Dartmouth (8-14, 1-7 Ivy) looked to rebound from a four-game losing streak to keep hopes of an Ivy League Championship alive, but Columbia (12-11, 5-3 Ivy) and Cornell (16-5, 8-0 Ivy) had other plans. After dropping its seventh league game, the Big Green is tied with Harvard at the bottom of the Ancient Eight; Columbia has established itself as a conference title contender; Cornell has won all five of its Ivy League road games and is poised to run away with the conference.
It is now safe to begin labeling Dartmouth's Ivy League performance this year a disappointment. After beginning conference play with sky-high confidence and all the pieces -- experience, unity, offense, defense -- seemingly falling into place, the Big Green has stumbled, losing six games over the past three weekends.
"It has definitely been disappointing so far," co-captain Johnathan Ball '08 said. "Our expectations were much higher than our current situation."
Injuries have started to affect Dartmouth, too. John Marciano '11 was sidelined for both games with a broken hand suffered last week at Yale. Kurt Graeber '09 replaced Marciano in the starting lineup. Alex Barnett '09, the Ivy League's leading scorer and rebounder, was forced to sit out against Cornell due to a left foot injury. X-ray results are pending, and coach Terry Dunn hopes the injury is merely a sprain, which would allow Barnett to return this weekend.
The injury didn't stop Barnett from pacing the Big Green against Columbia on Saturday, however, as he registered team-highs in both scoring with 14 and rebounding with 10. The game marks Barnett's sixth double-double of the season. DeVon Mosley '09 added another 13 for Dartmouth.
But the efforts fell short of Columbia, led by senior big man John Baumann with a dominant 25 points and nine rebounds.
The game was neck-in-neck nearly the whole way. After a back-and-forth first half, the Big Green trailed 26-24 after the first 20 minutes, led by Mosley, who shot 3-of-4 from beyond the arc in the half.
The game stayed close for most of the second half as well. Nearly eight minutes into the second half, a jumper by Barnett gave Dartmouth a lead at 37-36. The lead would prove the team's last, however, as the Big Green was unable to convert down the stretch and allowed Columbia to sneak by with the win.
Surprisingly, after playing 16 of 20 minutes in the first half, Ball didn't see the floor in the second half.
"I have no idea why I didn't play in the second half," Ball said. "Coach Dunn is in charge of playing time. I just play when I'm called on."
The Big Green's performance against Cornell on Saturday was more impressive. Without its leading scorer and rebounder in Barnett, Dartmouth hung with the best team in the conference for nearly the entire game. Mosley, Ball, and a career game by Elgin Fitzgerald '10 helped fill the void left by Barnett. Mosley registered a game-high 18 points, Ball added 13 points and six rebounds and Fitzgerald put in a career-high 17 points and grabbed a game-high 7 rebounds for the Big Green.
After an early lead for Dartmouth, the Big Red rallied and clung to a 36-35 lead at half. During the final 10 minutes of the second half, however, Cornell began to slowly pull away. The lead got up to 11 for the Big Red in the final minutes, and it proved good enough for the win.
"I was pleased with everything but the end result," Dunn said. "We played extremely hard and gave ourselves a chance to win, but the shots that needed to go down didn't go down."
The description could be made for both games this weekend. Indeed, Dunn emphasized, "With a couple more shots going in this weekend, we'd be talking about a couple wins instead of a couple losses."
The source of Dartmouth's overall struggle to win conference games is difficult to pinpoint.
"We had really close games that we failed to pull out and other challenges that have made it difficult," Ball said.
"We're going to have critics," Dunn said. "I have critics, you have critics and that's just a part of things. We try not to think about what other people say. I was just proud of the way we were able to play as well as we played without Barnett."
This pride, however, has not yet translated to wins. The potential for Dartmouth is still high, but it will need to string some wins together in the last six games of the season to erase some of the recent disappointment and finish the season on a high note.
The Big Green begins that endeavor Friday, Feb. 22 when it hosts Penn, continuing on Saturday with a home game against Princeton. Dartmouth lost on the road to both teams by a total six points three weeks ago.
