Dartmouth to Face Sacred Heart on the Road Thursday

GAME 12
Dartmouth (4-7, 0-0 Ivy League) at Sacred Heart (4-9, 0-0 NEC)
Date: Thursday, December 21, 2023 – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Fairfield, Conn. – William H Pitt Athletic & Convocation Center
All-Time Series: Tied, 1-1

Setting the Scene
The Dartmouth men's basketball team hits the road on Thursday for its final game before a holiday break when the Big Green play at Sacred Heart. Opening tipoff is set for 11:30 a.m. on NEC Front Row. The Big Green will be vying to win back-to-back games for the first time this season, following a 77-48 win over Thomas College on Monday night. Dartmouth has alternated wins and losses over the entirety of December (standing 3-3 on the month).

The Big Green led wire-to-wire in Monday's win, their second straight home game in which they never trailed (Dartmouth was tied once against Boston University five days prior). The Big Green's lead reached as much as 30 on Monday, with four players posting double-figure points for the first time this season. Junior Connor Christensen led the way with a career-high 15 points, shattering his previous career high of six. He became the eighth different Big Green player to lead the team in scoring this season. Christensen was 4-of-5 from the floor, including 3-of-3 from 3-point range. It marked the most made threes without a miss for a Dartmouth player since current senior Dusan Neskovic was 4-of-4 this past Jan. 6 at Yale, and most made threes without a miss at home since Brendan Barry was 5-of-5 vs. VTSU-Lyndon on Nov. 16, 2021.

Junior Ryan Cornish also impressed on Monday, posting 14 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. Neskovic and sophomore Jackson Munro each scored 10 points apiece. Neskovic, and sophomores Brandon Mitchell-Day and Jayden Williams, all returned to the lineup after missing a varying length of games due to injury. Mitchell-Day was out for the longest amount of time, having missed all six December games prior to Monday.

A balanced offense on Monday saw no players with more than nine field goal attempts, which was Neskovic. Seven of Neskovic's 10 points came in the span of 53 seconds late in the first half to help the Big Green take a 39-21 halftime lead. In the end, Dartmouth won at home for the fourth time in five games, marking the first time that's happened since the 2018-19 season. The victory was also number 249 of David McLaughlin's career as collegiate head coach (including his time at Stonehill), as he'll be vying for 250 on Thursday. Thursday will be Dartmouth's fourth game in nine days; the Big Green will return to action nine days later at Vanderbilt (Dec. 30) then have just four games the entire month of January, as Ivy League play gets underway.

Dartmouth and Sacred Heart have played just twice before, with each winning on its home court (the Pioneers in 2017 and Big Green in 2018). The 2023-24 edition of the Pioneers was picked first in the NEC preseason poll, but stands 4-9 thus far in nonconference play.

With a win...
- The Big Green would win their second straight against Sacred Heart and improve to 2-1 all-time against the Pioneers.
- Dartmouth would win at Sacred Heart for the first time in program history.
- The Big Green would win back-to-back games for the first time this season and for the first time since last Jan. 14 and 16 against Penn and at Harvard.
- 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. (12/18/23) — The Dartmouth men's basketball team won at home for the fourth time in its last five tries, defeating visiting Thomas College, 77-48, on Monday night inside Leede Arena. Junior Connor Christensen paced the Big Green offense with a career-high 15 points, 10 of them coming in the second half as four Big Green players reached double figures in scoring for the first time this season. Dartmouth got a boost with the return of senior Dusan Neskovic and sophomores Brandon Mitchell-Day and Jayden Williams, who had all been out for various lengths of time due to injury.

Scouting Sacred Heart
Picked first in the NEC preseason poll, Sacred Heart owns four wins, three against Division I opponents in Holy Cross, Loyola Maryland and Binghamton. The Pioneers have lost seven straight, many against top opponents. Sacred Heart lost by just nine at Saint Joseph's and fell at St. John's and Providence in that stretch. Last time out, the Pioneers fell at UAlbany, 93-79.

Nico Galette leads Sacred Heart in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game, along with 6.6 rebounds. Alex Sobel is second in scoring (11.5) and first in rebounding (6.8). Tanner Thomas also comes in at 10.8 points per game. As a team, the Pioneers are first in the NEC and 14th in the nation with 10.0 steals per game, and 41st nationally with 15.54 forced turnovers per contest. Sobel is first in the NEC and ninth in the country in blocks with 29.

All-Time Against The Pioneers
Dartmouth and Sacred Heart have played just twice before, in back-to-back seasons. The Pioneers won in December of 2017, 79-73, with the Big Green winning just over a year later, 82-73. Both teams were victorious on their home courts.

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 victory 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: 2 - vs. UMass Lowell (11/10), at Le Moyne (tied) (12/16)
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)
Connor Christensen: 1 - vs. Thomas College (12/18)
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
Thursday's game can be seen live on NEC Front Row.

What's Ahead?
Following Thursday's contest, the Big Green return to action on Saturday, Dec. 30 at Vanderbilt. Gametime is set for 5 p.m. ET (4 p.m. locally).

Schedules