Columbia 77, Brown 73
The Lions absolutely needed to have this game to hold serve in the Ivy title chase, and they got it thanks to Grant Mullins. The unsung senior guard turned it on with Brown keying in on Maodo Lo and Alex Rosenberg, notching 25 points on 8-for-14 shooting, including 6-for-9 from long range. The Bears held the lead as late as the 3:18 mark but couldn’t quite crack it, led by Steven Spieth, who has averaged 20 points per game since Brown was swept by Yale last month.
Princeton 83, Dartmouth 70
Dartmouth never folded, weathering an early 34-12 deficit to cut Princeton’s lead to single digits multiple times, but the Tigers shot 13-for-24 from deep and kept quite literally shooting the Big Green’s chances down. Junior forward Steven Cook turned in a point-a-minute effort, posting 27 points in 27 minutes. When the Tigers are firing on all cylinders, it’s a thing of beauty. Princeton’s got ample momentum going into a crucial road tour of the Empire State next weekend.
Penn 67, Harvard 57
This game figured to be ugly. No Zena Edosomwan or Siyani Chambers. No Antonio Woods or Tony Hicks. In that respect, this game did not disappoint. But ugly was beautiful for the Quakers, who won on the strength of Darien Nelson-Henry’s 18 points and 12 rebounds, taking full advantage of the doughnut hole in Harvard’s defense. Freshman forward Max Rothschild sparkled off the bench to the tune of 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Penn nabbed 53 snares to Harvard’s 32.
That was a function of Harvard missing everything, though. In fact, both teams stunk up the Palestra from deep, shooting a combined 11-for-48 (22.9 percent) from three-point range and 48-for-130 (36.9 percent) overall. The Crimson were the colder of the two teams, settling for brick after brick in Edosomwan’s absence. Harvard shot 80 percent from the foul line (including lifetime 28.9 percent foul shooter Chris Egi going 2-for-2) and committed just six turnovers to Penn’s 17, and still lost by 10. That’s how bad Harvard is – without Edosomwan – right now.
Yale 83, Cornell 52
Cornell’s pressure defense left too many Yale shooters open too often, and the Elis capitalized over and over again. For the third game in a row, Yale shot north of 50 percent from long range and dominated the Big Red on both sides of the court. It’s not often that a team enjoys a plus-34 rebounding differential, but the Bulldogs did just that, coasting as Robert Hatter struggled, scoring just two points on 1-for-9 shooting in his second game back from an ankle injury. Last weekend’s road sweep feels like a long time ago for Cornell now.