For Dartmouth's men's basketball team to beat the Ivy League's top two squads this weekend may not be Mission Impossible, but it comes close. Mission Improbable more accurately describes the Big Green's predicament.
Dartmouth (7-13, 3-5) hosts Ivy League leader Pennsylvania (17-2, 7-0) tonight before matching up with second-place Princeton (12-7, 5-2) Saturday at Leede Arena.
The Quakers, ranked 29th in the country by the Associated Press, come into the contest full of momentum. Penn has won 22 consecutive Ivy League games, including 79-59 and 76-66 victories last weekend at Brown and Yale, respectively.
Penn brings some of the top talent in the Ivies to the game. Junior guard Jerome Allen leads the way with 14.8 points per game and is third on Penn's all-time steals list.
Allen enters the match-up on a hot streak of sorts, ringing up 21 points against the Bears and 23 against the Eli. As usual for the Big Green, Sea Lonergan '97 will draw the assignment of guarding the opponent's main offensive weapon, in this case, Allen.
Senior forward Barry Pierce places second on the Quaker career steals list and contributes 14.6 points per game. Guard Matt Maloney provides Penn's main outside shooting threat, having hit on 41 three-point shots. Green coach Dave Faucher will ask Gregg Frame '94 to defend against Maloney's long-range bombs. Forward Shawn Trice adds 6.6 rebounds per game for the Quakers.
Lonergan and Frame will not operate alone in their defensive duties. "We're going to have to rely a lot on team defense," small forward Jamie Halligan '95 said. "We'll rotate in and out."
Not only will Dartmouth rotate its defenders, but also its defenses. "Multiple defenses have worked the last seven or eight games for us," Frame said.
The Big Green especially worry about Penn's running ability which creates an atypical, hence a very effective, Ivy League game pace. "Penn will be a lot more wide open. We'll have to slow down their run," Halligan said. "They finish really, really well."
Dartmouth possesses an offensive game strategy in addition to its defensive one. The Green will look inside. "Frame has had pretty good success posting up against them," Halligan said.
"We're going to try to put them on the defensive," Frame added.Dartmouth's assignment against Princeton looks almost as difficult. The Tigers proved mortal against Brown last weekend, however, losing 71-68 to the Bears.
The Green must continue to cope with senior forward Chris Mooney, the 19th Tiger to score 1,000 points in his career, who is averaging 12.0 points per game this season.
This year, Dartmouth must also contend with the three-time Ivy Rookie of the Week, Sydney Johnson, who is shooting 57.1% from the field and 51.7% from three-point range. Lonergan will handle the task of guarding him.
Junior center Rick Hielscher has emerged as an additional scoring threat, with 26 points against Brown. He also leads Princeton with 5.2 rebounds per game.
Defense serves as a traditional Princeton strongpoint. Only seven of Princeton's last 151 opponents have scored more than 70 points against the Tigers.
The Big Green know what to expect when on offense. "We won't get a lot of shots," Halligan said. "You just don't get the ball a whole lot against them."
Knowing that Princeton excels at and desires the slowdown game, Dartmouth will try to alter its own similar style and taste. "We're going to try to pick up the pace a little," Frame said.
Dartmouth will counter in both games with continuing and emerging offensive weapons. Point guard Frame provides the Green's steadfast threat, standing second in both the Ivy League scoring (15.8 ppg) and assist (6.3 apg) categories.
Based on his 41 point weekend against Columbia and Cornell, Halligan may have permanently arrived as Dartmouth's scoring counterpunch to Frame. Lonergan, besides serving as the Big Green's defensive specialist, can also make a claim to the counterpunch designation, shooting 52.6% from the floor and adding 11.6 points per game.
Mission Improbable tips off at
6 pm both nights.
