Seniors Set the Tone in Historic 87-82 Senior Day Win over Harvard

Saturday, March 4

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

10-18,6-8Ivy League

Harvard

14-14,5-9Ivy League

Harvard

Dartmouth

This Paul Hudson dunk got the scoring started for Dartmouth on Saturday.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Seniors Set the Tone in Historic 87-82 Senior Day Win over Harvard

3/4/2023 7:52:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

The Big Green finished off their first season sweep of the Crimson since the 1998-99 season

By: Justin Lafleur

HANOVER, N.H. — The Big Green seniors set the tone on Saturday and their teammates kept it going as the Dartmouth men's basketball team capped off its season with an 87-82 win over Harvard to sweep the Crimson for the first time in 24 years. The Big Green's 87 points marked their most against Harvard in 31 years — since a 90-64 home win on Dec. 15, 1992. Senior Dame Adelekun led the way on Saturday, filling up the box score with 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four blocks.

All this came against a Crimson team that stood second in the Ivy League in scoring defense, allowing just 65.6 points per game coming in. Dartmouth's 87 points marked the second most points scored against the Crimson this season.

BIG GREEN FINISH STRONG. @DartmouthMBB closed out its season with an 87-82 win over Harvard. Four Big Green players had double digits in scoring, led by Dame Adelekun's 19 points. 🌿🏀 pic.twitter.com/U7e68fYvvf
— The Ivy League (@IvyLeague) March 4, 2023

Dartmouth finished its season at 10-18 and 6-8 in Ivy League play. Harvard finished at 14-14 and 5-9 in the league. Before the game, the Big Green seniors (Adelekun, Cam Krystkowiak, Jackson Blaufeld, Paul Hudson and Nate Ogbu) were honored.

"It's hard at the end of the year when you know there's not a game after this, but our guys prepared as if it was a playoff game and I'm proud of them for that," said Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin. "I thought our seniors played like seniors. When they went out there, I thought they were focused and ready to go. We wanted to empower them to go out and play, and they did.

"I thought it set the tone for the game."

McLaughlin started the team's five seniors and they responded, going into the first media timeout on a 9-4 run to pull the Big Green within 10-9. Four different seniors scored in the game's first 3:14.

Four Big Green tallied double-figure points. Adelekun's 19 came in just 22 minutes due to foul trouble, shooting 8-of-12 from the floor. Junior Dusan Neskovic had 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting while sophomore Ryan Cornish scored 16 (13 coming in the second half) and Krystkowiak added 12 on 4-of-5 shooting, along with a career-high four steals.

Sam Silverstein led Harvard with 20 points.

"It's crazy to think I'm not ever going to play another game here," said Adelekun. "The emotions haven't really hit me all the way yet, but happy we get to go out with some history."

Dartmouth has now won three straight against Harvard for the first time since 1998-99. The Big Green finished the season with six Ivy League wins, marking the first time they've had 6+ league victories in consecutive seasons since the 1995-96 and 1996-97 campaigns.

"We're not satisfied; we thought we could have done a lot more, but I'm proud of my guys," said Adelekun. "We've shown growth and my goal ever since I got here was to show that we could be one of the winning teams in the Ivy League. I feel like through my tenure, we developed that full belief that we can be one of those teams."

When you sweep Harvard for the first time in 24 years 𝙖𝙣𝙙 send your seniors out with a dub. #TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/QL3sH9EpTt
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 4, 2023

After going down 5-0, Hudson got Dartmouth on the board with a dunk off a great pass from Adelekun.

14:46 1st | Paul Hudson gets us started with a dunk off a great feed from Dame Adelekun! Big Green trail 10-9 at our first media timeout.

📺: @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/we9yvtf7Nz #TheWoods🌲| #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/zrw3bPqPBE
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 4, 2023

Following the first media timeout, Neskovic caught fire, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers in the span of 35 seconds to turn a one-point deficit into a five-point, 17-12 Dartmouth lead with 13:18 on the first-half clock.

The Crimson would pull even at 17 and later 19, but the Big Green used a 9-0 run, which included a Krystkowiak layup, four straight Adelekun points and Cornish 3-pointer to put Dartmouth ahead, 28-19 with 7:59 left in the first.

The lead would swell to 11 after an Izaiah Robinson layup made it 32-21, but Harvard responded with 11 of the next 16 points to pull within 37-32 after a Silverstein 3-pointer with 2:48 remaining in the first. The Crimson pulled as close as four at 39-35 and later 41-37 before a Neskovic floater as the first-half clock expired gave Dartmouth a 43-37 halftime lead.

Harvard cut into the Dartmouth lead early in the stanza, getting within two at 49-47 and 51-49 before pulling even at 54 with 11:51 left in the second half.

The Big Green immediately answered with five straight points, as Cornish found freshman Jackson Munro for the basket then finished an impressive 3-point play to put Dartmouth back in front, 59-54 with 11:06 remaining.

11:06 2nd | Harvard pulled even, but the Big Green have scored four straight, including this sensational and-one from Ryan Cornish, who will be at the line after this timeout. Dartmouth up 58-54.

📺: @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/we9yvtf7Nz #TheWoods🌲| #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/5VCpp8sfvr
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 4, 2023

A few minutes later, a Krystkowiak 3-pointer, Dartmouth's second three in just over a minute, gave the Big Green a 66-58 lead with 7:57 to go. Harvard came back to within three at 66-63, but an 8-0 Dartmouth run featured an Adelekun layup and 3-pointers from Neskovic and Cornish to make the score 74-63.

The Big Green lead reached 12 multiple times, including after an emphatic Adelekun fastbreak dunk with 1:32 remaining.

Dame Adelekun provided the exclamation point during today's win ‼️‼️‼️#TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/HatIvPrYYy
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 5, 2023

Harvard chipped away to within three, 85-82, with six seconds on the clock, but Krystkowiak hit a pair of free throws to wrap up the win. The final minute of 1:02 of action also saw a pair of athletic Adelekun blocks, his 52nd and 53rd of the season for the Ivy League leader.

Only fitting that in the final minute of his final collegiate game, the @IvyLeague leader in blocks Dame Adelekun records another #SCTop10 worthy highlight-reel rejection 😱#TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/rtypS9esJd
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 4, 2023

For the game, the Big Green shot a sizzling 60 percent from the floor (33-of-55), including 43.5 percent (10-of-23) from 3-point range. Harvard finished at 52.4 percent (33-of-63) and 41.7 percent from behind the arc (10-of-24). Dartmouth held a 32-24 edge in rebounds.

Dartmouth's season was highlighted by a surge in Ivy League play which kept the Big Green in the thick of the Ivy League Tournament race until the second-to-last weekend. In the end, Dartmouth beat the three top seeds in the final standings, Yale, Princeton and Penn and showed it can compete with anyone.

"We needed to be more consistent this year," said McLaughlin. "We were an inconsistent team and we need to continue to grow. This sets the tone of where we are and where we need to be next year."

Head coach David McLaughlin following today's 87-82 win over Harvard!#TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/6oekST4WNC
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 5, 2023

Senior Dame Adelekun met with the media following today's 87-82 Senior Day win over Harvard!#TheWoods🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/mp9zZcFtbv
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) March 5, 2023