The team that felt “blessed” to be there didn’t want its season to be over so early.
Down 17 points to Cornell University with 11:21 to go in the game, Dartmouth chipped away, going on an 8-0 run to pull within nine points. The team that was picked to finish last in the Ivy League preseason poll was ready to prove everyone wrong again.
Needing a stop, Romeo Myrthil ’25 rose to the occasion, soaring through the air to tip Cornell’s Nazir Williams’ step-back three. Cade Haskins ’25 rushed to the scene, poked away the loose ball and made a diving pass to Myrthil to secure possession. Haskins got the ball back at the top of the key and launched a three over the outstretched arms of Cornell’s Adam Hinton.
His shot hit the front rim and careened into the backboard, bouncing back to land in the arms of Cornell’s Cooper Noard. Cornell went the other way and Ryan Kiachian found Hinton all alone, who sank an uncontested three. The deflated crowd sat back down in their seats.
A few minutes later, Dartmouth was down 17 once again. There was no comeback or miracle run — only tears as Ryan Cornish ’25 and the team sat with towels covering their heads.
Dartmouth’s improbable run in the Ivy League came to an end March 15 with an 87-71 loss to the Cornell Big Red.
“I'm incredibly proud of these guys,” Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin said. “Their belief allowed us to have some success this year and take the program to where it hasn't been in a little while.”
Dartmouth — fresh off a historic regular season where it clinched its first-ever Ivy Madness spot and first winning season in the 21st century — was excited to take the floor at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.
“It's a blessing to be here,” Brandon Mitchell-Day ’26 said before the tournament. “This is what all of us dream about when we're little kids, the opportunity to be put in a position to go to March Madness. Everyone in that locker room is definitely excited to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Both Dartmouth and Cornell shook off tough starts to keep the game competitive in the first half, exchanging leads as they settled in. With under six and a half minutes to go, Dartmouth caught a bad break as starting point guard Connor Amundsen ’28 went down with a visibly painful shoulder injury. Amundsen returned to the court and scored 5 points mere minutes after being taped up in the makeshift medical tent.
“He's a tough kid,” Myrthil said. “He's not the biggest guy, but he’ll play the hardest … You saw it, he got hurt, had to tape it up and walked right back and was crucial for us.”
Amundsen didn’t miss a single second after coming back into the game from the injury. Despite his toughness, Cornell found their footing to close out the second half, going on a 12-3 scoring run to finish up eight points.
Coming out of the break, Dartmouth had no answers for Cornell's 3-point shooting, with the Big Red hitting 3 triples in the opening minutes of the half to build their lead to 14, in spite of a solid scoring run from Mitchell-Day.
“They’re so dangerous offensively that you really have to have a great defensive presence to all five guys out there,” McLaughlin said. “They take advantage when you don't have that. That happened on multiple, multiple occasions.”
Mitchell-Day led the Big Green offensively, hitting nine of his 13 shots for 20 points while also collecting seven rebounds. The rest of the team, however, shot a lowly 36.7% from the field in the second half. First Team All-Ivy selection Cornish was uncharacteristically inefficient, hitting only six of his 18 shots and going one for eight from downtown.
While Dartmouth fought back, some costly missed opportunities — including that missed Haskins 3 — kept Dartmouth out of it.
“I really appreciated how our guys continued to fight,” McLaughlin said. “That's part of what defines us. To the end, down 15, we're still batting on the floor, and that's who we are.”
For the departing seniors — Cornish, Haskins, Myrthil and Connor Christensen ’25 — the heartbreak in Providence is a tough pill to swallow. Nevertheless, they can rest assured knowing that they have left the program in a better place than they found it.
“It just means so much to us,” Cornish said. “Every day, every practice, everything we did was together, whether it was on the court or off the court. I'm just glad that the program is left in a better place.”
The team can be confident that they are in good hands with juniors Mitchell-Day, Jayden Williams ’26, and Academic All-Ivy selection Jackson Munro ’26 preparing to lead the team next year.
“It's me, Jackson and Jayden's turn next year to carry that torch and exceed that standard,” Mitchell-Day said. “[The seniors] set the standard high. Now we have to exceed that if we want to be successful next year. I know we're going to be successful next year.”
Head coach McLaughlin, who led the 2024-25 Ivy League Coaching Staff of the Year, will have a tough task to replicate the team's success in 2026.
“One of the biggest things I learned is that next season starts now,” McLaughlin said. “You learn how you want to continue to play next year. It's the biggest thing, and it starts literally now.”
Dartmouth’s historic trip to Providence was spoiled, but the standard has now been set. The Big Green won’t be picked last next year.
