The men's basketball team which has won only one Ivy League game despite having faced every League opponent at least once sought to reverse its fortunes with visits to Columbia University and Cornell University. The Big Green (5-19, 1-9 Ivy) came away empty-handed, however, losing both games to extend its losing streak to seven.
Dartmouth outscored Columbia (14-10, 5-5 Ivy) in the second half on Friday night, but it was not enough to overcome a slow first-half start and the Lions held on for a 67-60 victory.
Junior guard Noruwa Agho, the League's top scorer, led Columbia with a team-high 19 points. The Big Green made him work for his points, however, as Agho shot just nine for 23 from the field and one for six from the free throw line.
Guard Tyler Melville '14 earned the start in place of Kirk Crecco '12, who was sick and did not travel with the team. Melville made the most of the opportunity, registering a game-high 20 points in the loss. Captain Ronnie Dixon '11 returned to the Big Green lineup after missing 12 games due to a broken hand, knocking down six of his nine shots for 14 points.
"I wasn't sure how [Dixon] was going to be, but he jumped right into it and it seemed like he didn't miss a beat," captain Clive Weeden '11 said. "The team loved having him back because he's a great guy."
Dartmouth put its past free throw shooting troubles behind it this weekend, hitting 84.2 percent from the line. The team's rebounding issues were still apparent, however, as Columbia outrebounded the Big Green, 49-32.
Dartmouth had one of its best offensive outings of the season in the loss to Cornell (7-17, 3-7 Ivy), but the Big Red achieved the highest total in a League game this season, defeating the Big Green 96-76.
Cornell shot 57 percent from the floor and an astonishing 16 for 29 from the three-point arc, spoiling a fine offensive effort by Dartmouth, which shot 54 percent overall. The Big Red's 96 points were the most the Big Green has yielded in a game since the 98-62 loss at the University of California, Berkeley in December 2008.
"As soon as we did any type of help defense, they found the open man, and they did a tremendous job knocking it down," head coach Paul Cormier said. "We made some good things happen offensively, but when we were scoring two points they were scoring three."
R.J. Griffin '13 led four Big Green scorers in double digits with 18 points, but Cornell countered with four players knocking down at least three three-pointers.
"We knew they were good shooters, but they shot lights out," forward David Rufful '12 said.
Averaging 36 percent shooting from three-point range this season, Cornell connected at a 55 percent rate in Saturday's game.
Dartmouth has now gone over two years without a League road win, but several veteran players stressed that the team will continue to work hard and prepare for the season's remaining four games.
"The main thing is staying together as a team," Weeden said. "It's hard to stay motivated, but we have a great group of guys that come out and work hard every day at practice."
The Big Green will graduate only two seniors this season, and Rufful said the team's effort will help Dartmouth's young players in the long run.
"Your natural inclination is to say, Pack it in,' but I think it's important to see the bigger picture," Rufful said. "We're trying to build a winning culture, and we need to keep that vision that we're changing the direction of the program."
Cormier added that some Big Green players have been forced to play beyond their abilities this season. Rufful, who is 6'4", often cedes several inches to opposing players at the forward position.
"We have to bring in some bigger bodies and an influx of talent, as well as putting our returning players in a position to improve," Cormier said. "We've made some strides, but we're not good enough for it to show in the win-loss column."
Dartmouth now sits last in the League standings two games behind Cornell and Brown University, who are tied for sixth. The Big Green will travel to play Brown (10-14, 3-7 Ivy) and Yale University next weekend.
