In an Ivy League opening tussle that was close throughout, the Dartmouth men proved to be the deeper and more accurate team, pulling away over the last five minutes to claim a 76-68 win over Harvard at Lavietes Pavilion.
Monday night’s road victory was a great start for the Big Green (7-7, 1-0 Ivy), which is looking for its first regular season title since 1959 as well as its second straight trip to the Ivy League Tournament. The same cannot be said for the Crimson (7-8, 0-1), which is looking to claim its first regular season title since 2019 and get back to the Ancient Eight’s upper division for the first time since 2020.
After seven first half ties, Dartmouth finally broke free and claimed its largest lead of the half at 38-31. The Crimson responded with an 8-2 run, capped by a contested bank shot by junior forward Thomas Batties II, to finish the half down 41-40.
Sophomore guard Austin Hunt hit a step-back triple from the right elbow at the 5:17 mark of the second half to make it 67-65 in favor of the Big Green, but that would be as close as the Crimson would get.
Hunt missed a game-tying driving layup 45 seconds later, but his right elbow caught the chin of senior forward Jackson Munro, and a technical foul was called. Dartmouth sank both free throws and then went 1-for-2 from the charity stripe on the subsequent possession to give the visitors an insurmountable lead.
Sophomore guards Kareen Thomas and Connor Amundsen led the way for the Big Green with 19 and 18 points, respectively, while senior forward Brandon Mitchell-Day added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
In the losing effort, Hunt and fellow sophomore guard Robert Hinton each scored a team-high 16 points with Hinton adding 12 in the second half.
Let’s look at reasons for the Big Green’s successful trip to Boston:
Depth
Dartmouth plays a fast tempo game (entering the No. 46 pace nationally), utilizing a deep roster in which eight different players average double-digit minutes per game.
On the other hand, Harvard employs a half-court style (No. 321 pace) with a six-man rotation averaging between 22 and 33 minutes per contest and no other player with more than nine minutes.
Those season-long results were matched by both teams on Monday evening.
While the game was played closer to Harvard’s tempo in the second half, the faster pace employed by Dartmouth in opening 20 minutes eventually took its toll on the Crimson and led to the 0-for-9 effort from the field in the crucial final minutes of the night.
Three-point shooting
The deep line looked to be a major factor in the game with the Big Green shooting 38.5% (No. 23) and the Crimson connecting on 36.9% (No. 53) against Division I opponents. While both teams have been proficient from beyond the arc, Dartmouth typically relies much more on the three-ball (49.3% vs. 35.7% three-point field-goal rate).
During the first half of Monday’s contest, the Big Green went 6-for-11 (54.5%) from downtown and the Crimson held its own with a 5-for-10 (50%) mark. Dartmouth cooled off a bit in the second stanza, going 3-for-9 (33.3%), but those numbers were much better than Harvard’s 2-for-15 (13.3%) effort.
In addition, the Crimson’s top two deep threats, Hunt and junior forward Thomas Batties II, who shot a combined 46.2% (61-for-132) from three over the first 14 games, went held to an 11.1% (1-for-9) effort by the Big Green’s defense.
Free throws
Harvard entered the night as the 2nd best free throw shooting team in the nation with an 81.2% success rate. Unfortunately, the Crimson don’t get to the line often (11.1 attempts/game, 23.8% free throw rate) and the prospects were low going up against a Dartmouth team that is one of the best at keeping opponents off the charity stripe (11.5 attempts/game, 28.0% defensive free throw rate).
The Crimson were able to get to the line 11 times in the first half, a pleasant situation that helped the team go the locker room with only a one-point deficit. The Big Green recovered in the second half, limiting Harvard to only four attempts.
On the other side, the Crimson had a defensive free throw rate of 25.8% and allowed an average of 10.9 attempts per contest at the start of the night, but Dartmouth was able to force its way to line 29 times.
Up next
Dave McLaughlin’s Big Green head back on the road to take on Cornell (7-7. 0-1), which lost 104-99 to Columbia, while Tommy Amaker’s Crimson travel to Levien Gymnasium to battle the Lions (12-3, 1-0). Both games will be shown on ESPN+ at 2 p.m. Saturday.