17 of his team-high 19 points after the intermission.
• Barry is just six 3-pointers behind the all-time Big Green leader, Jim Barton '89, who hit 242 triples in his career.

Series vs. Penn
• Dartmouth has played the Quakers 220 times with Penn sporting a record of 157-63.
• While the Big Green lost the first encounter with the Quakers this year, 78-68, Dartmouth had a one-point lead with seven minutes to play.
• Brendan Barry led Dartmouth with 16 points in the loss while Aaryn Rai scored 11 and Dame Adelekun grabbed 10 rebounds.
• The last time Penn visited Leede Arena, Dartmouth came away with a 66-59 win (Feb. 21, 2020).
• The Big Green won three in a row in 2016 and '17, their longest streak in the series since the 1958 and '59 seasons.
• Penn has posted a 22-11 record in Leede Arena. The Big Green won four of the first five but just two of the next 21 prior to winning four straight.

Scouting the Quakers
• The Quakers entered conference play on a six-game losing streak, but quickly turned around their season and has clinched a berth in the Ivy League Tournament with a 9-3 conference mark.
• Penn has won six of its last seven with the only loss coming at league-leading Yale.
• Looking at the Quakers just in league play, they are second in scoring (76.5 ppg) with the third-best field goal percentage (.466) but worst 3-point percentage (.307).
• Jordan Dingle is the focal point of the offense as he has produced a league-best 20.3 ppg against Ivy teams while topping 30 points four times in the last seven contests.
• Keep an eye out for Clark Slajchert, younger brother of Dartmouth's Wes, who is second on the team with 10.6 ppg.
• Michael Moshkovitz has boosted his performance since conference play started and hauls in a team-best 6.5 rebounds per Ivy game, plus is third in the league with 3.3 assists per outing.
• Both Max Martz (.578) and Slajchert (.524) have hit more than half of their shots against the Ancient Eight.
• Steve Donahue (Ursinus '84) is in his seventh year guiding Penn with an 95-77 record. He also led Cornell to the Sweet 16 in 2010 and sports a 295-291 mark in 21 years as a D-I head coach.

So You're Saying There's A Chance
Although coming up short of a win against Yale on Tuesday was not ideal, it did not eliminate Dartmouth from the race to secure the fourth and final slot for the Ivy League Tournament. The Big Green will need some help along the way, but they will need to win their last two games. If that happens, they will be in if any of the following occur:

• Harvard loses twice to Princeton this weekend, Cornell loses its final two games to Yale and Columbia, AND Brown loses to either Columbia or Yale or …
• Harvard splits two games with Princeton, Yale beats Cornell and Brown, AND Penn beats Princeton in the final game of the season, or …
• Harvard splits two games with Princeton, Yale loses to Cornell and Brown, Cornell loses to Columbia AND Princeton loses to Penn.

Senior Day Super Sized
Not only is Dartmouth honoring its senior class today, but also those that have stuck around to finish their careers in spite of the pandemic. Please be sure to give a hearty round of applause to those in the Class of 2022 — Taurus Samuels, Wes Slajchert and Garrison Wade — along with fifth-year senior Aaryn Rai and graduate Brendan Barry. And don't be alarmed if you see a Penn uniform during the pregame ceremony — that would be just Clark Slajchert, Wes's younger brother, who is a sophomore on the Quakers' squad. They are one of 25 known sets of brothers playing in Division I this year, but only one of five that actually play against each other.

Perimeter Prowess
With its seven 3-pointers against Yale, Dartmouth topped 200 treys for the fourth straight season and eighth time ever. But its average of 8.83 trifectas per game is the second highest in program history, trailing only the 2001-02 squad that hit 9.74 per contest. And Brendan Barry is just six 3-pointers shy of matching Jim Barton '89 for the all-time Big Green record of 242 triples. Barry is 10th in the country in 3-pointers made per game this season (3.35). You do the math.

Rai-sing Up
After being held to just two points in the first half against Yale, Aaryn Rai took over in the second stanza, totaling 17 points to finish with a team-high 19. This wasn't the first time the fifth-year got going after the intermission; he had 18 of 20 points in the second half at Columbia back on Jan. 29 as well.

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 22-of-50 (.440) 3-point attempts thus far this month. Against Columbia, he 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 (3.35), 29th in accuracy from behind the arc at 40.7 percent (which also leads the Ivy League among qualified players) and 13th among all active Division I players in career 3-point accuracy (.434).

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