PRINCETON, N.J. — Moments after the carnage was over and Dartmouth’s hopes of making it back to the four-team tournament known as Ivy Madness were officially extinguished, Dave McLaughlin cited the cause of death.
“When games are tight and you need to execute down the end, you’re talking about three things,” explained McLauglin after host Princeton’s three-point flurry coupled with Big Green firing bricks turned this one into an 82-61 rout at the same Jadwin Gym where they won last year, “Paying attention to detail, discipline and decision making.
“Those are the three Ds. When you’re on the road trailing, one thing you have to do is be an incredibly disciplined team, but over nine possessions at one point we were very undisciplined on six of those.
“I don’t mind taking a lot of threes if they’re good shots, but a lot of them were undisciplined looks where guys felt they had to have an answer the way they were shooting.
“You can’t do that.”
Much of that happened during the first half when Princeton erased an early 7-1 deficit by going on a 21-4 tear, then later tacked on a 10-0 run while building a 43-28 halftime cushion. The stats told the story, with the Tigers shooting 16-for-28, at 57.1%, thanks in large part to a blistering 8-for-12, 66.7% from beyond the arc. Dartmouth, meanwhile, shot just 8-for-29, 29.6%, only 4-for-17, 23.5% on threes.
“I just think we didn’t stick to the game plan and our identity on both sides of the ball and they took advantage of it,” said sophomore guard Kareem Thomas, who led the Big Green with 22 points, as Dartmouth fell to 11-15, 5-8 in the Ivies. “We dug ourselves a hole and it’s really hard to come out of a hole that size.
“I just think we let the wrong guys shoot. The guys we didn’t want to shoot had lots of open shots with good looks. When you give good players good looks, it’s hard to break their rhythm.”
Having seen their own 42-34 first-half lead vanish against Penn Friday in what became an 80-71 loss, Dartmouth was hoping it could turn the tables on Princeton here. Sorry, the Tigers weren’t interested.
Princeton continued to light it up from distance, at one point knocking down an outrageous nine of 10 threes as the lead ballooned to 56-33 with 15:27 left. Jackson Hicke (22), Dalen Davis (20) and Landon Clark (14) were the chief culprits, shooting a combined 9-for-14 on treys.
“Princeton historically is known for shooting threes,” said senior Brandon Mitchell-Day, who scored 16 in what turned out to be his next-to-last game. “Their slogan is ‘make shots,’ and they made shots today.
“It came down to us defensively where we didn’t have that edge for a couple of minutes and they took advantage. “It was hard for us to get back after that.”
Dartmouth never got closer than 17 the rest of the way, even though Princeton finally started missing once the outcome was clear. The problem the Big Green kept shooting bricks, finishing the night a sorry 17-for-53 at 32.1%, and just 7-for-30, 23.1% on threes. In contrast, Princeton went 11-for-18, 61.1% from long range.
The loss, coupled with 7-6 Cornell’s win over Brown and 8-5 Penn’s upset of Harvard, officially eliminates 5-8 Dartmouth from the Ivy League race. That prompted McLaughlin to come up with another D word to describe his feelings.
“Disappointed is certainly the word,” said McLaughlin, who’ll now try to rally his troops for their season finale against Cornell next Saturday. “I told the guys if there’s a superlative for disappointment, it’s where we’re at right now.
“But it’s the nature of a competitive league, where it comes down to possessions in games. On certain weekends, we could’ve been better. I could’ve been better.
“I’ll be thinking about it the whole bus ride home.”
Meanwhile Thomas will be thinking about what they’re missing out. “It sucks because every kid’s dream is to play in March Madness or Ivy Madness,” said the team’s leading scorer, who’ll anchor next year’s team with seniors Mitchell-Day, Jayden Williams and Jackson Munro leaving. “Sometimes dreams don’t come true.
“But there will be a time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t this year.”
Unlike Thomas, this was Mitchell-Day’s last chance. As disappointing as the whole weekend was, the kid from St. Louis has no regrets.
“We knew what the stakes were going into this game in terms of making it to the tournament,” said Mitchell Day, who shot just 2-for-7, but made all 12 of his free throws and pulled down 10 rebounds. “Obviously, we fell short of that.
“As a senior, I try to leave as much as I can out there. It wasn’t enough, but hopefully we set the standard for the guys coming up.
“It’s crazy to think my first game was here at Jadwin. It’s been a long journey, with some ups and downs. But all good things must come to an end.”
Which leads to another D word to sum things up. After playing Cornell on Saturday, they’re Done.