HANOVER — As the Dartmouth men’s basketball team filtered into its locker room after a 72-61 loss inside Leede Arena, the Yale coaching staff stood outside the Bulldogs’ locker room Friday night and changed into their Ivy League regular-season championship T-shirts.
As one program started to puzzle together its ninth loss of conference play, the other was celebrating the beginning of a new season.
When so much was on the line, it was the Big Green that fell short. Entering the final weekend of play, Dartmouth’s path to an Ivy League tournament berth was complicated but wasn’t impossible.
It needed a home weekend sweep while Penn needed to lose to the two worst teams in the Ancient Eight this season — Cornell and Columbia — on the Quakers’ home court.
On Friday night, Dartmouth (12-17, 5-9 Ivy) dropped the proverbial ball. It held a 42-41 lead with less than 15 minutes remaining but crumbled to the league-leading Bulldogs, who enter their final game of the season 23-6 and 11-2 in the Ivies.
The Big Green turned the basketball over nine times in the second half alone and allowed for the visitors to go on a 16-4 run in the middle of the second half.
If that wasn’t enough, Penn defeated Cornell, 78-64, to bring down the official thud on Dartmouth’s season.
“We wanted to make the end of the year really interesting,” said Chris Knight, who finished with 18 points.
For a team that started Ivy League play with an 0-6 record, to play a game that mattered Friday was impressive. That still didn’t take away from the Big Green’s sting of falling short of its ultimate goal.
Over the course of the last three weeks, however, Dartmouth coach Dave McLaughlin’s team has shown what winning looks like under his watch.
Knight has been named Ivy League player of the Week twice. The Big Green swept its first road series in five years. Dartmouth entered Friday night winners in five of its last six games.
“We weren’t necessarily on the brink, but when you’re 0-6, you’re staring down at it a little bit,” Dartmouth coach Dave McLaughlin said.
Added Knight: “You kind of put yourself in a pretty big hole for the rest of the season. We all understand (where) we put ourselves. But we wanted to close out the year showing we’re Dartmouth basketball and we’re going to put up a fight.”
Still, there’s plenty of room to still grow.
Dartmouth last made the NCAA tournament in 1959, and its last .500 finish in Ivy League play came in the 2014-15 season under Paul Cormier. McLaughlin is still looking for his first win over Yale after four seasons in Hanover.
Stat pack: Aaryn Rai finished with a team-high 18 points. … Dartmouth was out rebounded 35-34, but got 11 points from its bench. … Yale scored 11 points off the Big Green’s 10 turnovers. … The teams still went through the high-five line despite COVID-19’s presence around Dartmouth.
Big picture: Competing with the Ancient Eight leader for almost 30 minutes is impressive, but it didn’t help Dartmouth reach its final goal.
Up next: The Big Green close out the season on Saturday night as it hosts Brown on senior night. Dartmouth will honor its four-player senior class: James Foye, Ian Carter, Ian Sistare and Brendan Barry.
It is unknown where Barry — who missed the entire year with an injury and still has NCAA playing eligibility — will play basketball next season.
The Big Green lost at Brown, 67-65, on Feb. 7.
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.