Dartmouth men's basketball team dropped its final two games of the season this weekend. On Friday night, the Big Green's second-half comeback against host Columbia fell short, as the Lions proved victorious, 69-67. In the Saturday night affair, host Cornell's defense was too much for the Big Green to handle, and Dartmouth lost again, 76-53.
Trailing by 11 at halftime of the Friday night game, Dartmouth mounted a strong second-half comeback, eventually cutting the Lion lead to just three points with just over two minutes to play on an Alex Barnett '09 free throw. Columbia, however responded with a lay-up by 6-foot-8-inch junior forward John Baumann. Free throws by Leon Pattman '07 cut the lead to two, but neither team scored down the stretch.
Pattman led all scorers with 22 points. Also reaching double figures for the Big Green were Barnett (14 points) and Dan Biber '09 (10 points). Baumann paced Columbia, scoring 19 points. Dartmouth recorded a season-high 10 three pointers in the game.
The Cornell game was the last game of the season for the Big Green. Dartmouth would struggle shooting the ball in an unfamiliar gym, connecting on only 37 percent (19 of 52) of its shots from the floor. Cornell would not help the Big Green in any way, committing very few turnovers, and shooting over 50 percent (25 for 49) for the game. Two Big Green players reached double figures in scoring: Biber had 14 points and four rebounds, DeVon Mosley '09 had 10 points. Barnett led the Big Green with five rebounds.
Cornell's senior center Andrew Naeve led all scorers with 21 points. Guards Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman came off of the bench to chip in 16 and 14 points, respectively. Dale also ripped down 12 rebounds.
The story of the game was at the free throw line. The Big Red outshot its large-color counterpart 26-13 from the line. Dartmouth would shoot a better percentage from the line (12-13, 92.3 percent) than Cornell (21-26, 80.8 percent), but the sheer number of times Cornell went to the line was hard to overcome.
For seniors Jason Meyer '06 and Pattman, Saturday marked the last time either of them would wear a Dartmouth uniform. Meyer, the captain, hails from Covington, Ohio, where he was his high school's all-time leading scorer. Meyer had a career-high 18 points in a loss to Harford earlier this season. Pattman, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year his freshman year, is from Memphis, Tenn. Pattman's career highs in points and rebounds are 29 points (against Hartford and Vermont in the 2004 season) and 13 rebounds (Holy Cross). Pattman finished eleventh in the nation in free throw shooting his freshman year. He was an All-State player in high school.
Dartmouth finished the season losing five of its final six games. The Big Green also finished seventh in the Ivy League standings, having a better conference record than only Princeton. Dartmouth was the only Ivy League team this year to fail to win double digit games. The University of Pennsylvania locked up the Ivy League's only automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the conference championship. It is a virtual impossibility for any Ivy League schools to receive an at-large bid to the tournament. No Ivy League team other than Penn or Princeton has received the Ivy League's automatic bid since Cornell did so in 1988.
The Dartmouth men's basketball team officially wrapped up its season on Sunday at a year-end banquet.
