Downing Army (4-8) 55-42, Dartmouth managed to muster only its second win of the season against non-conference foes. Dartmouth's two leading scorers, Mike Lang '06 (10.3 ppg) and Leon Pattman '07 (11.3 ppg), notched 17 and 12 points, respectively, in the Dartmouth victory.
Despite those offensive efforts, each team battled it out on defense, as both squads shot a combined 22.2 percent from the field in the game's first eight minutes. However, Dartmouth's tenacity on the boards made the real difference, as they outrebounded the Black Knights 36-28. Jonathan Ball '08 headed the effort with eight rebounds.
With Army taking the first half lead 20-19, Dartmouth tied the score at 20 with a free throw by Michael Giovacchini '08. Lang then took over, dropping two consecutive treys to make the score 26-20 and give the Big Green a little bit of breathing room.
After Dartmouth built a 12-point lead, Army pulled within six to 36-30. With Army on the attack, Pattman responded, making a field goal despite being fouled and converting on his free throw attempt. From then on in it was all Dartmouth, as the Big Green extended its lead by going five-of-six from the charity stripe in the final minutes of the game to put the icing on the cake.
The true story of the game, however, was defense. Perhaps most telling of the Big Green's defense was that the team held Army to just 29.2 percent shooting for the entire game and had ten blocked shots, six of which came from Calvin Arnold '06.
The Black Knight's game-high scorer was Colin Harris, who notched 12 points on the evening, three above his season average. But what proved fatal for Army was its paltry three-point shooting. With 2-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc, Army's aerial assault proved nonexistent.
The win was one of the high points in the season for the Big Green. Owning the 183rd strongest strength of schedule in the country, the team immediately began its season with a tough matchup against Boston College, whose early season 11th national ranking in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls was due primarily to the play of Jared Dudley and Craig Smith. The two big men combined for 44 points as BC beat Dartmouth 80-61.
For the subsequent first home game of the year, Dartmouth beat UC Davis 66-61. A very early 22-8 lead and impressive showings by Lang and Pattman contributed to the victory.
That win, however, would be the zenith of Dartmouth's fall season. The Big Green then dropped the next eight contests, which included a close 65-64 loss to Colgate and a 77-46 dismantling at the hands of the Vermont Catamounts. The long losing streak earned Dartmouth an RPI of 303 among 331 NCAA Division I teams.
Despite these somewhat disheartening statistics, Dartmouth opens up a whole new season this week.
On Jan. 7, the Green faces Harvard to begin the Ivy League season. With conference games truly crucial at this point for any post-season hopes -- for Dartmouth or any other Ivy League team -- a strong showing in the next two months could make this a potentially successful year. The winner of the Ivy League is guaranteed an automatic berth in the NCAA tourney, also known as "March Madness" or the "Big Dance."
After its trip to Cambridge, the Big Green will face Stony Brook and Harvard at home before heading off for a five-game road trip. During the excursion, Dartmouth will be tested against the likes of New Hampshire, Brown, Yale, Cornell and Columbia. Finally, the road-weary team will welcome four home matches before the final four games of the season, two of which are against perennial Ivy powerhouses University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.
With the Duke Blue Devils, UConn Huskies, and Michigan State Spartans getting plenty of national media hype, Ivy League basketball can be just as thrilling. In the next two months, eight teams from Philadelphia to Hanover will battle it out to win the conference banner and the highly coveted NCAA tourney slot.
In this "madness," mid-major teams and minor conference winners get pitted up against the likes of Duke, UConn, and MSU. And in these one-game matchups -- as history has proved -- anything can happen.
