Tale of Two Halves Ends with Vermont on Top, 64-53

Wednesday, November 29

Burlington, Vt. / Patrick Gymnasium

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-4,0-0Ivy League

Vermont

6-2,0-0America East

Dartmouth

Vermont

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Tale of Two Halves Ends with Vermont on Top, 64-53

11/29/2023 10:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day posted his second straight double-double in the defeat

By: Justin Lafleur

BURLINGTON, Vt. — With the Dartmouth men's basketball team leading 31-28 at the half and 41-36 a few minutes into the second, defending America East Champion Vermont answered with a vengeance, posting a 15-0 run to take a 51-41 lead, which the Big Green couldn't overcome in falling, 64-53, on Wednesday evening inside Patrick Gymnasium. Senior Dusan Neskovic paced the offense with a game-high 17 points, all coming in the first half. Sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds, good for his second consecutive double-double.

Mitchell-Day became the first Big Green player with back-to-back double-doubles since Chris Knight had three in a row in February of 2020.

"The thing about Brandon is he's incredibly talented, but he works just as hard off the court," said Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin. "I love that about him. He's very important for us and he needs to continue to make strides, and he will. I know it's important to him."

Sophomore Jayden Williams chipped in with nine points, shooting 3-of-5 from 3-point range. Senior Jaren Johnson had a strong effort starting at point guard, posting five points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal, while not turning the ball over. As a team, the Big Green turned the ball over a season-low eight times.

"Our identity and goal is to be a team that's tougher than our opponent, a team that's more together, a team that's unselfish and a team that executes and communicates at a high level," said McLaughlin. "When we talk about execution, we talk about decisions, details and discipline. And I thought in the first 20 minutes, we checked all those boxes.

"[In the second half], a couple possessions didn't go our way where we maybe had a good look, but didn't make it," McLaughlin continued. "I think that took some juice from us and we made some early defensive mistakes at the other end, which Vermont capitalized on because they're a good team and an experienced team. That then didn't allow us to check those same boxes off for periods of time."

TJ Long led Vermont with 14 points while TJ Hurley added 12 off the bench.

Despite an impressive opening sequence from Mitchell-Day, with a block and dunk on the other end, the Catamount jumped out to an 11-4 lead. Dartmouth answered with an 11-0 run, including seven points from Neskovic and four from Mitchell-Day. The two converted layups in the span of 34 seconds to give Dartmouth a 15-11 lead with 10:46 left in the first half.

What a start to this one from Brandon Mitchell-Day with the block on one end and emphatic putback slam just seconds later on the other!

A sequence worthy of #SCTop10 consideration if you ask us 😤

Watch on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/4aJnuXb7et #TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/dDLM51kMPw
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) November 30, 2023

The Big Green lead reached as much as six on two occasions, the second coming after a Mitchell-Day jump shot made the score 25-19 with 4:39 on the first-half clock. Not long after, the Catamounts used a 5-0 surge to pull even at 28, but Neskovic's third 3-pointer of the half, gave Dartmouth a 31-28 lead after 20 minutes of play.

The second half started well for Dartmouth as after a Catamounts miss, Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Big Green back up six. Despite Vermont's efforts to pull even or take a lead, Dartmouth went back up five after a Mitchell-Day layup made the score 38-33, then five again after a Williams 3-pointer put the Big Green in front, 41-36.

However, that's when Vermont took over, scoring 15 straight points and holding the Big Green scoreless for the span of 8:03. In that span, Dartmouth was 0-for-8 shooting with four of its eight turnovers in the game coming in that stretch.

Even with that drought, a Romeo Myrthil transition 3-pointer pulled Dartmouth back within seven, 51-44, with 8:14 still remaining.

A Romeo Myrthil transition three ends a long scoreless drought for the Big Green. Still a long way to go in this one.

Watch on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/4aJnuXb7et #TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/guG37FoFVS
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) November 30, 2023

Johnson converted a tough finish less than two minutes later to pull the Big Green back within seven. But that's as close as they would come.

Jaren Johnson with a TOUGH Finish here to get the Big Green back within seven, but shots just haven't been falling in this second half. Vermont has opened a 59-46 lead with 3:54 remaining.

Watch on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/4aJnuXb7et #TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/kLjwJEIbxL
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) November 30, 2023

"For us, I saw a group that knows how to play well together when things are going well, but needs to work on playing well together when things aren't going our way," said Mitchell-Day. "In the first half, I think we played the best basketball we've played this year. In the second half, they had a little run and we just started rushing shots and not sticking to our principles."

For the game, Dartmouth shot 37.9 percent from the floor (22-of-58), including 34.6 percent from 3-point range (9-of-26). Vermont finished at 44.2 percent (23-of-52) and 33.3 percent from behind the arc (8-of-24). The Catamounts held a 39-29 edge in rebounds.

"When you play on the road and you play against a good team on the road, you have to always be the tougher and more together team," said McLaughlin. "You have to be the more unselfish team and you have to be the team that executes at a higher level. There were too many times when we didn't do that in the second half, and they capitalized."

The Big Green will remain on the road this Saturday for a showdown at UAlbany, Dartmouth's third America East opponent in the first six games of the season. Opening tipoff is set for 8 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.

We caught up with head coach David McLaughlin following tonight's game at Vermont.#TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/g2vWhAZcwh
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) November 30, 2023

Brandon Mitchell-Day became the first Big Green player with a double-double in consecutive games since Chris Knight in February of 2020, and we caught up with BMD after the game.#TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/DDAEpJNIjI
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) November 30, 2023