HANOVER — Dartmouth College’s cheerleaders spread throughout the Leede Arena bleachers on Saturday, urging spectators to stand for the opening tip of the men’s basketball team’s Ivy League game against Yale.
Fewer than four minutes later, Big Green backers had no reason to remain on their feet, their team already trailing by 12 points en route to an 89-68 loss that dropped it to 10-10 overall and 1-3 in league play.
This isn’t the start a team trying to finish with a winning Ivy record for the first time in two decades hoped to achieve.
“They’re an experienced team, and they played older today,” third-year Dartmouth coach David McLaughlin said. “They’re a phenomenal transition team, and we allowed them to play to that strength. When you try and play catch-up against a team like that, it burns your energy.”
Chris Knight had 20 points and Adrease Jackson had 18 for Dartmouth. Each had five rebounds. One of the few Big Green bright notes was that it committed only nine turnovers, but the visitors led for 36 of the game’s 40 minutes.
Yale entered the weekend having won 11 of its previous 12 games, but was thumped on Friday at Harvard and on national television. Perhaps the Bulldogs (13-4, 3-1) would be emotionally and physically drained? Fat chance.
Dartmouth not only got off to a stumbling start, it surrendered the second half’s initial nine points to fall behind by 17.
The final nail in the Big Green’s coffin might have come four minutes into the second half, when Yale’s Miye Oni split its defense and threw down an emphatic, one-handed dunk for a 55-32 lead. The junior wing from suburban Los Angeles, who delivered another such jam six minutes later and finished with 28 points, could be a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA draft. He’s the type of talent of which Dartmouth can only dream at this point.
“He’s a difficult matchup,” said Knight, whose team made 40.7 percent of its field-goal attempts and 23.8 percent of its tries from beyond the arc. “I had a feeling he was going to respond after an off-game last night and he came ready right off the bat.
“They have a little more athleticism and height on us … and they have players, who once they’re feeling good, it’s really hard to guard them.”
Dartmouth’s Brendan Barry, who began the weekend as the most accurate 3-point producer among NCAA Division I players, scored nine points on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor, a night after managing only eight and fouling out of a two-point loss to visiting Brown.
Fans were heading for the exits before the second half was halfway done. Down below, Dartmouth allowed Yale guard Alex Copeland to glide down the lane and feather in a layup without any contact and little challenge. The Bulldogs made 53.8 percent of their field-goal attempts and 47.8 percent of their 3-point shots.
“I thought we had fight in the second half but (Yale) continued to make plays off the dribble and off the glass and it took its toll on us,” said McLaughlin, whose team faces lesser Ivy lights Columbia and Cornell at home next weekend. “You tell your team at halftime that it has to be great in the next three minutes to get back in the game and when that doesn’t happen, the hole gets a little deeper.”
Notes: Aaryn Rai, a sophomore forward, started just his second game for Dartmouth on Saturday, after also starting Friday. He scored six points in 24 minutes. Sitting in his place was classmate Jackson, who’s started 17 times, but who played only 10 minutes Friday and 28 on Saturday. … Will Emery, a junior post player for Dartmouth, sat out for the third time in the last four games with a bad hip. The Big Green’s tallest listed player at 6-foot-9, Emery started 23 of 26 games in which he played last season and averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds. This winter, however, the San Francisco native has started once in 14 games and is averaging 2.0 points and 2.9 rebounds. … Hanover High athletic director Megan Sobel, formerly the Dartmouth athletic department’s top woman administrator, officiated a youth team scrimmage at halftime, featuring her point guard son, Cooper. …
Sitting behind the home bench with other alumni players was 2016 graduate Connor Boehm, now is an investment banking analyst in the Chicago area. … Former Big Green player Miles Wright, a 2018 graduate, air-balled a half-court shot attempt during a second-half timeout. … In attendance and wearing a Yale baseball cap was Ray Curren, the Newport High girls soccer coach and a Stevens High guidance counselor. Curren previously covered the Bulldogs for the New Haven (Conn.) Register. … The Kimball Union Academy boys basketball team attended the game. … Danny Ainge, the Boston Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations, and seven team colleagues attended Friday’s Yale-Harvard game, along with assorted other NBA scouts.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.