Princeton 75 vs Cornell 54
Cornell (4-11; 0-2 Ivy) challenged the Tigers (13-3; 3-0 Ivy) in the first half, finishing the second quarter down 36-34. Princeton came out of the break on a 17-0 run in the first five minutes, completed the quarter up 22 and coasted in the fourth stanza for a convincing 21-point victory over the Big Red.
Leslie Robinson had 16 points and Bella Alarie scored 13, while Gabrielle Rush continued her hot hand in league play with 75 percent three point shooting and 11 points. Cornell’s Samantha Widmann, from nearby Lawrenceville, led the Big Red with 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Orange & Black shot 50 percent from two and 43 percent from three in the first twenty minutes. In the second half, their three point production dropped to 29 percent, but their two point shooting improved to 71 percent. Cornell matched Princeton’s production in the first two quarters by shooting 71 percent from two and 56 percent from three. The Tigers shut the Big Red down in the second half, though, holding Cornell to five baskets on 25 percent two point and 17 percent three-point shooting.
The Tigers will head into a nearly three week break for Finals, returning to action at Yale and Brown on Feb. 2 and 3. Cornell will visit Columbia on the 20th and host the Lions on the 27th.
Penn 70 vs Columbia 51
Columbia (6-11; 0-2 Ivy) started out on a 7-0 run and held a 10-3 lead before Penn (8-5; 2-1 Ivy) regrouped and rattled off 18 straight points. The Quakers entered the third quarter ahead by 10 and finished the third quarter up 20. The Red & Blue expanded the lead to 25 midway through the last quarter, before finishing with a 19-point win and a weekend Ivy sweep.
Eleah Parker continued her strong play, leading all players with career highs of 22 points and 14 rebounds. Ashley Russell added 15 points and six rebounds. Anna Ross had seven assists and zero turnovers. She now has 415 career assists, third in Penn history. She sits three away from second place and fourteen from the all-time school record. First-year guard Riley Casey paced the Lions with career highs of six threes and 22 points.
Although scoring 70 points, the Quakers only shot 39 percent overall and 42 percent from two. Twenty-one offensive rebounds and a 45 percent rebounding rate, however, allowed Penn to score 22 second-chance points. The Red & Blue did hit 10 three pointers with Ashley Russell, Phoebe Sterba and Lauren Whitlatch putting in eight of those baskets at a combined 47 percent rate. The Lions hit 9 three pointers with a 31 percent rate, while being held to only 10 made two-pointers at 30 percent shooting. Additionally, Penn held Camille Zimmerman, the league’s leading scorer, to eight points on 27 percent shooting, ending her consecutive double-digit scoring streak at 43 games.
With Princeton heading into Finals, Penn has a 20-day layoff from Ivy play, which will resume against Brown and Yale on Feb. 2 and 3. They will fill up that time with Big Five games against Villanova and Temple, as well as a contest against Gwynedd Mercy. Columbia will face Cornell at Levien Gymnasium on the 20th and then travel to Newman Arena on the 27th for the rematch with the Big Red.