Cornell men fade late, bow to Penn State, 85-74

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Cornell men’s basketball led by 10 points in the first half, but a 19-5 Penn State run in the final seven minutes shot down Big Red’s upset attempt as the Nittany Lions held on at the Bryce Jordan Center, 85-74.

“[Penn State] had a pretty good game plan against us,” Cornell coach Brian Earl said. “We’re still learning how to play like this, and they sort of retreated well and got into some of our cutting lanes and passing lanes.”

Cornell (4-1) fell behind 14-6 in the opening seven minutes to Penn State (3-1) after a three-pointer by fifth-year senior guard Jaheam Cornwall, but a 21-3 Big Red run vaulted the visitors ahead, 27-17.

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Penn men leave Myrtle Beach Invitational with a positive 1-2 result

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The Penn men went wire to wire for a 71-63 win over Old Dominion to close out the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Sunday afternoon.  While the Quakers’ record over the four-day tournament in Conway, S.C. was 1-2 and they finished the eight-team tournament in seventh place, the Red & Blue jumped from a KenPom ranking of 210 to a season-best 196.

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Columbia women defeat Georgetown in double overtime, 66-56, to remain unbeaten

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Columbia’s Carly Rivera, held scoreless through regulation, hit three straight triples late in the second overtime to help the Lions break away from Georgetown and secure a hard-fought 66-56 victory Sunday. 

With the win, the Light Blue move to 5-0 for the first time in program history.

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Princeton men eke out win at Oregon State, 81-80

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The Princeton men traveled across the country to meet Oregon State, winner of last year’s Pac-12 championship and Elite 8 darling. Tiger fans recall the six-year tenure Craig Robinson had as head coach in Corvallis.

The Tigers held the lead for most of Sunday afternoon’s contest. In the end, Princeton managed to survive a late run by the home team, which came from 11 points down in the final five minutes to get within one.
Powered by the best all-around game in the career of senior guard Ethan Wright, Princeton managed an 81-80 victory.

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Princeton women suffer first loss in exactly two years in rock fight at Rhode Island

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The Princeton Tigers took their NCAA-best 25-game winning streak on the road to Rhode Island Saturday.

The result was a disappointing 61-53 loss at the hands of the unbeaten Rams.

The last defeat suffered by the Tigers occurred, ironically, two years ago to the day in overtime at Iowa.

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Yale men split a pair at Vermont and Albany

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The Yale men fell on the road to a strong Vermont team Friday, 61-53, before a crowd of 2,188.

The Elis clung to a one-point lead at the half, and the second stanza was nip and tuck the whole way.

Senior guard Azar Swain led the way with 22 points, while senior forward Ryan Davis paced the Catamounts with 18.

The Bulldogs were ranked No. 20 in the CollegeInsider.com men’s mid-major top 25 entering the contest, while Vermont was perched just below them at No. 22.

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Princeton men best Marist, 80-61

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The Princeton Tigers concluded a very busy opening week of the new season tonight, entertaining the Red Foxes of Marist and coach John Dunne. It was the fourth contest for coach Mitch Henderson’s club in eight days. Tiger fans will remember Dunne from his days at St. Peter’s whom he coached in a game played at Dillon Gym, the only time the old gym was used for Division I men in over 50 years.

Princeton expected an exciting game. Marist lost its season opener in overtime against American, which is coached by former Tiger Mike Brennan, On November 12, the Foxes thrashed Ivy foe Columbia by 15.

The Tigers put together their best outing thus far, administering a sound beating to the visitors, 80-61. Although the Tigers (3-1) posted four players in double figures the real story tonight was written at the defensive end. Princeton’s harassing swarms, featuring a lot of doubling down low was reminiscent of the 2017 Ivy champions. The Foxes (1-2) were forced to settle for a lot of uncomfortable shots. For the evening Marist shot 36% from the floor and 30% from deep. These percentages were higher in the second half when the outcome was no longer in doubt.

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Penn women trump King’s College

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What would you consider the most important aspect of the Penn women’s easy win against King’s College, 91-55, on Tuesday night at the Palestra?

Surely not the win itself, though a loss to any Division III squad would have been an embarrassment and a flashing red sign of problems at Penn. King’s has a good team with an excellent shooting guard in Samantha Rajza, who had 20 points on 6-for-13 shooting from beyond the three-point arc. But King’s had no way to compete in the paint, so it lived and died by its three-point shots, putting up 36 of them and sinking 12.

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Takeaways from the Cornell men’s solid 2-0 start

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Just one Ivy League men’s basketball team remains undefeated through a week of action, and it isn’t either conference favorite in Harvard or Yale. Instead, it’s the Cornell Big Red, searching for their first 3-0 start in 25 seasons on Tuesday against Colgate at Newman Arena.

Cornell doesn’t have the star power its opponents have, but the team has shown its depth through season-opening wins at Binghamton and Lafayette. The team has also shown resiliency, coming up with big stops and timely shot-making in 76-69 and 90-85 victories over the Bearcats and Leopards, respectively.

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Layoff, Shmayoff: A solid start for Ivy League hoops

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Announcers and writers around the nation focused a lot of attention to the 600-plus days between games for the Ivy League.  While many expected the teams to be a bit rusty out of the gates, the Ancient Eight acquitted itself quite well in the season’s first week.

Thirteen of the league’s 16 teams had at least one win, with the Princeton and Columbia women notching three victories each.  The Brown men almost upset No. 19 UNC without their top player, and the Princeton men just missed out on winning the Asheville Championship.

Check out some of the highlights from a very successful and welcome week of Ivy hoops:

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