Following its recent second place showing at the Comcast Lobo Invitational on the University of New Mexico campus, the Big Green men's basketball team (6-6, 0-1 Ivy) returns to action Saturday night at Leede Arena against the Harvard Crimson (8-5,1-0 Ivy).
Dartmouth hopes to avenge a Dec. 15 loss to Harvard in Cambridge in which the Big Green shot only 25 percent from the floor in the first half before losing 70-53.
Head coach Dave Faucher said, "Getting behind early is never a pleasing proposition. That happened to us the first time, and we would like to control things from the opening tip [this time around]."
Dartmouth, however, made a valiant effort in the second half of the Harvard contest, going on a 20-7 run to close the gap to 42-39 with 8:40 remaining. But the Crimson was simply too much that night, as Harvard countered Dartmouth's attack with a 12-0 run of its own to put the game out of reach.
Coach Faucher noted several areas in which Dartmouth was deficient against Harvard in their mid-December match-up, and he has devised a strategy to overcome those inadequacies.
"Harvard is a talented and very experienced team," Faucher said. "We gave up way too much dribble penetration against their three guards and have to do a better job of [guarding] that. We were also tentative offensively and are planning on being more aggressive against them [Saturday night]."
Faucher and the rest of the squad hope to take advantage of the recent spectacular play from junior Charles Harris this weekend against Harvard.
Harris' solid play over the holidays saw him average 15.7 points on 58 percent shooting from the floor over a four-game stretch. He also made 56 percent of his three-point attempts during that same span in addition to being named to the all-tournament team at the Lobo Invitational.
Several other Big Green players have also recently emerged from sluggish starts to the 2001-02 campaign, according to Coach Faucher.
"Everybody seems to be improving, but without question Harris and Vedad Osmanovic '02 are in good grooves," said Faucher.
"I am also pleased with the improved production from our three young centers [Scott Klingbeil '04, Brendan Herbert '04 and David Gardner '05]."
But for all the improvement evident in recent weeks, Dartmouth still must contend with Harvard's stifling defense this weekend.
On the year, the Crimson has allowed just one opponent (Colgate) to shoot above 50 percent against them.
In fact, the ballclub has held six of its 13 opponents below 40 percent shooting from the floor already this season.
Much of the credit for Harvard's tough play on the defensive end goes to senior guard Andrew Gellert out of Newtown, Conn.
Over the last 67 games, Gellert has failed to record a steal in just one of those games.
Look for him to put tremendous pressure on Dartmouth's backcourt.
On the offensive end Harvard should rely heavily on junior guard Patrick Harvey from Chicago, Ill.
Harvey recently earned all-tournament honors at the Golden Bear Classic after he scored 24 points in a loss to Pac-10 foe Cal and 14 in a victory over Coppin State.
The Big Green will challenge Gellert, Harvey and Co. at Leede Arena on Saturday night.
Tip-off time is 7 p.m.
