Dartmouth Hits the Road for Big Games at Cornell and Columbia

Friday, February 17

Ithaca, N.Y. / Newman Arena

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Dartmouth Hits the Road for Big Games at Cornell and Columbia

2/16/2023 10:49:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes (PDF)Watch (Friday)Live Stats (Friday)Watch (Saturday)Live Stats (Saturday)International Stream

Two of the final four regular season games set for this weekend

By: Justin Lafleur

GAME 25
Dartmouth (9-15, 5-5 Ivy League) at Cornell (15-8, 5-5 Ivy League)
Date: Friday, February 17, 2023 – 6 p.m.
Location: Ithaca, N.Y. – Newman Arena
All-Time Series: Cornell, 113-110
Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats

GAME 26
Dartmouth (9-15, 5-5 Ivy League) at Columbia (6-19, 1-9 Ivy League)
Date: Saturday, February 18, 2023 – 7 p.m.
Location: New York, N.Y. – Levien Gymnasium
All-Time Series: Columbia, 114-107
Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats

Setting the Scene
Standing 5-5 in Ivy League play and in the midst of the race for Ivy Madness, the Dartmouth men's basketball team will hit the road this weekend for two of its final four regular season games, at Cornell on Friday (6 p.m.) and Columbia on Saturday (7 p.m.). The Big Green vs. Big Red on Friday will feature a matchup of teams tied at 5-5, one game behind Brown and Penn, who are tied for third at 6-4. Only two games separate the top six teams in the standings. This weekend will mark Dartmouth's first road games in nearly four weeks (since Jan. 21 at Princeton).

Dartmouth bounced back from a tough weekend against Brown and Yale by picking up a huge win over first-place Princeton, 83-76. In the process, the Big Green became the first team to beat both teams currently tied for first place — Yale and Princeton — this season. Against the Tigers, the Big Green used a 30-8 second-half run to turn a seven-point deficit into a 15-point lead, then held on at the end. The Tigers pulled as close as two (73-71) with 2:08 still remaining, but Dartmouth was 10-of-10 from the free throw line over the final two minutes, and 18-of-19 for the game, to help seal the victory.

For the second time in as many games against Princeton, two Big Green players scored 20+ points. In the first meeting, it was sophomore Ryan Cornish (31) and junior Dusan Neskovic (24). This time, it was senior Dame Adelekun (25) and Neskovic (21).

Adelekun finished 10-of-14 from the floor, including a perfect 2-of-2 from 3-point range (marking his first-career game with multiple made threes). He is now 5-of-9 from behind the arc this season. Adelekun filled up the stat sheet with five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal as well. In league games, Adelekun stands fifth in the Ivy League in scoring (16.4), fifth in rebounding (6.5) and tied for eighth in assists (2.7). He's the only player in the league among the top five in scoring and rebounding and top 10 in assists.

Sophomore Romeo Myrthil also played a huge role in the Princeton victory, scoring a career-high 12 points off the bench, while adding five rebounds, two assists and a block. The win snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Tigers, giving Dartmouth its first win in the series since Feb. 10, 2018 (72-56 final in Hanover).

The Big Green have now beaten Yale, Harvard and Princeton in the same season for the first time since 2008-09. That was also the last time Dartmouth stood .500 or better after 10 Ivy League contests. Dartmouth has now beaten each of the top four teams in the preseason Ivy League poll and with a win at Cornell Friday, would own a win against six of the seven other Ivy League teams this season (with the exception being Brown).

Every game is critical considering how close the Ivy League standings are. Friday, Dartmouth will be hoping to avoid a season sweep to Cornell, which could come into play with potential tiebreakers, while on Saturday, the Big Green are hoping to sweep the Lions for a third straight season.

