Big Green Return Home Monday Night for Final Non-Conference Home Game

GAME 11
Dartmouth (3-7, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. Thomas College (4-6, 2-1 NAC)
Date: Monday, December 18, 2023 – 7 p.m.
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Leede Arena
All-Time Series: First Meeting

Setting the Scene
The Dartmouth men's basketball team continues its busiest stretch of the season when the Big Green host Thomas College on Monday night inside Leede Arena. Opening tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. The Big Green are eyeing their fourth win in their last five tries, but look to bounce back from a tough defeat at Le Moyne on Saturday.

Dartmouth made a 13-4 run to close the first half against the Dolphins, evening the score at 36. A Ryan Cornish 3-point play tied the score at 41 early in the second and a few minutes later, a Jaren Johnson jumper got Dartmouth within 48-45. However, from there, Le Moyne staged a 15-0 run. Turnovers hurt the Big Green in that stretch, along with made 3-pointers for the Dolphins (4). Le Moyne made nine second-half 3-pointers (on just 16 attempts) compared to Dartmouth's 1-for-15 in the second half. The Dolphins finished 15-for-33 from three for the game, the most made threes against the Big Green this season (the previous high was 10). Entering the day, Dartmouth was allowing just 6.7 made threes per game by its opponents.

The Big Green were held without a point for a stretch of more than seven minutes in the second half and couldn't recover. Johnson and junior Nikola Dimitrijevic led the Big Green with 12 points apiece. Dartmouth was playing without its top three leading scorers due to injury, as senior Dusan Neskovic and sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day were out for a fourth straight game. Sophomore and reigning Ivy League Player of the Week Jayden Williams was out for the first time.

Dimitrijevic's performance was efficient, scoring 12 points in 12 minutes on 5-of-7 shooting. Johnson knocked down two 3-pointers before the game was five minutes old and had a jumper as the first-half clock expired to pull the Big Green even. Junior Romeo Myrthil followed up his career-high 18-point performance against Boston University with nine points, knocking down a trio of 3-pointers on nine attempts. As a team, Dartmouth was just 5-of-28 from three for the game.

Monday will mark Dartmouth's third game in six days, as the Big Green play four in nine heading into the holiday break. The Big Green also travel to Sacred Heart for a Thursday morning game, with an 11:30 a.m. tipoff.

With a win...
- The Big Green would improve to 1-0 all-time against Thomas College.
- Dartmouth would win for a fourth time in its last five home games for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when it happened multiple times.

Last Time Out
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (12/16/23) — The Dartmouth men's basketball team ended the first half on a 13-4 run to pull even, but Le Moyne used a 15-0 second-half run to turn a 3-point Dolphins' lead into an 18-point advantage, on the way to beating the Big Green, 80-54 on Saturday afternoon at Ted Grant Court. Dartmouth was playing without its top three scorers — senior Dusan Neskovic and sophomores Brandon Mitchell-Day and Jayden Williams — due to injury. It's a group that has combined for nearly 40 points per game on the season, which is just under two thirds of Dartmouth's offensive output. Le Moyne connected on 15 3-pointers on the afternoon, which proved critical.

Scouting Thomas College
Thomas College stands 4-6 on the season, having won two straight heading into Monday night's matchup. Both of those wins were against VTSU-Lyndon, 80-71 and 90-73. The Terriers stand 2-1 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play. Thomas College's other wins have come over Maine at Augusta (92-91) and New England College (73-68).

Cooper Wikala leads the Terriers in scoring (14.6 points per game) and is followed by Parker Desjardins (11.6) and James Phelan (11.6). Phelan's 32 assists through 10 games lead the team, while Jackson Ruelke is first in rebounding (7.3).

All-Time Against The Terriers
Monday will mark the first-ever meeting between Dartmouth and Thomas College.

Taking Down the (BU) Terriers
Dartmouth beat Boston University, 63-54, on Wednesday, Dec. 13.

- The Big Green held the Terriers to their fewest points in the all-time series since a 64-53 Dartmouth win on Jan. 27, 1962 —19 games ago.
- 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.
- Dartmouth's 54 points allowed marked a season best.
- The 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.

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 non-conference 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 non-conference opponent at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium since Kevon Harris of Stephen F. Austin had 26 on Nov. 26, 2019.

Scoring Output
Seven 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)
Nikola Dimitrijevic : 1 - at Le Moyne (tied) (12/16)

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
Monday's game can be seen live on ESPN+, with Brandon Bojarsky and Dave Faucher on the call. An audio broadcast will also be available on DartmouthSports.com with Calvin Christoforo on the call.

What's Ahead?
After Monday's game, the Big Green hit the road to Sacred Heart to face the Pioneers on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. It will mark Dartmouth's final game before playing at Vanderbilt on Saturday, Dec. 30.

Schedules