Dartmouth Begins Four-Game Homestand by Hosting Columbia Saturday

GAME 21
Dartmouth (7-13, 3-3 Ivy League) vs. Columbia (6-15, 1-5 Ivy League)
Date: Saturday, January 28, 2023 – 2 p.m.
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Leede Arena
All-Time Series: Columbia, 114-106
Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats

Setting the Scene
The Dartmouth men's basketball team looks to rebound from a tough loss at Princeton when it begins a four-game homestand by hosting Columbia on Saturday. Opening tipoff in Leede Arena is set for 2 p.m. Saturday will be part of Dartmouth Men's Basketball's Alumni Weekend, along with Coaches vs. Cancer Suits And Sneakers Week.

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Dartmouth stands in a tie for third place in the Ivy League standings after winning three of its last five games. It was nearly four-of-five, as the Big Green almost took down first-place Princeton on the road last weekend before falling just short in overtime, 93-90. A Brandon Mitchell-Day 3-pointer with exactly two minutes remaining put the Big Green up by five, but the Tigers rallied and a Tosan Evbuomwan free throw with four seconds left in regulation evened the score and forced overtime. A Dusan Neskovic 3-pointer with 1:13 remaining in the extra session pulled Dartmouth even at 85, but it wasn't enough.

Sophomore Ryan Cornish was the story offensively, scoring a career-high 31 points, his third straight game leading Dartmouth in scoring and team-high sixth this season. He became the first Big Green player to eclipse 30 points since Brendan Barry had 31 at home vs. Boston University on Dec. 18, 2018. Cornish was the first 30-point Dartmouth scorer against an Ivy League opponent since Alex Mitola had 30 on Mar. 1, 2014 against Cornell — and first with 30+ on the road since Alex Barnett netted 30 at Harvard on Jan. 24, 2009. Cornish scored 18 of his points in the first half and finished the game shooting 12-of-22 from the floor while adding a team-high seven rebounds and four assists.

Neskovic came alive in the second half and overtime, scoring 18 of his career-high tying 24 points after halftime. He finished the game 9-of-15 from the floor while adding five rebounds, an assist and steal. He was a +10 in final plus/minus. Senior Dame Adelekun finished with a game high +19, but saw limited minutes (17:21) due to foul trouble. He fouled out with 1:10 remaining in regulation and six points, along with four assists. Adelekun had a monster dunk early in the second half to cap off a 14-2 Dartmouth run and put the Big Green up, 54-47.

Mitchell-Day continued his strong play as the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week scored 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range, which marked career highs for 3-pointers attempted and made. Last Saturday marked the first time Dartmouth scored 90 points against a Division I opponent since a 91-77 win over Albany on Nov. 30, 2018. It was the first time Dartmouth has allowed 90 in any game since giving up 110 at Buffalo on Nov. 21, 2018. It was also the first time Dartmouth had a 30 and 20-point scorer in the same game since that contest at Boston University in 2018 when Barry scored 31 and Chris Knight added 20. Last Saturday was the second time this season Dartmouth has had two scorers with 20+ points, along with the season opener at Fordham when Neskovic scored 23 and Adelekun added 21.

With a win...
- Dartmouth would own a winning record at the halfway point of the Ivy League schedule for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
- The Big Green would remain in no worse than a tie for third place in the standings.
- Dartmouth would win its fifth straight against Columbia, which would be its longest win streak against the Lions since winning eight in a row from 1994 to 1997.
- The Big Green would win their sixth straight over the Lions at home, which would mark their longest home win streak in the series since winning seven in a row from 1954 to 1960.
- Dartmouth would improve to 8-4 over their last 12 Ivy League games (dating back to the end of last season).

Last Time Out
PRINCETON, N.J. (1/21/23) — Sophomore Ryan Cornish, junior Dusan Neskovic and freshman Brandon Mitchell-Day combined for 72 of Dartmouth's 90 points, but it wasn't enough as the Big Green fell just short at Princeton on Saturday afternoon, 93-90 in overtime. Cornish led the way with a career-high 31 points while Neskovic added 24 to tie a career high and Mitchell-Day posted 17. A Mitchell-Day 3-pointer put Dartmouth ahead, 76-71 with less than two minutes remaining, but the Tigers rallied to force overtime — where they were victorious.

Scouting Columbia
Columbia stands 6-15 on the season, including 1-5 in Ivy League play. The Lions opened league play with a big 62-60 home victory against Yale. Columbia owns nonleague victories against Delaware State (70-65), SUNY Maritime (96-44), New Hampshire (56-52), Sarah Lawrence (106-65) and Lafayette (57-45).

Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa leads Columbia in scoring, averaging 12.8 points per game. He's followed by Avery Brown (9.0) and Zine Eddine Bedri (8.6). De La Rosa's 5.6 rebounds per contest lead the team while Brown's 56 assists through 21 games are first on the Lions. As a team, Columbia leads the Ivy League in offensive rebounds per game with 11.43 on average. De La Rosa's 89.1 free throw percentage is second in the Ivy League and top 25 nationally.

All-Time Against The Lions
Columbia leads the all-time series with Dartmouth, 114-106, but the Big Green have won four straight and six of the last seven. Last season, Dartmouth swept the season series with a 76-63 road victory followed by a 79-50 win at home. The Big Green have won five straight over the Lions at home, with the last loss coming on Jan. 29, 2016 via a 77-60 final. Dartmouth won the first-ever meeting between the two sides, 16-10 on Dec. 13, 1905. Columbia was victorious in the next meeting, 21-7 on Jan. 20, 1908.

What A Weekend!
The Big Green had a statement weekend in mid-January when they beat preseason Ivy League favorite Penn at home on Saturday, Jan. 14 before topping Harvard on the road two days later on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Against the Quakers, the Big Green trailed by as many as 13 in the second half (52-39), but from that point forward, Dartmouth outscored the Quakers 36-19 over the final 15 minutes of action. It marked the first time the Big Green overcame a double-figure deficit since an 11-point comeback against Brown on Jan. 8, 2022. Penn was 0-of-13 from 3-point range in the second half. Offensively, sophomore Ryan Cornish scored nine of his team-high 14 points in the second half while freshman Brandon Mitchell-Day provided a spark, in the second half and all game. He finished with 10 points and a huge block with 34 seconds remaining and Dartmouth up by one, which helped seal the win. Freshman Jackson Munro nearly posted his first-career double-double, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds in just 13:34 of action.

On Monday at Harvard, Dartmouth got out to a 12-2 start and would never trail in a 60-59 win. Cornish again led the Big Green in scoring, this time with 16, including 3-of-4 shooting from three. In the span of 1:39 early in the second half, he completed a 4-point play then knocked down a nearly half-court shot with the shot clock winding down. Including a 3-point play not long before, he scored 10 points in the span of 2:53. Senior Dame Adelekun scored eight of Dartmouth's first 10 points, finishing with 14 — good for his seventh straight game in double figures. Mitchell-Day also scored 11 points, all coming in the first half to help the Big Green open a 34-26 halftime advantage. Mitchell-Day was honored on Tuesday with Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors, Dartmouth's first Rookie of the Week honoree since Taurus Samuels on Jan. 21, 2019. The win marked Dartmouth's second straight against Harvard for the first time since 1998-99. It's the first time since 1995-96 winning back-to-back in Cambridge. Monday was also the first Big Green win of fewer than seven points against Harvard in 18 years.

Road Win Over Defending Ivy Tournament Champs
Dartmouth won at defending Ivy League Tournament Champion Yale on Jan. 6, 81-77, for the Big Green's first victory against the Bulldogs since 2015 and first at Yale since 2014. The win snapped Dartmouth's 12-game losing streak in the series. It was also the Bulldogs' first home loss this season. Junior Dusan Neskovic led the way with a career-high 24 points. It marked the most points scored by any player at Yale this season (home or away) and second most this season overall (behind Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored 28). The 24 marked the most points by an opponent at Yale since Princeton's Tosan Evbuomwan had 26 on Feb. 19, 2022.

The effort came against a Yale defense that entered tops in the Ivy League and seventh nationally in scoring defense coming in (56.9). The Bulldogs were also seventh in scoring margin (+18.4) and eighth in rebound margin (+9.9). Dartmouth ended up outrebounding Yale, 37-36, becoming just the third team this season to outrebound the Bulldogs (along with Hawaii and Kentucky).

Da Na Na, Da Na Na
Dartmouth men's basketball has found itself on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 twice this season. Most recently, Dame Adelekun's block vs. Cornell on New Year's Day made the cut at No. 10. It was an impressive play in which he essentially caught the ball as the shot was going up (rather than swatting it away). The other came on Dec. 13 at Boston University via a Jaren Johnson chase down block.

3-Point Prowess
Dartmouth knocked down double-figure 3-pointers in three of the first four games of the season (11 at Fordham, 10 vs. Bryant and 13 against MCLA). That made it seven times in eight games with 10+ treys dating back to the end of 2021-22. (The Big Green had nine at Quinnipiac in game four.) It marked the first time the Big Green had double-digit made threes in their first three games of the season since 2018-19.

