Dartmouth's men's basketball team (5-18, Ivy 3-7) had not scored two consecutive victories this season, but that all changed this weekend during a thrilling two game homestand. Dartmouth first downed Yale (13-11, Ivy 5-4) with a 72-64 and then took out Brown (8-15, Ivy 4-6) 58-46.
On Friday, Leon Pattman '07 led the Big Green with 22 points, but his biggest contribution was a go ahead three with 9:37 to play in the game to put Dartmouth ahead 49-46. Up to that point, Dartmouth had found itself down by as much as ten in the second half, but was finally able to cap off a big run, something the Big Green has been struggling with all year.
Yale began the game in the first half shooting 54.5 percent from the field, while Dartmouth struggled, converting 38.5 percent of all basket attempts. However, with renewed determination and strong defense, the men in green managed to turn this statistic around, finishing at 51.6 percent from the field with Yale managing a meager 34.4 percent of their shot attempts.
Mike Lang '06, who had a strong 13 point night, commented on the team's impressive second half showing. "We knew at half time that if we wanted to win this game we could," said the senior. "It was just up to us to come through. I think if you look at that game and the second half, I think you can see everybody on the team just playing like they know how to play.
"We were being aggressive and smart at the same time and like I said before, we were taking advantage of every opportunity to put us ahead or get stops on defense," Lang said. "It's all about believing you can win and that second half everybody knew we had it in us to pull out a victory."
Lang's strong play carried over into Saturday's victory as he paced all Dartmouth scorers with 16 points. The Chicago native also performed in other statistical categories as well, recording six assists, four rebounds and four steals.
Dartmouth had the halftime advantage 31-20 after holding the Bears to just 26.3 percent shooting from the field. But, with 3:35 left to go in the contest, Keenan Jeppesen connected with a jumper to bring Brown within two, 45-43.
With the home crowd on Dartmouth's side, the Men in Green refused to let the Bear's comeback startle them, immediately striking up an 8-0 run that put any chance of a Brown victory aside.
Dan Biber '09 finished with 11 points and five rebounds.
Dartmouth looks forward to two games next week versus University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.
"We expect nothing less than the effort we gave this weekend," said Lang. "We will try to win out the rest of our games and just continue to play hard and smart. We have a tough weekend ahead against Penn and Princeton and we need to be prepared. I think if we play like this we will be just fine. Hopefully, we can end our season on the high with a few more wins."
With Penn holding onto first-place in the Ivy League, it will undoubtedly be quite the test for the Big Green, who will look to extend their win streak to four in hostile territory. It seems, nevertheless, that Dartmouth may have finally put together all of its pieces. On Feb. 24 and 25, Dartmouth could surprise two Ivy League favorites.
