Brown dominates in the second half to take down Penn, 75-63

Senior guards Brandon Anderson and Zach Hunsaker combined for 51 points, including 39 in the second half, to lead Brown over Penn, 75-63, at the Palestra on Friday night.

Despite playing without All-Ivy wing Ryan Betley, who is weekend-to-weekend with a sprained left ankle, the Quakers (12-8, 4-3 Ivy) ran out to an 21-10 lead over the first 10:30 of the contest.  The Red & Blue maintained an 11 point advantage, following a Max Martz layup with a minute to go, but a Hunsaker three and Anderson layup cut the Penn lead to 35-29 at the half.

The Bears (12-8, 5-2) came out of the locker room a different team.

Read more

Princeton women control the inside, defeat Harvard for weekend sweep

Princeton used its inside strength to outrebound Harvard by 15 and score 18 more points in the paint to cruise past Harvard, 60-46, Saturday night at Lavietes Pavilion.

With the game tied after the first five minutes, the Tigers (15-1, 3-0 Ivy) closed out the frame on an 8-0 run to finish with a 17-9 advantage.  Princeton stretched the lead to 14 at the three-minute mark of the second quarter before Jeannie Boehm, Maggie McCarthy and Maddie Stuhlreyer led the Crimson (11-6, 2-2) on a 7-0 run.  With one possession left in the half, Carlie Littlefield got the ball to an open Bella Alarie, who calmly hit a three from the top of the key to make it 32-22.

Read more

Yale women use dominant second half to defeat Columbia for seventh straight win

Leading by only three at the half, Yale used a 50-point effort over the last 20 minutes to convincingly beat Columbia, 85-60, taking the first leg of its Empire State weekend.

A battle between two of the Ivy’s up-and-coming programs started with the visitors jumping out to a quick 10-0 start.  The Lions (10-6, 1-2 Ivy) battled back to tie the game at 15 by the end of the first quarter, with 12 of those points being scored by Ivy rookies Abbey Hsu, Hannah Pratt (a sophomore who missed all last year), Kaitlyn Davis and Carly Rivera.

The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair with four lead changes and four ties, leaving the game knotted at 32 after Rivera nailed a jumper from the right baseline with just under a minute to go.  Yale senior Roxy Barahman calmly sank a shot from the top of the key, beyond the men’s line, to put the Bulldogs up 35-32 to finish the half.

Read more

Harvard women rebound against Dartmouth, 64-49, for series split

The Dartmouth women entered Saturday’s rematch at Harvard looking to for its first series sweep since 2009, but a strong defensive effort and solid late-quarter three point shooting allowed the Crimson to keep its streak intact in front of a boisterous Alumnae Day crowd.

Read more

Thursday marked the 18-month anniversary of Penn’s Jerome Allen investigation announcement

A quick note to readers of Ivy Hoops Online that Thursday marked the 18-month anniversary of the Penn Athletics announcement that it would be hiring outside legal counsel to look into Jerome Allen receiving bribes from Florida businessman Philip Esformes to place Esformes’s son, Morris Esformes, onto the recruited athlete list for the entering Fall 2015 class.  The information was revealed as federal authorities were investigating the elder Esformes for healthcare fraud.

Read more

Columbia women use fourth-quarter firepower to defeat Cornell, 76-66

Columbia’s three-point shooting was as cold as the snow-filled campus over the game’s first 35 minutes, but a late surge from downtown lifted the Lions to a 76-66 victory in the conference opener against Cornell.

The Light Blue (10-4, 1-0 Ivy) tried to deny the inside early against the Big Red, one of the nation’s top rebounding and two-point shooting teams.  Cornell (7-6, 0-1 Ivy) foiled that plan by taking a 10-7 lead on the boards and hitting three of six shots from beyond the arc.  Thanks to a strong 47% shooting effort, Columbia was able to finish the first 10 minutes with the score tied at 20.

Read more

Dartmouth pilfers Ivy opener, 63-62, from Harvard

Dartmouth’s Katie Douglas forced Harvard’s Mackenzie Barta into a late turnover and Annie McKenna took the loose ball in for the layup to give the Green a conference-opening 63-62 upset of the Crimson on Saturday afternoon.

Read more

Harvard’s Seth Towns to miss entire 2019-20 season

One of the Ivy League’s biggest mysteries of the last two years has finally (mostly) been solved. Harvard has announced that Seth Towns, the 2018 Ivy League Player of the Year, will undergo surgery on his left knee and miss the entire 2019-20 campaign.

Towns finished the 2017-18 regular season with 15.8 points per game, including 18.6 per Ivy contest.  The versatile 6′ 7″ forward hit 49.3% of his three-point attempts, while averaging 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per night. In addition to earning the league’s top award, Towns was named a Lou Henson All-America and an AP Honorable Mention All-American.

Read more

Littlefield and Alarie lead the way for Princeton over Penn State, 72-55

Two of the Ivy League’s brightest stars shone bright as Carlie Littlefield and Bella Alarie combined for 48 points as the Tigers tamed the Penn State Nittany Lions, 72-55, at Jadwin Gym Saturday afternoon.

Penn State (5-5) used a strong performance on the offensive boards to jump out to a quick 8-2 lead, but three baskets by Alarie helped Princeton (9-1) tie the game at 11.  An Abby Meyers layup gave the Tigers the 15-13 advantage at the end of the opening quarter.

Read more