With a win on Friday…
- Dartmouth would stand 6-5 in Ivy League play, marking its best record after 11 league games since 2008-09 (when the Big Green were also 6-5).
- The Big Green would beat a sixth different Ivy League team in the same season for the first time since 2008-09.
- Dartmouth would beat Cornell for the fourth time in its last six tries.
- The Big Green would move into a tie for third or fourth in the standings, should Brown lose at Princeton or Penn lose against Yale.
- Dartmouth would improve to 3-2 on the road in league play.
- The Big Green would improve to 10-6 over its last 16 Ivy League games dating back to the end of last season.
- Dartmouth would improve to 3-2 on the road in league play. The three road Ivy League
victories would be the Big Green's most since the 2014-15 season (when they also had three).

With a win on Saturday…
- Dartmouth would pick up its sixth straight win over Columbia.
- The Big Green would earn a season sweep of the Lions for a third straight season.

(If Dartmouth Also Wins on Friday)
- Dartmouth would earn its second weekend sweep of the season (along with beating Penn at home on Jan. 14 and Harvard on the road on Jan. 16).
- The Big Green would improve to 11-6 over their last 17 Ivy League games dating back to the end of last season.
- Dartmouth would stand 7-5 in Ivy League play, marking its best record after 12 league games since 2008-09 (when the Big Green were also 7-5).

Last Time Out
HANOVER, N.H. (2/11/23) — The Dartmouth men's basketball team used a 30-8 second-half run to turn a seven-point deficit into a 15-point lead, on the way to a big 83-76 bounce back win over first-place Princeton on Saturday afternoon in Leede Arena. The Tigers rallied to as close as two with 2:08 remaining, but the Big Green were 10-of-10 from the free throw line over the final two minutes, and 18-of-19 for the game, to help seal the victory.

Scouting Cornell
Cornell stands 15-8 on the season and is tied with Dartmouth with a 5-5 Ivy League record. The Big Red opened league play at 4-1 and 5-2, but has lost three in a row, with all the games coming on the road — 89-82 at Princeton, 92-86 at Penn and 80-66 at Brown. Cornell is 3-1 at home in Ivy League play, only losing at Princeton via a 75-68 final.

The Big Red lead the Ivy League and stand fifth nationally in scoring offense (84.0), led by three players averaging double figures — Greg Dolan (13.5), Nazir Williams (13.0) and Chris Manon (11.4). Guy Ragland Jr. comes in at 9.6 points per game, along with a team-leading 4.4 rebounds per contest. Dolan's 89 assists are second in the Ivy League, while he leads the league (and stands 28th in the country) in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.70). As a team, the Big Red are first nationally in 3-point attempts per game (30.8), second in fastbreak points (16.96), third in made threes (11.1), third in assists (18.3), fifth in bench points (32.83), sixth in steals (9.6) and seventh in effective field goal percentage (56.8).

All-Time Against The Big Red
Cornell won the Ivy League opener on New Year's Day, 74-63, pulling away down the stretch. Despite the Big Red win, Dartmouth has still won three of the last five meetings. After sweeping the season series in 2019-20, the teams split last season, with each winning on its home court. In the last meeting of last season, Dame Adelekun scored a then career-high 19 points and the Big Green held the Big Red to a season-low 59 points in a 71-59 victory. Dartmouth won the first three and five of the six all-time meetings vs. Cornell. The first meeting came in the first season of Dartmouth men's basketball, a 26-12 win on Jan. 18, 1901.

Scouting Columbia
Columbia enters the weekend with a 6-19 record, 1-9 in Ivy League play. The Lions opened league play with a 62-60 home win over defending league tournament champion Yale, but have dropped nine in a row since. Columbia has been competitive in a number of contests, including playing Dartmouth tough deep into the second half on Jan. 28 before a nine-point defeat at Penn the following game. Among Columbia's nonleague victories was a 56-52 home win over New Hampshire and 70-65 victory over Delaware State.

Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa leads the Lions in scoring and rebounding, averaging 13.0 and 5.8, respectively. Avery Brown is second in scoring (9.6) and he is followed by Zine Eddine Bedri (8.4) and Blair Thompson (7.0). Brown's 68 assists lead the Lions. As a team, Columbia leads the Ivy League in offensive rebounds per game (10.84) while it stands second in free throw attempts per game (17.6).

