After sweeping Penn and Princeton to improve its conference record to 3-3, Columbia (10-11, 3-3 Ivy) will travel to Hanover, N.H. and Cambridge, Mass. to face Dartmouth and Harvard.

Both Dartmouth and Harvard are coming off the past two weekends with drops in their conference records to 1-5, respectively. Brown and Yale outscored the Big Green last weekend by a combined score of 174-109, or an average of 32.5 points per game.
In those two games, Dartmouth allowed its opponents to shoot nearly 65 percent (65/102) while shooting 39.6 percent from the field. The team also turned the ball over 18 times in each game, leading to easy transition baskets. If the Lions are able to force a sufficient number of Dartmouth turnovers and can continue their hot shooting, Columbia should extend its modest two-game winning streak.

Columbia must be wary of Dartmouth’s go-to player, forward Alex Barnett. In games against the Bears and Bulldogs, Barnett struggled mightily, averaging only 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists while shooting only 33.3 percent from the field.

These numbers are poor in comparison to the rest of the Ivy season and Barnett’s overall season statistics. In six Ivy League games, Barnett has averaged 17.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.3 assists, while shooting 42 percent from the field. The six-foot-six-inch junior has lost the hot shooting that he exhibited in the early stretch, as his overall field goal percentage has fallen by a significant amount since the League campaign began.

After facing off against Dartmouth today, the Lions will travel to Cambridge to face Harvard (6-16, 1-5 Ivy). Just like the Big Green, the Crimson struggled against Yale and Brown, but not in the same way. Harvard was outscored by the duo by a total of 154-121, or by nearly 17 points on average per game.

Harvard had similar problems to Dartmouth in containing both the Bears and the Elis. In both games, the opposition shot above 50 percent from the field, while the Crimson struggled to hit its shots. The latter problem was even more pronounced in the Brown game, as the Crimson shot a measly 22.2 percent in the first half, including 8.3 percent from three-point range. If the Lions can stifle Harvard in the first half as Brown did, they could continue that momentum into the second half.

The Crimson has four players who average above 10 points per game—Jeremy Lin, Pat Magnarelli, Drew Housman, and Evan Harris. These four players combine for 43.8 points per game, which is 63.2 percent of the team’s scoring. Magnarelli paces the Crimson in rebounding, averaging 6.3 per contest, while Lin ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 3.41 assists per game.

If the Lions are able to come out of this weekend with a sweep, it will increase their record to 5-3, a significant step toward obtaining a .500 League record and a push to the Ivy championship.

Both tip-offs are scheduled for 7 p.m.