HANOVER, N.H. – If you think there’s nowhere to go but up for the Dartmouth men’s basketball team this season, you’re probably not alone. The Big Green won only four Division I games last season and were – to be kind – dreadful offensively: 351st nationally in efficiency, last in the Ivy League by a pretty wide margin. And Dusan Neskovic, who was fifth nationally in usage and third in shots taken, is now at Richmond.
The preseason Ivy League poll would agree with you as well. Dartmouth was picked dead last almost unanimously.
But internally, as the Big Green regrouped, it also marked opportunity for them. Outside of Neskovic’s departure, they are not necessarily starting over. And in their Division I opener Saturday afternoon at Leede Arena, with two seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup, they took an early punch from Sacred Heart and came back to win fairly comfortably (with the exception of the final minute), 81-76.
Princeton, last year’s undisputed regular season champions, were picked to take home the 2025 Ivy title in the preseason media poll released on Tuesday.
Led by junior forward Caden Pierce, the 2024 Player of the Year, and first team All-Ivy junior guard Xaivian Lee, Mitch Henderson’s Tigers picked up 15 of 16 first place votes and 127 of a maximum 128 points.
With the season a few weeks away, the Ivy League hosted its Men’s Basketball Media Day on Thursday. the second of two hoops-themed media availabilities. The event was hosted over Zoom for media members and is available on the conference’s YouTube channel.
The preseason media poll was released on Tuesday with Yale, last year’s regular season co-champions, securing the top spot. Princeton, which used its Ivy League Tournament title victory as a springboard to a Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament run, was picked second.
The Bulldogs received 14 of 16 first-place votes, while the Tigers earned the other two top votes.
Senior Lucas Monroe turned in a 13-point, 10-rebound performance to lift Penn past Dartmouth at the Palestra Saturday (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
PHILADELPHIA — Penn is one win away from at least a share of the Ivy League regular season championship after a businesslike 89-79 win over Dartmouth at the Palestra on Senior Day.
The Quakers never trailed after the 16-minute mark of the first half, but there were some dicey moments along the way. At one point, a 9-0 Big Green run midway through the second half cut the visiting team’s deficit to 64-61 and forced Penn coach Steve Donahue into a timeout with 9:19 to play.
Coming out of the break, junior forward Max Martz proved to be Penn’s stopper.
Martz got a mismatch in the post against Dartmouth’s Ryan Cornish, backed down the guard and drained a righty hook to extend the Red and Blue’s lead back to five. He then went on to add two three-pointers from the corner and a second jumper over the next four-plus minutes to hold Dartmouth at bay. Martz finished the afternoon with 18 points and a team-high KenPom offensive rating of 163 points per 100 possessions.
Penn will need a performance like that from Martz next Saturday at Princeton in arguably the team’s biggest regular-season game in five years.
During the long wait, Quakers fans will have plenty to ruminate on, such as how …
In a must-win game, the Cornell men came through when it mattered most, outscoring Dartmouth 15-3 in overtime to win 95-83.
Sophomore guard Nazir Williams scored 27 points, 18 of which came in the first half. He connected on all three of his three-pointers and dished out six assists.
Junior forward Sean Hansen recorded an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double. He hit three of his six three-pointers, including a perimeter shot to give the Big Red a 79-76 lead with 1:18 remaining.
That was the last field goal Cornell scored in regulation. Dartmouth freshman Ryan Cornish split a pair of free throws to cut it to two before Hansen missed on the other end.
Dartmouth freshman forward Brandon Mitchell-Day split free throws, as did Williams for Cornell. Down two points, senior forward Dame Adelekun rolled off a screen and slammed down a thunderous dunk to tie the game.
After a pair of Cornell timeouts, the Big Red wanted to hold for the final shot. Senior guard Greg Dolan backed down in the post with the ball and lost it, giving the Big Green a final opportunity. Adelekun missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to send it to overtime, where the Big Red dominated.
Junior guard Isaiah Gray and Dolan each scored 17, and junior guard Chris Manon, who was inserted into the starting lineup five games ago, added 11.
Cornell and Dartmouth battled back and forth throughout the first half before Williams hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Cornell a 45-39 lead at the half. The Big Green battled back but never led by more than one in the second half.
Cornish and junior forward Dusan Neskovic each scored 19 points to pace Dartmouth. Junior guard Jaren Johnson added 11.
Cornell shot 48% from the field and 42% from deep, while Dartmouth shot 44% and 37%. The Big Red paced rebounding, 37-35.
Cornell hosts Harvard on Saturday while Dartmouth travels to Columbia.
