A week after the Dartmouth men's basketball team lost two games by a combined six points, the Big Green dropped two games to Brown and Yale by a combined 65 points, losing 77-51 at Brown on Friday and 97-58 at Yale on Saturday.
The Big Green (8-12, 1-5 Ivy) is now in danger of falling out of the Ivy League race. At Brown (12-8, 4-2 Ivy) on Friday night, Dartmouth was put on its heels early and failed to gain any ground. Alex Barnett '09 led the team in both points and rebounds, totaling 10 and five respectively, but his five=of-16 shooting effort was no match for Brown led by Mark McAndrews with a game-high 28 points.
The Bears offense clicked on all cylinders early, resulting in easy slashing layups. The Big Green, on the other hand, could not get anything going on offense, stumbling into halftime 37-23.
The trend continued in the second half, with Brown dominating on both ends of the floor. Dartmouth could not mount a significant run to pull the game closer, and the lead steadily increased until the buzzer sounded.
"[Brown's] zone stagnated our offense," co-captain Johnathan Ball '08 said. "By the time we figured it out, it was too late."
Kurt Graeber '09 had an impressive performance, totaling nine points on 4-of-6 shooting on the game. DeVon Mosley '09 also contributed eight points. Marlon Sanders '09 contributed six points, a team-high four assists, and two steals, but turned the ball over just three times in 17 minutes.
At Yale (9-11, 3-3 Ivy), Dartmouth had the game tied at 4-4. Things went drastically downhill from there, starting with a 16-0 Bulldog run to extend the score to 20-4. Ultimately, Yale aimed for triple-digits, but fell just short at 97 points.
Dartmouth's performance was again dominated by the efforts of Barnett and Graeber. Barnett led the team with both 15 points and six rebounds, while Graeber topped his nine-point performance against Brown with a 12-point, five-rebound game on Saturday. Mosley added another 10 points for Dartmouth.
Yale's Matt Kyle led all scorers and rebounders with 18 points and eight rebounds on a 9-of-10 shooting performance. The victory for Yale dropped the Big Green to 0-4 on its road trip. Given these results, Dartmouth will be thankful to Hanover this week for a four-game home stand.
"We definitely have to protect our house, and we'll do whatever it takes," Ball emphasized.
The Big Green have gone 5-1 at home so far this season, and it will need to continue its success at home if it has any chance of gaining ground in the Ancient Eight.
"I don't know what happened [this weekend]," Ball said. "We just didn't compete like we normally do. It was just a bad weekend. The effort was there but the execution wasn't and it seemed like they just couldn't miss at times. It's hard to stay in the game when that happens."
When asked whether the team has lost confidence after its disappointing road trip, Ball noted that the team hopes to learn from its recent struggles.
"From the vibes I got at the end of the weekend, we all owned up to the fact that we didn't get that the job done," Ball said. "We accepted the fact that we were unsuccessful this weekend but we're moving on. We know we have to go back to work."
Ball then emphasized that nothing is out of reach.
"We have a lot of season left," Ball said. "We know we're a good team, that's no question. We just need to show that every game for 40 minutes."
Dartmouth returns home this weekend with home games against Columbia (10-11, 3-3 Ivy) and Ivy-leading Cornell (14-5, 6-0 Ivy).
