The Dartmouth men's basketball team received great offensive efforts from two unexpected sources this weekend, but it wasn't enough as the Big Green were swept by Colgate and Lafayette to drop to 1-2.
Brian Laibow '00, who scored 11 points all year in 1996-97, nearly doubled that on Friday night when he recorded 20, but it wasn't enough as the Big Green men's basketball team fell to Colgate, 80-73.
Two nights later, against Lafayette, the Big Green received a major boost from Ian McGinnis '01 in his first varsity career start, who scored 11 points and brought home 10 rebounds, but Dartmouth couldn't recover from a 22-4 Leopards run early in the second half which put the Green away, 63-51.
Dartmouth Head Coach Dave Faucher '81 was disappointed but not devastated.
"Obviously you never like to start the season 1-2, but we are still finding ourselves on the court, looking for the right mix. I am not too concerned right now, but I will be if this continues deeper into the season. I think we'll be all right though. Anytime you lose four starters from the previous season, you are going to struggle a bit at the start," he said.
The Red Raiders came out of the locker room fired up for the game. After jumping out to an early 18-10 lead, they called a surprising time-out, but it paid off as they continued to build their lead, ultimately going to the break with a 45-29 lead.
Dartmouth charged back in the second half behind forward Shaun Ge ''00, who had a game-high and career-best 26 points, closing the lead to 64-56.
The Big Green would get as close as seven points but ultimately fell despite a late three-point barrage by co-captain P.J. Halas '98 who scored 13 points and added six assists.
Lafayette employed the same "score early" tactic that the Red Raiders used earlier in the weekend by jumping out to a 15-5 lead with just five-and-a-half minutes played and never trailed the rest of the way.
Although the Big Green narrowed the lead by half-time using 10 off Gee's 21 points on the night, the 22-4 run in the second half by the Leopards finished off Dartmouth.
The pair of defeats drops Dartmouth to 1-2 on the season, but co-captain Halas is not worried ... not yet, anyway.
"These were two very similar, very tough games. We were down a considerable amount and then fought back to make it close. We are just a young, inexperienced team that will have to grow over the course of the season," he said.