All-Time Against The Lions
Dartmouth's 83-73 win last month marked its fifth straight in the all-time series to pull within 114-107. Overall, the Big Green have won seven of the last eight. 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 six in a row over the Lions at home, with the last loss coming on Jan. 29, 2016 via a 77-60 final. Dartmouth has won two straight at Columbia, with the last defeat in the series coming on the road, 70-66, on Mar. 8, 2019. 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.

Sustained Success
Since last Feb. 17, the Big Green own the third best record in the league in Ivy League regular season games. Dartmouth is 9-6 in that stretch, only trailing Princeton's 12-3 and Yale's 10-5.

Princeton: 12-3
Yale: 10-5
Dartmouth: 9-6
Cornell: 7-7
Penn: 7-7
Brown: 7-7
Harvard: 5-10
Columbia: 1-13

Dame's Dominance
Senior Dame Adelekun enjoyed a performance to remember on Jan. 28 vs. Columbia.

Adelekun truly enjoyed a historic effort in Saturday's win over Columbia, posting 41 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and two assists. He also drew 14 of the Lions' 25 fouls on the afternoon while shooting 14-of-18 from the floor and 13-of-19 from the free throw line.

Here is a rundown of Adelekun's afternoon:
- Became the sixth Dartmouth player to score 40+ points in a game in program history.
- 41 points tied a Leede Arena record (which was set by Cornell's Matt Morgan in 2019).
- 41 points were the most a Dartmouth player has ever scored in Leede Arena (which opened in 1987). It broke Miles Wright's 39 points scored against LIU Brooklyn on Nov. 29, 2015.
Became the first Big Green player to score 40 points, home or away, since Jim Barton had 48 on Feb. 7, 1987 at Brown.
- Prior to Adelekun, the previous Dartmouth player to score 40 points in a home game was Paul Erland on Jan. 17, 1971 against Holy Cross (he had 44).
- Adelekun's 41 were the most points scored by an Ivy League player since Feb. 8, 2019 when Harvard's Bryce Aiken had 44 against Columbia and Cornell's Matt Morgan scored 41 at Dartmouth.
- Nationally, Adelekun has one of 22 40-point performances in NCAA Division I men's basketball this season (following this weekend's games), and one of just 15 to come in regulation.
- Became the fourth player in the nation to post a 40+ point double-double this season, and the only one to do it in a regulation game.
- One of just two players in the nation to record 40+ points, 10+ rebounds and 3+ blocks this season, and the only to do it in a regulation game.
- Adelekun's 40+ point effort came in the second fewest minutes played.
- Tied for the second fewest missed field goals in a 40-point effort this season.
- Had a second-half sequence that was the No. 4 Play of the Day on ESPN's SportsCenter (Adelekun's second #SCTop10 appearance of the season).

Balanced Scoring
Through 24 games, eight different Big Green players have led the team in scoring. Here is a rundown.

Dame Adelekun: 8 - vs. Vermont (12/6), at Boston University (12/13), at South Florida (12/16), vs. Cornell (1/1), at Brown (1/7), vs. Columbia (1/28), vs. Yale (2/4), vs. Princeton (2/11)
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)
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)
Jayden Williams: 2 - vs. NVU-Johnson (11/30), vs. Brown (2/3)
Jaren Johnson: 1 - at UMass (12/20)
Robert McRae III: 1 - vs. MCLA (11/12)

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 three times this season.

- Most recently, Dame Adelekun's sequence vs. Columbia on Jan. 28 when he had an emphatic dunk on one end, and seconds later, even more emphatic block on the other, made No. 4.
- 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 first #SCTop10 play 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.

Block Party
Dartmouth's 4.1 blocks per game are second in the Ivy League and 64th in the nation, owning 95 blocks in 23 games. Individually, senior Dame Adelekun's 44 blocks and 1.91 blocks per contest are tops in the league (and 40th and 32nd in the nation, respectively). He's had three or more blocks six 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.

Follow Along
Both games this weekend will be streamed on ESPN+.

What's Ahead?
Following this weekend, the Big Green hit the road again next weekend for a big matchup on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Penn. Opening tipoff is set for 2 p.m.