Seniors Lead Big Green to 84-70 Victory Over Penn

Saturday, February 26

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

8-16,5-8Ivy League

Penn

12-14,9-4Ivy League

Penn

Dartmouth

Aaryn Rai posted a double-double with a career-high 27 points and 11 rebounds.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Seniors Lead Big Green to 84-70 Victory Over Penn

2/26/2022 3:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Aaryn Rai led five players in double figures with a career-high 27 points to go with 11 rebounds

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — Aaryn Rai waited a long time for his Senior Day, returning to Dartmouth for a fifth year after the pandemic wiped out the 2020-21 Ivy League season. He made sure Dartmouth closed out the home schedule with a win by supplying a career-high 27 points to go with 11 rebounds as the Big Green (8-16, 5-8 Ivy) kept their Ivy League Tournament hopes alive with an 84-70 victory over visiting Penn (12-14, 9-4 Ivy) on Saturday afternoon at Leede Arena.

Five Dartmouth players scored in double figures — four of them seniors or graduates who were honored and recognized before the contest — led by Rai's 27 on an efficient 11-of-15 from the floor with a season-high three 3-pointers. Taurus Samuels produced 15 points, Brendan Barry 14 and Garrison Wade 10, and Wes Slajchert hit a key 3-pointer in the final minutes. Junior Dame Adelekun crashed the party and nearly gave the Green another double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds as well.

"It was very poetic that all five seniors had great moments in the game and collectively had great games," said Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin. "I was very happy for them to have those moments at home in front of their families and friends. And Aaryn was terrific, moving the ball well, looking for his shot. Sometimes he looks for his drive first, but he was really looking to catch and shoot. So when he makes three threes, he becomes very difficult to cover because when he puts the ball on the floor, he can get into a lot of space very quickly."

Penn, playing without the Ivy League scoring leader Jordan Dingle, got a team-high 18 points from Clark Slajchert, the younger brother of Big Green senior Wes Slajchert. But the elder Slajchert got to take home bragging rights and supplied a dagger 3-pointer with just under three minutes to play that boosted the Big Green lead to 11, all but sealing the victory.

Dartmouth led for nearly 36 minutes on the afternoon, though the lead was traded back and forth six times in the first nine minutes of action. Twice Adelekun provided the go-ahead points, and after the second time, Dartmouth was up 16-15 and would not trail again.

Rai boosted the Big Green advantage to six consecutive times down the court with a three-point play and layup that made it 23-17. When Bryce Washington drilled a 3-pointer to close the Quaker gap to one at 32-31, Barry responded with back-to-back triples, giving Dartmouth its largest lead of the half at 38-31. Penn managed to score the final four points of the stanza, however, making it a three-point game at the intermission.

Dartmouth hit 48.4 percent of its field goal attempts in the period (15-of-31) with five 3-pointers that proved to be the difference as the Quakers had just two. Penn did shoot better than 50 percent (14-of-26, .538), however to keep it a one-possession game.

Rai, who had 10 points in the first 20 minutes, opened the second stanza with a rainbow trifecta, but the Quakers whittled the deficit down to one point on consecutive possessions; only a Rai layup allowed the Green to maintain the lead. After a turnover, Penn had an opportunity to take the lead, but Wade came up with a big block, and Rai launched what appeared to be a 3-pointer only to have it ruled a two with the rubber of the toe of his shoe grazing the line.

Wade followed with an undoubtable triple, and after Rai traded buckets with Lucas Monroe, Samuels got into the long-ball act to build the Big Green lead to nine at 51-42 that led Penn head coach Steve Donahue to call a timeout.

Dartmouth withstood five straight Quaker points, boosting the lead back to nine with a pair of free throws and a Rai 3-pointer. Both defenses tightened up, however, and the Big Green went scoreless for nearly four minutes. But Penn could not take advantage, tallying only three points of its own before Barry landed his fourth trey of the afternoon for a 61-52 lead with 6:16 remaining.

A Rai free throw bumped that lead to double digits for the first time, and Adelekun scored three the hard way a bit later to make it a 67-56 contest with 3:39 to play. Although Jonah Charles popped his first 3-pointer to give Penn a glimmer of hope, Barry corralled his own miss and fed Slajchert for his long-distance connection (one of Barry's season-high seven helpers), practically calling game as the ball slunk its way through the net. And when Rai scored his final points of the game in the lane and Samuels converted two foul shots, the additional three trifectas Charles hit in the final 90 seconds were moot thanks to the Green hitting all eight free throws in that span. Dartmouth finished the game 17-of-19 (.895) from the charity stripe.

With Cornell's win over Yale this afternoon, the final five Ivy League games to be played all must end a certain way for Dartmouth to secure the fourth and final spot for the conference tournament on March 12-13. First, Harvard has to beat Princeton tomorrow in Cambridge. Should that happen, the final day of games on March 5 has to have Dartmouth win at Harvard, Penn beat Princeton at the Palestra, Brown win at Yale and Columbia best Cornell in New York City. If any one of those games end differently, the Big Green's season will end next Saturday.

Opening tip at Harvard on March 5 will be at 2 p.m. with the game streamed live on ESPN+.

Notes: Dartmouth has won six of the last eight games against Penn in Leede Arena … With his four 3-pointers today, Barry is tied for second with Greg Buth '01 on the Dartmouth charts with 240 triples, trailing Jim Barton '89 at the top of the list by only two … Rai surpassed 900 points in his career with his big game today … the five players recognized before the game were all on the court with 29 seconds left when McLaughlin substituted for them as a group, giving the crowd of 784 a chance to give them a standing ovation.