Men's basketball trounced by Dartmouth

It seems like the Tufts basketball program came down with a case of Bowl Championship Series fever this year, as it took its schedule strength up a couple of points by traveling to Dartmouth last Thursday to battle the Division-I Big Green.

With its Ivy League background, it would have been demoralizing for Dartmouth to lose to Division-III Tufts, but the Big Green saved itself from embarrassment by trucking the Jumbos 95-60 last Thursday in New Hampshire.

"It was a wakeup call," sophomore center Blaine Lay said. "They were definitely the hardest team we are going to play all year."

The Jumbos weren't intimidated by their opponent, but that didn't matter with Dartmouth shooting 67.3 percent from the field.

"The guys are a little bigger and a little stronger [on Dartmouth]," Lay said. "Once you get beyond the Division-I stigma and get on the floor, it's just a basketball game."

The Big Green came out in the first half gunning. After suffering hard-luck losses to Division-I opponents in its first four games of the year, Dartmouth wasn't playing with Tufts. The Big Green missed just six shots in the first half, shooting 21-for-27 from the field, an unheard of 77.8 percent. Within those field goals, Dartmouth shot 9-for-13 from three-point land (69.3 percent).

"I think if we played them ten times, they would only shoot like they did maybe one time out of ten, if that," Lay said.

Tufts entered the locker room facing a huge 55-30 deficit, despite having shot the ball well. The team shot 45.8 percent from the field during the first half, hitting four of seven three-point attempts.

In the second half Dartmouth stopped playing Tufts like the Washington Generals and started to lose some of its consciousness from the field. The Big Green's shooting percentage cooled down 54.5 percent; but the Jumbos only made ten of their 28 shot attempts.

The key stat of the game was three-point shooting. Both teams attempted a good amount of shots from behind the arch, but Dartmouth was more successful, hitting an amazing 71.4 percent of its attempts. Tufts made 47.1 percent of its attempts, but lost some of its consistency in the second half.

"The first five minutes [of the second half] we wanted to chip away and see what happened, but their shooting was too much. They were hot from everywhere," Lay said.

Dartmouth three-point shooters never lost their rhythm. Michael Lang hit for a career-high 21 points off the bench. He shot 5-for-7 from three-point range, but also played a vital role in disrupting Tufts' offense at times by accumulating seven steals. In addition, Steve Callahan and Michael McLaren both made four of five three point shots in the game, respectively.

Defending Division-III National Champion and NESCAC foe Williams College proved it is possible for a Division-III basketball team to beat a Division-I program by defeating Holy Cross 78-71 on the same evening. Unfortunately, Tufts made too many mistakes to duplicate those results.

Both the Jumbos and the Big Green turned over the ball a good amount as Tufts finished with 22 compared to Dartmouth's 15. The Big Green also set up its players better, accumulating 25 assists to Tufts' 13.

"[Dartmouth] ran its offense very efficiently," junior guard Jesse Belodoff said. "And we had trouble getting out on shooters in the first half especially. In the second half we got up and pressured more, which made [the game] a lot more competitive."

While Tufts was solidly defeated, some positives came out of the game.

Senior co-captain Deyvehn East showed his range on the court, hitting four of six three point attempts, torching Dartmouth for 21 points.

Junior Scott Armstrong continued to put in quality work as the team's sixth man, scoring nine points in 25 minutes of action.

"We had some good individual efforts, but as a team we could have played better," Lay said.

Also positive was the total team rebounds. Given the two teams' height differences, with sophomore forward Dan Martin listed as Tufts tallest player at 6'9'' compared to Dartmouth with two players listed at 6'9'' and two players that are listed as 6'10'' and 6'11'', respectively, it seemed like the Big Green would prove to be tall trees and control the boards. However, this was not the case.

Since Dartmouth was shooting so well, there weren't many rebounds, but the Jumbos equaled Dartmouth's 26 total rebounds, and in addition, grabbed 13 offensive rebounds. Sophomore Brian Fitzgerald led the way for the Jumbos with six boards.

"Twenty-six rebounds is kind of low," Lay said. "They were shooting lights out, so there really weren't that many."

Also, the Jumbos continue to improve from the free-throw line. They shot 71.4 percent at Dartmouth and 81.3 percent last Tuesday against MIT, both a far cry from the almost 51 percent they were shooting as a team through the first four games of the season.

Tufts now stands at 2-4 on the season and Dartmouth now stands at 1-4, still without a win against a Division-I opponent.

The basketball team was supposed to hit the court on Saturday against Clark, but due to the snow, the game was postponed until Feb. 19, two days before the tentative start of the NESCAC playoffs.

The Jumbos travel to Plymouth State tomorrow to play their final game before their shortened winter recess. The game is scheduled for a 7 pm tip-off.