Reigning Ivy Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan contributed a team-high 20 points and five assists in Princeton’s overtime win over Dartmouth at Jadwin Gym Saturday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
Ivy Hoops Online writer George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reflects on an instant classic in which the Princeton men pulled out a 93-90 overtime victory over Dartmouth at Jadwin Gym Saturday, including clutch plays by Princeton freshmen down the stretch and one of the most impressive performances by a visiting player that our Toothless Tiger has ever seen:
Dartmouth senior forward Dame Adelekun posted 14 points and nine rebounds in the Big Green’s 60-59 win at Lavietes Pavilion Monday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
Despite having its double-digit second half lead methodically erased by Harvard, Dartmouth prevented the Crimson from getting off a last-possession shot and came away with a 60-59 victory at Lavietes Pavilion on Monday afternoon.
In the opening weeks of Ivy play, the Big Green (7-12, 3-2 Ivy) are the conference’s most pleasant surprise. Picked seventh in the preseason media poll, Dartmouth now has wins against the No. 1 (Penn), No. 2 (Yale) and No. 4 (Harvard) ranked teams.
Steve Donahue’s Penn men’s squad couldn’t protect a four-point lead in the final four and a half minutes at Dartmouth, getting outscored 14-6 in that span to drop to 2-2 in Ivy play. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
Penn men’s basketball is going to have a long, long bus ride home from Hanover, N.H.
The Quakers threw away a 13-point second half lead and made a series of critical errors in crunch time en route to a 75-71 loss to Dartmouth at Leede Arena.
The defeat at Dartmouth (6-12, 2-2 Ivy) was painfully reminiscent of Penn’s collapses against Saint Joseph’s and La Salle in Big 5 play. In all three contests, Penn (9-9, 2-2) threw away games against inferior opponents it should have easily defeated.
Saturday’s turning point came with about 99 seconds remaining and Penn holding the ball up one, 71-70. Steve Donahue had called timeout to get junior guard Clark Slajchert back in the game for an offense-defense substitution.
Almost immediately after the ball was inbounded, Slajchert used his shoulder to create a little separation from Dartmouth sophomore guard Ryan Cornish, then hoisted a contested three-pointer after just five seconds had come off the shot clock. The ball caught front iron with no Quakers having a prayer at corralling an offensive rebound.
The shot was one Slajchert could hit, but it was far from the best look Penn could have gotten on that possession given the time and score. The Quakers surrendered a game-winning floater from Big Green junior forward Dusan Neskovic 20 seconds after the miss.
But Slajchert wasn’t alone in suboptimal decision-making among the Red and Blue Saturday afternoon:
Dartmouth junior forward Dusan Neskovic scored an efficient 24 points in 32 minutes, making all four of his three-point attempts and shooting 7-for-10 from the field in the Big Green’s. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
Yale men’s basketball was the clear favorite to claim a fifth Ivy League regular-season crown in the last seven seasons under James Jones.
Suddenly, though, the Bulldogs are 0-2 in Ivy play.
“For the last two hours, I did not see anything which resembled Yale basketball, and tip your cap to Dartmouth,” Jones said after his Bulldogs lost to Dartmouth, 81-77, at John J. Lee Amphitheater Friday night.
Yale had not given up more than 72 points in a game all season.
In fact, Yale (10-5, 0-2) hadn’t lost consecutive Ivy games since March 2019 and had not lost to Dartmouth since March 7, 2015, a game that opened the door for Harvard to tie Yale atop the Ivy standings and win an Ivy playoff game to nab its most recent NCAA Tournament berth.
Dartmouth (5-11, 1-1) held a narrow 34-33 lead at the half. Yale’s shooting woes from three-point land carried over from the Columbia loss last Friday, as the home team shot 0-for-8 from deep in the half. The Bulldogs finished 2-for-14 (14.3%).
Yale fell behind by as many as seven in the second half (54-47) but knotted the score at 58 on a Matt Knowling shot from close range.
Dartmouth then pulled ahead, 77-71. Yale cut it to 79-76 with junior guard August Mahoney on the free throw line with under five seconds remaining. Mahoney made the first and intentionally missed the second, but he committed a lane violation. Then the visitors added two free throws to seal the win.
“Winning games on the road is extremely hard,” Dartmouth coach David McLaughlin said. “We executed well.”
Dartmouth junior forward Dusan Neskovic posted 24 points on 7-for-10 field-goal shooting, including 4-for-4 from three-point range, in a standout performance. Sophomore guard Ryan Cornish contributed 18 points in just 23 minutes.
There were nine ties and nine lead changes.
“We tried to mix up our defenses,” Jones said. “Our team defense was not there.”
Yale was led in scoring by Knowling with 17 points. Sophomore guard Bez Mbeng had 15 and Mahoney 13. Both Mbeng and fellow sophomore guard John Poulakidas fouled out.
Yale is next in action Saturday night at home against Harvard. Dartmouth visits Providence to take on Brown after its overtime loss to Harvard there Friday night.
It felt like a typical Ivy League game — hard-fought and not always pretty. But from the moment the Cornell and Dartmouth men tipped Sunday afternoon, it immediately felt like whoever had the most grit would walk away with a 1-0 conference record.
