The loss to Cornell dropped the Big Green to three games back in the Ivy League standings with three games left in the season. Saturday's win over Columbia, combined with Cornell's loss to Harvard, means that the Big Green is not mathematically eliminated.
Dartmouth must win its games next weekend against Yale and Brown, and Cornell must lose its games against Penn and Princeton to force a tie at the top of the standings. The scenario is a long shot, however, as the Big Red team has not lost at home this year.
Because there is no tiebreaker in the Ivy League, such a scenario would give both Dartmouth and Cornell a share of the Ivy League title, and force a one-game playoff to determine which team would win the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Dartmouth came out of the gate looking for a strong start, seeking to avoid a repeat of the team's last meeting in which Dartmouth faced a 14-point deficit at halftime.
The Big Green kept up with Cornell in the first half, even taking an early 13-7 lead. A few runs by the Big Red, however, opened up an eight-point lead for Cornell at halftime.
Dartmouth came out firing in the second half, cutting the deficit to three in the first five minutes. Then the rain came. In the next five minutes, Cornell made six three-pointers, taking a 13-point lead.
Any hopes for a comeback seemed to be dashed when Alex Barnett '09 missed two free throws, and Cornell's Ryan Wittman hit a three on the other end. Wittman had 20 points on the night, and went four for five from behind the arc.
The highlight of the second half for the Big Green came at the 7:02 mark when Barnett stole the ball in the backcourt and elevated for a two-handed slam dunk that brought the crowd of 1,572 to its feet.
The Big Green, though, could not sustain a scoring run, and Cornell did not let up offensively, extending its lead to as much as 19.
Barnett finished the game with 19 points and nine rebounds. Other key contributors for the Big Green were Ronnie Dixon '11 who had 12 points, and Clive Weeden '11 with eight rebounds.
The Big Red lit up the scoreboard, shooting 50 percent from the field, and 58 percent from three-point range.
The Big Green, by contrast, shot just 35 percent from the floor and 26 percent from three-point range.
Dartmouth took to the court again Saturday against Columbia for Senior Night, where a strong second-half performance sent the seniors off with a 67-53 victory in their final home game and kept their postseason hopes alive for another day.
The Lions shot the ball well in the first half, hitting 59 percent from the floor. Columbia's K.J. Matsui had 13 points in the first half and three three-pointers, leading the Lions to a 31-25 halftime lead.
Columbia's Kevin Bulger scored a layup to start the second half, but then it was all Big Green. Two free throws by David Rufful '12 initiated a 25-5 Dartmouth run that sealed the game.
"We stepped up the defense, which I think flustered them a little bit," Barnett said. "We stayed with it, we stuck with it. We made free throws, Kurt Graeber ['09] made free throws, everybody made free throws. And we made layups. I think that was a big thing, we made layups instead of shooting a lot of jump shots in the second half."
Two layups by Dixon and a jumper by Jabari Trotter '12 tied the game at 33.
Two free throws by Columbia's Jason Miller gave the Lions a brief lead they never held again.
At one point, Barnett scored nine straight points for the Big Green on a three-point play and then back-to-back threes. Dartmouth's lead rose to as much as 15 points in a dominating second half.
The Lions scored only five field goals in the second half and shot just 21 percent from the floor.
Once again, Barnett led all Dartmouth scorers with 22 points. Graeber had six rebounds and eight points, while Ronnie Dixon was perfect, not missing a shot all night and racking up 15 points.
"Mathematically we're still in the race," head coach Terry Dunn said. "This is a two-game tournament for us on the road next week. We have to go and try to win both of these starting with Yale."
At 7-5, even if the Big Green comes short of reaching the postseason, one win next weekend will give Dartmouth its first winning league record in 10 years.
The Big Green plays its final weekend series next Friday and Saturday when it travels to Yale and Brown. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
