Dartmouth Travels to Le Moyne for Saturday Afternoon Matchup

Saturday, December 16

Syracuse, N.Y. / Henninger Athletic Center

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Le Moyne

Men's Basketball Celebration vs. Boston University

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Dartmouth Travels to Le Moyne for Saturday Afternoon Matchup

12/15/2023 12:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes (PDF)Watch on NEC Front Row Listen (Le Moyne Broadcast)Live Stats

Big Green and Dolphins to square off for the first time ever

By: Justin Lafleur

GAME 10
Dartmouth (3-6, 0-0 Ivy League) at Le Moyne (3-7, 0-0 NEC)
Date: Saturday, December 16, 2023 – 2 p.m.
Location: Syracuse, N.Y. – Ted Grant Court
All-Time Series: First Meeting

Setting the Scene
Winners of two of its last three games, the Dartmouth men's basketball team travels to Syracuse this weekend to face Le Moyne on Saturday. The Big Green will mark the Dolphins' first-ever home Division I opponent since their transition to DI. Opening tipoff is set for 2 p.m. on NEC Front Row. Dartmouth is coming off a 63-54 win over Boston University, holding the Terriers to their fewest points in the all-time series against Dartmouth since 1962.

Junior Romeo Myrthil was the story offensively for the Big Green, scoring a career-high 18 points on just seven field goal attempts (making five). He was 3-of-4 from 3-point range, including two 3-pointers as part of Dartmouth's 9-0 run to turn a 39-39 tie into a 48-39 lead. Thursday (Dec. 14) was Myrthil's birthday, but his home country of Sweden is six hours ahead of the Eastern time zone, so Myrthil's career performance came on his birthday… in Sweden.

The Big Green never trailed on Wednesday, taking an early 9-1 lead before Boston University rallied to pull even in the second. But after Dartmouth's trio of threes (two from Myrthil, with a Jayden Williams triple sandwiched in between), the Big Green wouldn't look back. Dartmouth was missing its top two scorers due to injury for a third straight game, senior Dusan Neskovic and sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day, but used a balanced effort on Wednesday night. No Big Green players had more than eight field goal attempts, with six taking between four and seven. Along with Myrthil's 18 points, senior Jaren Johnson scored 10 while grabbing seven rebounds, tied for the team lead in boards with junior Ryan Cornish. Johnson has now led the Big Green in rebounding (solely or tied) in four of the nine games this season, while his 6.2 average remains first on the team.

Sophomore Jackson Munro tallied nine points, including some timely baskets — including a 3-pointer to put the Big Green up 9-1 early and 3-point play early in the second half. The reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, Williams scored seven points via a pair of dunks and a key 3-pointer. Cornish had nine points as well and is now averaging 12.3 points over his last three games.

Defense was important for the Big Green as well, with junior Connor Christensen continuing to excel in that area, while also contributing four points. Dartmouth's 54 points allowed marked a season best and was its fewest allowed against Boston University in 19 games in the all-time series (since a 64-53 Dartmouth win on Jan. 27, 1962). Wednesday's win snapped Dartmouth's three-game losing streak against the Terriers and marked only the Big Green's second in their last six tries in the series. Wednesday has been good to Dartmouth so far in 2023-24, as the Big Green stand 3-1, compared to 0-5 the rest of the week.

Saturday at Le Moyne marks game two in a four-games-in-nine-days stretch heading into a holiday break.

With a win...
- The Big Green would improve to 1-0 all-time against Le Moyne.
- Dartmouth would improve to 3-1 over its last four games, its best four-game stretch since early in Ivy League play last season (when the Big Green beat Penn and Harvard, lost to Princeton then beat Columbia). Dartmouth had two 3-1 stretches last season, also once during nonleague play (beating UTSA, losing to Grambling State then beating NVU-Johnson and CSU Bakersfield).
- Dartmouth would win a road nonleague game for the first time since winning at UTSA,
78-77 in overtime, last Nov. 27.

