Greenhorn
Senior
Posts: 318
Reg: 11-24-04
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01-03-22 01:56 PM - Post#332234
The start of league play was more of the same for the Big Green. Yet another winnable game. Yet another close loss.
Dartmouth was missing 9 players due to injury or Covid protocols, including two key contributors in Taurus Samuels and Ryan Cornish. Their absence was notable.
Without Samuels, Barry/Rai had to bring up the ball and Dartmouth was slow to start their offensive sets. Dartmouth had to give minutes to guys like Romeo Myrthil and Jackson Blaufield who have seen essentially zero game action thus far, and the results were predictable. Both had live ball turnovers that led to easy Cornell buckets.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, the center combination of Nate Ogbu and Cam Krystowiak played 18 scoreless minutes, grabbed two boards and committed 5 fouls. Yuck.
Dame Adelekun did contribute a career high 14 points, and should get some additional run as a result, but he is the smallest of the Dartmouth "bigs" and it shows on defense.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2685
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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Cornell 01-03-22 02:45 PM - Post#332235
In response to Greenhorn
Dartmouth performed admirably given its depleted roster. Cornell jumped out to a quick 10 point lead but then Dartmouth caught up and kept it close. Krystowiak's foul trouble really hurt. On the other hand, Cornell was missing its leading scorer (Jordan Jones) and another starter (Nazir Williams). This was an opportunity for the Big Green to steal a road game. Still, outshooting Cornell from 3 point range without Samuels and Cornish is promising.
Good luck at Penn and Princeton next weekend.
Edited by HARVARDDADGRAD on 01-03-22 02:45 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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SomeGuy
Professor
Posts: 6391
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Cornell 01-03-22 03:14 PM - Post#332238
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Yes, to an outside observer, this was a good showing by Dartmouth and one to grow on. Dartmouth will be dangerous to everyone at home, and at least dangerous to Penn and Columbia (as they were to Cornell) on the road. That adds up to a situation where you can see the right breaks to sneak into the top 4.
Of course, I totally get why a Dartmouth fan doesn’t see a moral victory here, and instead sees a missed opportunity.
Obviously Rai and Barry are very good. That was the best game I’ve seen Wade have, too. Interesting league this year, and the lack of an obvious dominant team (often more than one) makes it particularly wide open.
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Go Green
PhD Student
Posts: 1124
Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
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Re: Cornell 01-03-22 05:05 PM - Post#332253
In response to Greenhorn
Dame Adelekun did contribute a career high 14 points, and should get some additional run as a result,
He played well. But blowing that layup with 45 seconds left that would have cut Cornell's lead to one was just a killer. You could feel the air deflating from the team after that.
Again, I fully acknowledge that without Adelekun, then we probably aren't in a position to win. But it's been very frustrating seeing guys not named Barry being unable to get the key buckets with less than a minute to go all season....
Edited by Go Green on 01-03-22 05:05 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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Greenhorn
Senior
Posts: 318
Reg: 11-24-04
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Re: Cornell 01-03-22 06:59 PM - Post#332259
In response to Go Green
Funny. I almost called out the blown layup, and decided I would try to be more positive in 2022. But yeah, that was huge and gruesome.
Even with Adelekun's fine performance, I would like to see the Green give a few more minutes to 6'7" Dusan Neskovic and maybe a couple to 6'10" Nikola Dimitrijevic.
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