Men's basketball was swept in its second Ivy League home weekend, as Cornell defeated the Big Green 74-61 on Friday and Columbia downed Dartmouth 61-55 on Saturday night.
The losses left the Big Green (7-12, 2-4 Ivy) in sixth place in the conference standings. Yale holds the top spot with a 5-1 Ivy mark and 9-10 overall record.
On Friday, Leon Pattman '07 and Alex Barnett '09 combined for 30 points, but it was not enough to stop Cornell's offensive attack from beyond the arc. Pattman had a game high 17 points and added two steals to the defensive effort. Barnett dropped 13 points and led the team in rebounds with seven boards. He also led the team with two blocks, both coming in the first half.
Dartmouth, however, could not overcome the Big Red's impressive shooting. Cornell shot 52 percent for the game and 61 percent in the second half. Leading the Big Red offensive attack were freshmen Alex Tyler and Ryan Whittman. Tyler scored 13 of his 14 points coming off the bench in the first half.
Dartmouth ran into foul trouble early in the first half, entering the penalty situation with just under eight minutes to go in the first half. The Big Green had all kinds of problems with fouls in the lane, as Cornell drew three charges and two blocking calls in the last 10 minutes of the first half.
The Big Red was able to convert 10 of its 13 free throw opportunities, and scored a third of their first-half points from the charity stripe. By contrast, the Big Green only toed the line three times in the first half, once on a three point play by Pattman late in the first half that cut the Big Red lead to five.
Both teams had trouble possessing the ball in the first half, each committing 12 turnovers. However, Cornell was able to convert these turnovers into 20 points, while Dartmouth only scored eight off missed Big Red opportunities.
Dartmouth trailed 32-25 at the start of the second half, but opened the period strong with five points by DeVon Mosley '09, who finished the game with seven points and three assists. The Big Red responded to the challenge, however, and never trailed in the second half.
The Big Green cut Cornell's lead to four with 15:13 to go in the game, but Cornell went on a 10-point run to crush any hopes of a Dartmouth comeback.
Columbia traveled to Hanover Saturday hot off a 90-70 win over Harvard that saw four Lions in double digits. The Lions continued their winning streak, dropping Dartmouth in a 61-55 victory that was much closer than the score indicates.
Pattman and Barnett again led the Big Green in scoring with 19 and 15, respectively. Pattman also led the team in assists with four in 28 minutes on the floor. Pattman lit up in the second half, and led the Dartmouth comeback effort down the stretch.
"I got the minutes [in the second half] and I was ready to play," Pattman said.
Columbia was led to victory through a dominant performance by 6'8" junior John Baumann, who scored 21 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, 11 of which came on the defensive end. The Lions dominated Dartmouth on the boards, pulling down 42 to the Big Green's 21.
Columbia head coach Joe Jones attributed the disparity to his team's poor shooting.
"The rebounds got skewed because we missed so many shots," he said. "Dartmouth did a good job contesting shots in the paint."
Johnathan Ball '08 had a slightly different take on the rebound margin.
"We could have had a better showing on the boards, especially on offense," he said. It was an issue of bearing down and giving the effort."
Dartmouth finished the game with six offensive rebounds, compared to Columbia's 16. Three of the boards came from Dan Biber '09, who guarded Baughman for most of the game. Biber finished with seven points and two blocks.
The Big Green trailed by four at the end of the first half. Both teams failed to execute offensively in the beginning of the game. Columbia shot just 23 percent from the field, and Dartmouth was not much better, shooting 31 percent and going zero for three from the free throw line. Dartmouth found itself in early foul trouble again on Saturday. Columbia scored 11 of its 24 first half points from the free throw line.
Columbia came out strong in the second half on an 8-2 run powered by consecutive threes by Nico Scott and Brett Loscalzo to take a 10-point lead. Dartmouth began its comeback attempt with 10:30 to go. Trailing by nine, Pattman scored eight points during an 11-4 run that tied the score at 43 with 6:12 to go. He hit a jumper from the right wing to tie the score and bring the crowd of 603 in Leede Arena to its feet. But just 39 seconds later the spectators were silenced by a deep three-pointer from Baughman.
The tie was as close as the Big Green would come to the lead in the second half. Dartmouth was down by just two with 1:09 to go after a layup by Mosley, but coach Terry Dunn chose not to have his players foul to stop the clock. Brett Loscalzo connected on a three-pointer for Columbia that effectively sealed the Lions' victory.
Dartmouth is back in action next weekend as it starts off a four-game road trip, traveling to Penn on Friday, Feb. 9 and Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 10 where the Big Green will look to end its three-game losing streak. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