Last Time Out
HANOVER, N.H. (12/13/23) — The Dartmouth men's basketball team jumped out to a 9-1 lead and would never trail, on the way to a 63-54 win over Boston University on Wednesday night inside Leede Arena. The Terriers evened the score at 39, but the Big Green immediately answered with a 9-0 run via a trio of 3-pointers, two coming from junior Romeo Myrthil as part of his career-high 18-point effort. Boston University would get as close as four on multiple occasions down the stretch, but Dartmouth always led by at least two possessions for the game's final 12:44.

Scouting Le Moyne
In its first season in Division I, Le Moyne stands 3-7, owning wins over SUNY Canton, Cal State Northridge and Fredonia, along with some tight defeats, including falling at San Diego by nine and Pacific by two. Last time out, Le Moyne fell at Binghamton, 91-79, one game after a 68-51 defeat at Army West Point.

The Dolphins are led offensively by Luke Sutherland, who averages 15.9 points per game, is shooting 48.1 percent from the floor, 44.4 percent from 3-point range and 91.2 percent from the free throw line. Kaiyem Cleary is also averaging double-figure points (11.6) to go with a team-leading 5.1 rebounds per game. Mike DePersia leads Le Moyne in assists with 42 through 10 games. One area Le Moyne has impressed in has been taking care of the basketball, as the Dolphins have turned the ball over just 10.0 times per game on average, while forcing 16.0 per contest.

Last season, in Le Moyne's final at Division II, the Dolphins were 15-15 and 11-9 in the Northeast-10, falling to Bentley in the conference quarterfinals.

All-Time Against The Dolphins
Saturday will mark the first-ever meeting between Dartmouth and Le Moyne.

Double Trouble
Sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day has two double-doubles this season.

- at Vermont (Nov. 29): 10 points, 10 rebounds
- at Saint Louis (Nov. 25): 17 points, 10 rebounds

At Vermont on Nov. 29, Mitchell-Day recorded his second straight double-double, becoming the first Dartmouth player to do so since Chris Knight in February of 2020. Knight actually did so in three straight games, posting 27 points and 13 rebounds vs. Princeton (Feb. 22), 17 and 13 at Cornell (Feb. 28) and 19 and 10 at Columbia (Feb. 29).

Block Party
The Big Green tallied nine blocks on Dec. 2 at UAlbany, their most since Dec. 21, 2013 when they also had nine against Longwood. Juniors Nikola Dimitrijevic and Romeo Myrthil each posted a career-high four blocks, while senior Jaren Johnson recorded the other.

20-Point Notables...
- Senior Dusan Neskovic became the first Big Green player with 20 points in back-to-back road games since Brendan Barry in February of 2022. Barry had 25 at Yale (Feb. 4) followed by 21 at Brown (Feb. 5).
- Prior to Neskovic, the previous time a Big Green player scored 20 in back-to-back nonconference road games since Alex Barnett in 2008. Barnett scored 28 at Providence (Nov. 18) and 32 at Vermont (Dec. 2).
- As a team, the Big Green had a 20-point scorer in three of the first four games of the season (Neskovic 23 at Duke, sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day 20 vs. Westfield State and Neskovic 24 at Saint Louis), the first time that's happened since the 2008-09 season. That year, Barnett had all the 20-point games, posting 28 at Providence, 24 vs. Colgate and 24 against Furman.
- Dartmouth had a 20-point scorer in five consecutive games (vs. Westfield State, at Saint Louis, at Vermont, at UAlbany and vs. New Hampshire). It marked the first time since at least the turn of the century that the Big Green have had a 20-point scorer in six of the first seven games of the season.
- Against New Hampshire (Dec. 6), Jayden Williams' 28 points marked a season high for a Dartmouth player and the most by a Big Green player since Dame Adelekun scored 41 last Jan. 28 against Columbia.

McRae III and Myrthil Named Captains
Dartmouth head men's basketball coach David McLaughlin announced that senior Robert McRae III and junior Romeo Myrthil will serve as the Big Green's team captains in 2023-24. The two will look to lead an experienced group that features seven returning players who led the team in scoring at least once this past season.

