With Penn win, Dartmouth men’s basketball smack in the middle of Ivy race

By BENJAMIN ROSENBERG

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 01-14-2023 9:21 PM

HANOVER — At the first media timeout of the second half Saturday afternoon, the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team was allowing visiting Penn to shoot 62% from the floor, a big reason why the Big Green stared a 13-point deficit in the face.

But Dartmouth never panicked. The Big Green clamped down on the Quakers’ leading scorers, got some key baskets from a pair of freshmen off the bench and stormed all the way back for a 75-71 victory over the preseason conference favorites, evening their Ivy League record at 2-2 in front of a lively crowd of 855 at Leede Arena.

“It was sticking to the game plan. Not a ton of adjustments,” Dartmouth coach David McLaughlin said. “We just did a better job forcing them into tough decisions off the ball. We were a little bit less out of rotation in the second half, and for the most part, we rebounded the ball well.”

Penn entered with two of the Ivy League’s three leading scorers in guards Jordan Dingle and Clark Slajchert, and Dartmouth held them to a combined 22 points. Dingle, who came in second nationally in scoring, was 5-for-18 shooting Saturday and a mere 1-for-10 from 3-point range as junior guard Izaiah Robinson handled his defensive assignment well.

But the Big Green clearly were less prepared for forwards Max Martz and Nick Spinoso, who finished with 22 points each. Eight minutes into the game, Martz was 4-for-4 from deep, and Spinoso, going against Dartmouth senior big man Dame Adelekun, was 8-for-10 from the field.

“We had a talk at halftime about how we had to man up,” Adelekun said. “We don’t care if they’re hitting tough shots; we just had to make stops, and that’s what we did.”

After his scorching start, Martz didn’t hit another 3-pointer — nor did the Quakers as a team in the second half. Penn shot 61% overall and 55% from long range in the opening 20 minutes, then a mere 31% overall and 0-for-13 from behind the arc after intermission.

The Big Green’s depth carried the day — Dartmouth’s bench outscored that of Penn, 28-5, with a combined 19 of those points coming from freshmen Jackson Munro and Brandon Mitchell-Day. Mitchell-Day’s offense helped narrow the deficit early in the second half, and his clean block of a Martz shot in the paint with 34 seconds left and the Big Green up by one helped seal the win.

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“Our coaches preach, day in and day out, that people have to be ready to step up,” Mitchell-Day said. “People know when to cut, people know if they’re supposed to make hustle plays, and everyone knowing their role is what helps our bench produce as it does.”

Sophomore guard Ryan Cornish led Dartmouth with 14 points, going an efficient 4-of-6 from the field and 5-for-5 at the foul line. His only 3-pointer of the day was a big one, tying the game with just over three minutes remaining. Junior forward Dusan Neskovic was held to eight points, but his floater in the paint with 1:12 left gave the Big Green the lead they would not relinquish.

Dartmouth (6-12, 2-2 Ivy League) is now in a four-way tie for third in a wide-open conference race, along with the Quakers (9-9, 2-2), Harvard and Brown. The Big Green make the two-hour trip to Boston to face the Crimson, led by the Ivy’s second-leading scorer in Chris Ledlum, on Monday.

“We have to figure out ways to make life hard for him,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll make sure we know our personnel and know the other guys so they can’t play to their strengths as well.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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