Dartmouth returned to Hanover with wins over Yale and Brown over the weekend to learn that indeed, home is where the victories are.
After losing two closely fought ballgames on the road, the Big Green found Leede Arena more conducive to winning tight ball games as they fought off two final-second comeback attempts to set up critical road showdowns at first-place Princeton and second-place Pennsylvania next weekend.
With the 52-51 victory over Brown on Saturday and the 67-63 defeat of Yale on Friday night, the Big Green ran their Ivy league mark to 5-1 on the season, 13-5 overall.
With Penn's surprising loss to Cornell on Saturday, the Big Green joins a three-way tie for second place with the Quakers and Harvard, one game behind league-leading Princeton.
The Big Green gained the opportunity to face the Tigers for first-place on Friday when Brown freshman guard Victor Lesley's three point attempt from 24 feet out with three seconds left clanged off the front left of the rim to preserve the Big Green's 52-51 victory over the Bears after the Bears had stormed back in the final minutes.
Just as they were unable to put away Yale on Friday night, Dartmouth managed to find a way to blow a seven point lead with just under three minutes remaining.
The culprit, like it has been all of January, was a near fateful lack of shooting as the Big Green managed just one basket in the final five minutes, a three-pointer from the right side with 2:45 remaining in the contest by PJ Halas '98, a basket that would be the eventual game winner.
After trailing 23-19 at the intermission, the Big Green regained their focus and their shooting thanks to a half-time adjustment to break down the Brown zone which gave the Big Green shooters fits throughout the first half.
Halas scored all of his team-high 12 points in the second half to lead the Dartmouth charge that was seemingly complete when they took a 49-41 lead, their largest of the game, with 5:11 left to play.
Brown was up to the task though and rallied behind the athleticism of guard Aaron Butler, who led all scorers with 22 points.
Butler's three-pointer brought the Bears within 52-48 while his next attempt was rebounded by Lesley who followed with a triple of his own to close the deficit to one with 25 seconds left.
The Bears then fouled point guard Kenny Mitchell '97, who missed the front end of his trip to the foul line to give the Bears one last hope.
But Dartmouth had another trick up their sleeves, taking advantage of a foul they had to give when Halas fouled Butler with six seconds left.
Lesley's erroneous final shot was rebounded by Halas and the Big Green gained the victory and a place in the three way tie for second in the Ivy League.
"A win is a win, and it's a lot better than the alternative," Halas said.