McRae emerged as a junior, especially in Ivy League play when he became a regular in the Big Green rotation. After appearing in two games as a sophomore, he played in 24 as a junior, starting once and averaging 2.5 points and 1.8 rebounds. His impact on the defensive end of the floor was also strong, along with his impact on the game in intangible ways. Three games into the season, McRae scored a career-high 18 points in just 15 minutes against MCLA, shooting 5-of-7 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. He later made his first-career start at UMass and filled up the box score with nine points, seven rebounds, three steals and an assist. In Ivy League play, McRae scored nine points in a mid-February weekend — four at Cornell and five at Columbia.

Myrthil averaged 3.6 points and 2.0 rebounds as a junior in 25 games, starting eight times. Like McRae, Myrthil's impact came at both ends of the floor and in ways not always evident in the box score. Offensively, he reached double-figure points on three occasions, including a career-high 12 in a home win over Princeton and 11 both against CSU Bakersfield and at South Florida. For the season, Myrthil shot 42.7 percent from the floor (32-of-75) and 36.6 percent from 3-point range (15-of-41). After starting the first eight games of the season, Myrthil came off the bench in game nine and he responded with 27 points over the next three games (11 points against CSU Bakersfield followed by nine vs. Vermont and seven at CCSU).

History in Cameron Indoor Stadium
In the season opener at Duke on Monday, Nov. 6, the Big Green were led by junior Dusan Neskovic, who scored 23 points for a second straight season opener (also 23 last Nov. 7 at Fordham). He scored 15 of those points in the second half at Duke, shooting 7-of-11 over the final 20 minutes. Neskovic finished 11-of-19 for the game, which included knocking down a second-half 3-pointer.
- Neskovic's 23 points were the most scored by a Duke opponent in the Blue Devils' home opener since Davidson's De'Mon Brooks scored 24 on Nov. 8, 2013.
- It was also the most scored by any nonconference opponent at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium since Kevon Harris of Stephen F. Austin had 26 on Nov. 26, 2019.

Scoring Output
Six different Big Green players have led the team in scoring this season.

Dusan Neskovic: 4 - at Duke (11/6), at Saint Louis (11/25), at Vermont (11/29), vs. UAlbany (12/2)
Jaren Johnson: 1 - vs. UMass Lowell (11/10)
Brandon Mitchell-Day: 1 - vs. Westfield State (11/15)
Jayden Williams: 1 - vs. New Hampshire (12/6)
Ryan Cornish: 1 - vs. Marist (12/9)
Romeo Myrthil: 1 - vs. Boston University (12/13)

Preseason Poll Released
The Ivy League Men's Basketball Preseason Poll was released on Tuesday, Oct. 17, which saw the Dartmouth men's basketball team come in seventh. Yale was picked as the preseason favorite with 124 points (14 first-place votes) followed closely by Princeton with 110 points (two first-place votes). Cornell came in third with 80 points followed by Brown (77), Penn (68), Harvard (66), Dartmouth (28) and Columbia (23).

Sustained Success
Since Feb. 17, 2022, the Big Green are tied for the third best record in the league in Ivy League games (regular season or postseason).

Princeton: 16-5
Yale: 15-6
Dartmouth: 10-9
Penn: 10-9
Cornell: 9-10
Brown: 8-10
Harvard: 7-12
Columbia: 2-16

International Experience
Four members of the Big Green hail from outside of the United States — Dusan Neskovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Romeo Myrthil (Sweden), Nikola Dimitrijevic (Serbia) and Ben Brown (England). Neskovic is the first Big Green player from Banja Luka since Vedad Osmanovic '02, who scored 697 points. The four international players are tied with the 2021-22 team for the most international players on a Dartmouth men's basketball roster.

Follow Along
Saturday's game can be seen live on NEC Front Row, while a link to a Le Moyne radio broadcast is also available on the men's basketball schedule page on DartmouthSports.com.

What's Ahead?
After Saturday's game, the Big Green have a quick turnaround when they host Thomas College on Monday night. Opening tipoff is set for 7 p.m. inside Leede Arena and tickets are available at DartmouthSports.com/tickets.