Dartmouth made 13 treys in consecutive games vs. NVU-Johnson and CSU Bakersfield. The 26 made threes were the most since the start of the 2021-22 season at Georgetown (16) and hosting NVU-Lyndon (14). It was also the first time with 13+ made threes consecutively since those two contests.

Overall, the Big Green have reached double-figure made threes in seven of 20 games this season. Dartmouth's 8.2 made 3-pointers per contest stand third in the Ivy League.

Block Party
Dartmouth's 4.2 blocks per game are second in the Ivy League and 71st in the nation, owning 84 blocks in 20 games. Individually, senior Dame Adelekun's 35 blocks and 1.84 blocks per contest are tops in the league (and 40th and 44th in the nation, respectively). He's had three or more blocks four times, including a career high in back-to-back games — four at Central Connecticut State then five at Boston University.

The four blocks at CCSU marked the most for a Big Green player since Chris Knight had four on Feb. 8, 2019, at home vs. Cornell. The five at BU were the most since Jan. 17, 2015, when Gabas Maldunas had five against NJIT. In the first 5:21 of the second half, Adelekun posted nine points, four rebounds, four blocks and an assist in an incredible stretch of basketball. Going back to the first half, the Ivy League leader in blocks had all of his career-high five rejections in the span of 10:04 of game action.

Dominant Defense
In Dartmouth's weekend sweep of Penn and Harvard (Jan. 14 and 16), the Big Green defense impressed against some of the Ivy League's top scorers. Entering the weekend, the top three scorers were Penn's Jordan Dingle (24.2 entering Saturday), Harvard's Chris Ledlum (19.5 entering Monday's game) and Penn's Clark Slajchert (17.1 entering Saturday). Dingle's 24.2 points per game were also second nationally. The Big Green held the three to a combined 29 points — 31.8 points fewer than their scoring averages entering (which was 60.8). Dingle was held to a season-low 14 points, breaking a streak of 13 straight games scoring 20+ points. Slajchert was held to eight points while Ledlum was held to seven points (which tied a season low). Ledlum scored Harvard's first seven points of the game, but was held scoreless for the remainder of the contest. Foul trouble played a role, but even so, was held scoreless for the final 11:43 of his time on the court.

Tough Nonleague Schedule
Dartmouth's nonleague schedule was challenging, with the 12 Division I opponents posting a combined 112-119 record (following games Jan. 24). The Big Green's first three DI opponents of the year (Fordham, Bryant and Quinnipiac) are currently a combined 43-16.

Ken Pom Ranking in parenthesis
Fordham: 15-4 (183)
Bryant: 13-7 (196)
Quinnipiac: 15-5 (132)
Incarnate Word: 8-12 (351)
UTSA: 7-14 (328)
Grambling State: 12-7 (223)
CSU Bakersfield: 6-13 (311)
Vermont: 10-10 (155)
Central Connecticut State: 5-16 (330)
Boston University: 10-12 (266)
South Florida: 9-11 (138)
UMass: 11-8 (164)
Total: 121-119

Balanced Scoring
Through 20 games, eight different Big Green players have led the team in scoring. Here is a rundown.

Ryan Cornish: 6 - at UTSA (11/27), vs. Grambling State (11/28), vs. CSU Bakersfield (12/3), vs. Penn (1/14), at Harvard (1/16), at Princeton (1/21)
Dame Adelekun: 5 - vs. Vermont (12/6), at Boston University (12/13), at South Florida (12/16), vs. Cornell (1/1), at Brown (1/7)
Brandon Mitchell-Day: 2 - vs. Bryant (11/11), vs. Incarnate Word (11/25)
Cade Haskins: 2 - at Quinnipiac (11/15), at Central Connecticut State (12/9)
Dusan Neskovic: 2 - at Fordham (11/7), at Yale (1/6)
Jaren Johnson: 1 - at UMass (12/20)
Robert McRae III: 1 - vs. MCLA (11/12)
Jayden Williams: 1 - vs. NVU-Johnson (11/30)

Follow Along
Saturday's game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Bob Lipman and former Dartmouth head coach Dave Faucher on the call. There will also be an audio broadcast on DartmouthSports.com with Justin McIsaac and Bill Murphy on the call.

What's Ahead?
Following Saturday's game, the Big Green remain home next weekend to host Brown on Friday night and Yale on Saturday night. Both gametimes are set for 6 p.m.

Schedules