On the morning of January 16th, the players and coaches of the men's basketball team awoke to a pretty grim reality. The night before they had been beaten by Harvard on their home court. They had lost ten games in row. They were 0-4 in the Ivy League.
"If I would have been thinking then that we would win four straight games, someone would have had me committed, quite frankly," Coach Dave Faucher said after Friday night's 63-55 victory over Brown.
If Faucher would have been committed for thinking about a four-game win streak back then, imagine what would have been done to him if he predicted five wins in a row - including a 31-point blowout of an Ivy opponent.
Well, that is exactly what happened Saturday night when the Big Green defeated Yale 76-45.
Dartmouth has now won five straight, two in row in Ivy games, and has pulled its record up to a more respectable 2-4 in the Ivy League, 6-12 overall.
While Dartmouth seemed to be a shoo-in for last place a few weeks ago, the Big Green are now definitely in the fight for third place in the Ivy League. Penn appears destined for a second title in a row, but if Princeton falters, second place could be up for grabs as well.
Dartmouth 63 Brown 55
With 6:46 left to play in Friday night's seesaw battle with Brown (2-4, 8-10), Dartmouth trailed the Bears 51-45. From then on it was all Dartmouth, as the Big Green played monster defense and hit some big shots on the other end, going on an 18-4 run to end the game.
Senior captain Gregg Frame started things off with a couple of foul shots, but then Sea Lonergan '97 and Jamie Halligan '95 took over. After a big three pointer by Stan Kowalewski '94 pulled Dartmouth to within one at 51-50, Lonergan stole the ball from Brown's Alex Cole and drove the length of the court to put the Big Green ahead 52-51.
Cole responded with a pair of foul shots, but with 2:44 to play, Lonergan found Halligan alone on the baseline, and Halligan drilled the jumper to put Dartmouth on top for good, 54-53.
Two big defensive stops, a basket by Lonergan inside, and a pair of foul shots by Kowalewski had Dartmouth ahead 58-53 with 1:20 to play, but Cole hit again to pull Brown to within three with about a minute to play.
After a time out, Frame set things up for the Big Green, and with time on the shot clock winding down, he passed to Halligan at the three-point arc on the left wing. Halligan faked a three pointer, then faked a pass to Jacob Capps '96 down low before calmly nailing a twelve-foot leaner to put Dartmouth ahead 60-55, and the game out of reach for Brown.
Halligan said he did not consider how important the shot was when he stepped up to take it.
"The times that you think about, you're going to miss it," he said.
Lonergan led the Green with 18 points, and Halligan added 14. Frame did not shoot well, but still managed to come up with 10 points, six rebounds, and seven assists.
Kowalewski had five points, all in the last six minutes, and seven big rebounds. Brian Gilpin '97 also had a big night on the boards with 10.
In the first half, Brown came out strong and actually went ahead 10-3. But Dartmouth fought back to take a 15-14 lead with about six minutes to play in the half, and ultimately a 31-28 lead at halftime.
Cole had 17 points in the first half for Brown, but Lonergan guarded him in the second half and held him to just seven.
The second half opened with Dartmouth running off five straight to take an eight-point lead, but Brown countered with a 12-2 run to assume control.
Dartmouth 76 Yale 45
On Saturday night Dartmouth got the same result, but it was an entirely different story. Faucher started Capps at forward and moved Kowalewski to center to counter the smaller, quicker Yale Bulldogs (3-3, 6-12). It paid off.
While Capps had nine points in the first half (11 in the game), the Big Green jumped out to a 13-3 behind some great passes and playmaking by Frame.
Dartmouth's biggest lead of the half was 14 with about four minutes to play, but Boe Lintz and Bernie Colson were effective inside for Yale, making the score 33-24 at the break.
Dartmouth had the Bulldogs on the ropes a couple of times in the half, but just could not put them away.
"I was very happy with the way that we played the first half," Faucher said. But in the second half, "we just started to work harder," he said.
While the Bulldogs never did get any closer than the nine-point halftime deficit, they kept the lead within the 11-15 point range for most of the second half. This was due largely to the inside play of Colson and Daniel Okonkwo, who each had 10 points for the Bulldogs.
On the other end, Frame continued to set up play after play. Many of his passes went to Halligan, who hit four three-point shots in the half on his way to 14 points for the game.
For the second night in a row, Dartmouth owned the last six minutes. An Okonkwo follow-up made it a 57-44 game with 5:54 to play, but the Big Green went on an amazing 19-1 run to end the game.
In the midst of this run, with 3:37 to play, Frame's pass to Halligan in the corner not only gave Halligan his fourth and final three-pointer and Dartmouth a 62-44 lead, but it also put Frame into the record books. It was his 13th assist, setting a single game Dartmouth record.
Frame finished the game with 12 points, nine rebounds and 13 assists, just one rebound away from his second triple-double of the season. Lonergan had 18 points, five rebounds and four steals, and continues to make a case for the Rookie of the Year award.
"I'm high because I love watching good basketball,'' Faucher said. ''When we play like [we did this weekend] it's enjoyable for everyone... It's been a great week."
