Dartmouth women’s basketball holds on to defeat Iona

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Following the horrific shooting that took place at Brown University on Saturday afternoon, the Ivy League basketball show went on in New Rochelle, N.Y. a few hours later with the Dartmouth women taking on Iona.

The Gaels cut an 11-point deficit to four with 75 seconds left in regulation, but junior guard Nina Minicozzi slammed the door shut on the Iona comeback by drawing two consecutive offensive fouls around the basket, grabbing a big defensive rebound and sinking two free throws.

When the buzzer sounded on the 65-57 victory, the Big Green stretched its winning streak to four and improved to 7-2 on the season, the program’s best start since 1995. On the other side, Iona’s five-game victory streak ended, and the team finished its nonconference schedule at 7-3.

“We have an amazing group of young women, and they’ve bought in. They really believe in each other. They believe in the staff,” Dartmouth coach Linda Cimino said to the ESPN+ reporter immediately after the contest. “It’s all coming to fruition right now, and I’m really proud of them.”

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Princeton men’s basketball outmatched at home by Merrimack

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reports on a 59-56 loss for Princeton men’s basketball (3-10) to Merrimack (6-6) at Jadwin Gym Wednesday:

Princeton women’s basketball rolls over Rutgers

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It’s beginning to look a lot like the 2019-20 season for the Princeton women’s basketball team.

In that season, Carla Berube’s first at the helm of the Orange and Black, a dominant Princeton team led by superstar Bella Alarie won 11 of its 12 nonconference games, defeating Penn State and Seton Hall, while falling only to a powerful Iowa team on the road in overtime.

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Yale men’s basketball axes Albany to notch Division I-highest 11th win

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Yale men’s basketball downed Albany, 93-82, in the MGM Springfield Basketball Hall Of Fame Classic in Springfield Wednesday to become the first team in the country with 11 wins. Yale (11-1) entered the game against Albany (3-8) tied with Duke at 10.

“I thought that the game went along pretty much as I thought it would,” coach James Jones said. “They (Albany) were really patient.”

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Perri Page’s double-double and late layup give Columbia women’s basketball first Quad 1 win

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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — It wasn’t pretty, but Columbia got its biggest road win of the young season.

The Lions (7-4) took the short ride to South Orange, New Jersey and beat Seton Hall (6-2) on a Perri Page layup with 0.7 seconds left, 54–53. Facing an unrelenting Seton Hall defense, the Lions never led in the second half until the final second.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball eking out win over Lafayette

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Penn men’s basketball took a circuitous — and fortuitous — path to victory in its first game without Ethan Roberts.

The Quakers (6-4) started hot against Lafayette, building an early 16-point lead. But then the offense stagnated, the Leopards began to hit shots and Penn needed a favorable whistle (or lack thereof) and one last stop to escape with a 74-72 win at the Palestra Monday evening.

The Leopards (3-8) were deprived of a chance to get the game’s final shot while trailing only by one point after the referees incorrectly ruled that a mid-range jumper from forward TJ Power hit the rim. Instead of being hit with a shot clock violation, the Quakers were able to corral the offensive rebound thanks to a winning play from forward Lucas Lueth.

Cam Thrower was fouled with 4.7 seconds on the clock and split a pair of free throws; Lafayette’s Mark Butler was able to get off a desperation attempt at a game-tying layup just before the buzzer sounded, but a good contest from forward Augustus Gerhart helped force the shot offline.

The Quakers may have gotten a little lucky, but you never apologize for winning. Penn fans will have plenty to contemplate about the state of the team heading into its finals break, starting with how …

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Penn women’s basketball cruises past La Salle for Big 5 Classic win

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The ups and downs of the Penn women’s basketball season brought it Sunday to the Big 5 Classic at Finneran Pavilion — not to play for the title but to avoid the odd fate of taking sixth place in the Big 5. And avoid it Penn did, beating La Salle 65-52 behind a 20-point afternoon for Katie Collins.

(The addition of Drexel threw off the numbers of the Big 5 but saved Philly’s treasured rivalry, as even the Villanova men’s team can devote three games instead of the traditional four in playing Big 5 games. Besides, do you know how many schools are in the Big Ten these days? Of course not — nobody does, but estimates range as high as 30.)

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Yale men’s basketball throttles UIC to improve to 10-1

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Yale men’s basketball played out the second leg of a rare home-and home series with an out-of-conference mid-major at John J. Lee Amphitheater Sunday, 13 months after the Bulldogs fell at its opponent, Illinois Chicago, by a 91-79 tally.

But on Sunday, the Bulldogs evened the score by running all over UIC, 80-66.

“It was a really good win over them,” coach James Jones said. “They try to slow you down.”

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s Big 5 Classic loss to Villanova

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PHILADELPHIA — What briefly looked like an opportunity for Penn to snatch a signature win in Fran McCaffery’s first season as head coach spiraled over the course of a half-hour into a nightmare that recreated the worst moments of the Quakers’ last two nightmarish seasons.

Just like last season, Penn played Villanova competitively on Saturday for about 15 minutes of game time. Once again, the game devolved into a blowout. This time, the Wildcats put up 1.36 points per possession in a 90-63 rout that delivered Villanova a Big 5 title.

After junior wing Lucas Lueth tied the score at 27 with an open catch-and-shoot three from the left wing, Villanova (7-1, 3-0 Big 5) went on a 17-2 run to break the game open, which was capped off by two runout layups off turnovers in the final 15 seconds of the first half. The Wildcats were never seriously threatened after that.

The final score, though, was ultimately a secondary concern. The season itself for Penn (5-4, 3-1) is at a crossroads after senior wing Ethan Roberts went down with a scary-looking injury early in the second half. Roberts took an inadvertent high hit while being called for a foul, seized up for a few moments while crumpled in a heap on the ground, and then looked visibly unsteady returning to his feet before walking off the floor under his own power.

McCaffery did not comment on the specific nature of Roberts’ injury but said his player was headed to the hospital.

Roberts’ injury brings back bad memories of the ankle sprain Clark Slajchert suffered in a blowout loss to powerhouse Houston just before New Year’s in 2023. By the time Slajchert returned, Penn was in too deep of a hole to seriously compete for an Ivy Madness spot.

Where do the Quakers go from here?

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Olivia Hutcherson’s 19-point second half lifts Princeton women’s basketball past Belmont

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You never know who’s going to come up big for the Princeton women’s basketball team this season.

On Saturday afternoon in the Music City, it was Olivia Hutcherson.

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