Despite glimmers of hope, Dartmouth men’s basketball fell 79-69 to the Columbia Lions on Jan. 24. The team is now tied for second in the Ivy League, along with Harvard and Princeton who share the same 3-2 conference record.
Columbia opened the scoring with a layup less than a minute after the opening whistle in a packed Leede Arena. Forward Jackson Munro ’26 responded quickly with a 3-pointer off a strong pass from point guard Connor Amundsen ’28. Amundsen went on to lead the team in assists, finishing with six overall.
This was a game of runs, often not leaving room for close scoring margins. In the middle of the first half, Dartmouth went scoreless for about seven minutes, giving the Lions an early 19-11 lead.
To snap the dry spell, forward Jayden Williams ’26 attempted a 3, but was fouled. He went 2-for-4 on back-to-back free throw trips, putting a halt to the Lions run and brought the score to 19-13 with about 8:30 left in the first half.
This marked a change of pace for the Big Green.
Captain Brandon Mitchell-Day ’26 snagged a defensive rebound off a missed Lions free throw attempt, took the ball down the court and drained a 3-pointer.
Columbia ruled the paint, but Dartmouth shot 4-for-8 from behind the arc, and once they started pressing, some offensive mishaps from the Lions allowed Dartmouth to keep its composure.
“I thought they protected the paint,” head coach David McLaughlin said of the Lions. “I thought their verticality was good, their physicality when we got in the paint was strong.”
Coming off a timeout, with seven minutes remaining in the first half, Mitchell-Day saw an opportunity and took it. He drove down the court, and drove the lane for the first dunk of the game.
“Coach drew up a play and they ended up cheating it,” Mitchell-Day said. “It was a clear lane and I just dunked it.”
Going into halftime tied 31-31, the Lions had the momentum. Defensive intensity and strong plays in the paint allowed guards Kenny Noland and Hampton Sanders to knock down 3-pointers off offensive rebounds.
“I thought [Sanders] did a really good job controlling the pace,” Munro said. “And he allows Noland to play off the ball a lot.”
However, the Big Green showed a lot of fight. Some strong defensive possessions limited Columbia’s offensive firepower, and Amundsen was able to provide juice on the other end by hitting mid-range shots and finding his teammates in positions to score. Still, Noland and sophomore guard Gerard O’Keefe were able to connect from deep several times in the last two minutes, and an and-1 from sophomore forward Ryan Soulis sucked the air out of the crowd.
“We need to finish the first half a little stronger than we did,” McLaughlin said.
The game got sloppy. A combination of personal fouls, struggling to find the basket and more momentum coming from Columbia led to the loss.
“I mean, that’s basketball.” Mitchell-Day said. “Mistakes are going to happen and we just got to learn from them.”
The senior captain finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 4-for-6 from 3-point range. Amundsen accumulated 13 points and seven assists, and Munro also dropped 13 points to go along with four rebounds and two blocks. For the Lions, Noland was dominant, dropping a double-double with 28 points and 11 rebounds while Hampton Sanders added 17 points — 3-for-5 from deep.
Coming off the loss, Dartmouth gears up to face the top-ranked team in the Ivy League, Yale. The Bulldogs currently sit at 4-1 in the conference and 15-3 overall. The game will take place on Friday, Jan. 30, in New Haven, Conn.
