Dartmouth Closes Out 2018 with Home Tilt Against UNH

Friday, December 21

Smithfield, R.I.

11:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Bryant

Photo by: David Silverman(DSPics.com)

Dartmouth Closes Out 2018 with Home Tilt Against UNH

12/29/2018 9:12:00 AM | Men's Basketball

December 30, 2018 Leede Arena ESPN+ Broadcast KOOL FM Broadcast Live Stats Twitter Dartmouth Notes Game Notes

Big Green aiming to bounce back after one-point loss at Bryant

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (8-6) vs.
NEW HAMPSHIRE (2-10)
Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018 | 12 PM | NESN and ESPN+
Leede Arena (2,100) | Hanover, N.H.

• Following a one-point loss before Christmas at Bryant ended Dartmouth's first four-game winning streak in over three years, Dartmouth looks to regroup against in-state rival New Hampshire on its home court at Leede Arena.
• The game is being televised live at noon on NESN and simulcast online via ESPN+.
• Dartmouth led the Bulldogs by as many as 15 points in the first half only to suffer a 68-67 setback, one game after overcoming a 16-point deficit.
• Junior James Foye led the Big Green with a career-high 23 points while hitting 7-of-10 field goals and 4-of-6 from long range.
• Dartmouth's leading scorer this season, sophomore Chris Knight at 14.9 ppg, was held to nine points, just the third time this season he has been limited to single digits.
• The five starters average at least 10 points a game, including junior Brendan Barry (14.6) who ranks second in the nation in 3-point percentage (.543) and ranks 14th in made threes per game (3.64).
• Junior Ian Sistare has been hitting the glass the past two contests with nine rebounds in each game; his previous best had been just six.
• Knight is second in the league on the boards with 7.7 per game while sophomore Adrease Jackson also ranks in the top 10 (6.0, eighth).
• As a team, the Big Green rank among the top 10 nationally in both 3-pointers made per game (11.4, sixth) as well as accuracy from the perimeter (41.2 percent, ninth).

Series vs. New Hampshire
• The only two Division I schools in the state of New Hampshire have met 68 times on the hardwood with the Wildcats holding a slight edge, 35-33.
• Last year UNH handled the Big Green, 83-66, taking a 15-point lead at the half and maintaining a double-digit lead for the final 28 minutes.
• Miles Wright led Dartmouth with 14 points, while Will Emery added a dozen, and Ian Sistare and Chris Knight both chipped in 10.
• This is the 49th consecutive year these two have squared off. Since the calendar changed to 2000, the Wildcats have won 13 of the 18 meetings.
• The Big Green are 9-8 against UNH at Leede Arena but have lost seven of the last nine.

Scouting the Wildcats
• New Hampshire is in the midst of a nine-game skid, and its two wins this year both came against teams outside of Division I.
• The last three losses have all been by single digits, however, with the closest call coming at Niagara on Dec. 9 when the Wildcats held a one-point lead with 41 seconds to play, only to fall by four.
• As a team, UNH is shooting just under 40 percent from the floor, but a solid 34.5 percent from the perimeter, led by Jordan Reed who has hit 27-of-64 (.422) from downtown.
• Reed leads the team with 10.9 points a night, while three others average between 8.3-9.6, one of whom is Jayden Martinez (9.6), the Wildcats' leading rebounder as well (6.3 rpg).
• Elijah Jordan makes the offense go with a team-best 39 assists and just 20 turnovers.
• New Hampshire is shooting just 62.0 percent at the foul line, though Reed has converted 18-of-20 (90 percent).
• Josh Hopkins has missed the last six games after scoring 10 points a game over the first six.
• Bill Herrion (Merrimack '81) is in his 14th season at UNH, sporting a 169-237 record with the Wildcats. He also coached Drexel to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances in eight seasons and helmed East Carolina for six years, giving him a mark of 406-406 in his career.

NESN at Noon
The NESN broadcast of the game against New Hampahire is the second of four appearances the Big Green will make on the regional network this season. Dartmouth defeated Boston University on Dec. 13, 78-68, and still has both games against Harvard to come (Jan. 12 on NESN-plus in Hanover, Jan. 26 on NESN in Cambridge).

Win Streak Ends at Four
It looked as if Dartmouth would extend its winning streak to five games when it took a 15-point lead at Bryant in the first half on Dec. 21. But the Bulldogs had other ideas and rallied to defeat the Big Green, 68-67, with the final points coming on a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left. It was the sixth one-point game during head coach David McLaughlin's two-plus seasons at the helm, and Dartmouth is (unsurprisingly) 3-3 in those games.

Foye's Coy 23 Points Brings No Joy
Okay, James Foye's 23 points at Bryant weren't terribly coy, what with 16 coming in the second half as he did all he could to fend off the attacking Bulldogs. But I like the rhyme. The junior set a personal high with his point total in his second career game with 20 or more points. He is now seventh in the Ivy League with 2.2 3-pointers per game and would be second in the conference in accuracy behind teammate Brendan Barry at 51.7 percent (31-of-60), but he needs to average 2.5 makes a game.

Putting the Air in Sistare
Three players on the roster have played in every game of their Dartmouth career, two of whom are freshmen — Taurus Samuels and Wes Slajchert. The other is junior Ian Sistare, who until the 61-52 win at Albany had never had more than six rebounds in a game (spanning 66 games). That changed against the Great Danes as the 6-3 guard hauled in nine caroms. Apparently Sistare enjoyed how that felt for he matched that total the very next game at Bryant to lead the Big Green.

Starters Carters of the Load
The Dartmouth starting five has scored at least 90 percent of the team's points three times this year, and while the first two instances produced victories, the most recent one did not as the bench scored just two points in the 68-67 loss at Bryant (oddly, the last two of the game for the Big Green). The positive results from the starters providing the primary production came in the 82-80 win at Loyola Maryland on Nov. 11 (76) and in the 78-52 triumph against Maine at home on Dec. 8 (71).

Above .500
Even with the 68-67 loss to Bryant, Dartmouth still owns a record above .500 on the season at 8-6, its best 14-game mark since the 1996-97 team was 11-3 en route to an 18-8 record. Dartmouth has not finished a season at .500 or better in 20 years (14-12 in 1998-99).

Lighting It Up
• Dartmouth ranks sixth in the nation in 3-pointers made (11.4 per game) and ninth in percentage as a team (.412) after hitting 10-of-29 (.345) at Bryant on Dec. 21.
• In nine of the first 14 games, the Big Green have hit at least 10 treys. The last season with at least that many games in double digits was the 2002-03 campaign (9) while the school record is 16 set the year prior (2001-02).
• The Big Green are well on pace to shatter the program record of 263 3-pointers made — set in that 2001-02 season — with 160 treys after just 14 games. At that rate, Dartmouth would finish the regular season with 343.
• Dartmouth started the year with four straight games with at least 10 3-pointers, its longest such streak since a six-game stretch in 2002.
• Brendan Barry is second in the country at 54.3 percent (51-of-94) behind the arc while James Foye is also above 50 percent (31-of-60, .517) and Ian Sistare is hitting a robust 47.2 percent (25-of-53).
• The Big Green hit 22 trifectas in the season opener, breaking the team record of 18 set in a win over Albany on Jan. 20, 2001.
• Dartmouth has had 15 or more 3-pointers in a game three times this season after reaching that total just four times previously since the 3-point line was instituted 32 years ago.