Princeton 74, Cornell 60
A day after starting with a 12-0 deficit at Penn, Cornell reeled off a game-opening 11-4 run at Jadwin, maintaining a lead for most of the first 12 minutes and trailing 37-34 at halftime before the Tigers very gradually took control. Matt Morgan got in on the scoring action as Robert Hatter receded in the second half. There’s no such thing as “the usual suspects” for Princeton, but tonight it was Amir Bell and Spencer Weisz leading the Tigers with 16 points, and Devin Cannady shooting 6-for-7 from deep, including 3-for-3 from long range. (Ask Columbia about that.) Meanwhile, Henry Caruso notched just two points on 0-for-4 shooting, though he did add seven rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Harvard 71, Brown 62
As the injured Tommy McCarthy noted on Twitter during the game, his fellow freshman guard Corey Johnson was “eatinggggg” indeed. Johnson scored 24 points in 35 minutes, including a 6-for-15 performance from long range. Harvard led wire to wire on Brown’s senior night, with senior center Cedric Kuakumensah’s 19 points and 14 rebounds standing out for the Bears and Tavon Blackmon adding 17 points, five assists and five rebounds. Zena Edosomwan got into more foul trouble, picking up his third and fourth fouls in a 13-second span midway through the second half after Evan Cummins had also picked up four fouls. But Harvard won the Battle of the Okolie Brothers – Obi went scoreless and fouled out in 30 minutes of play for Brown, and Agunwa snared 19 rebounds and scored 10 points in 35 minutes.
Columbia 93, Penn 65
Columbia hadn’t won at the Palestra since 2010, when Jerome Allen was still Penn’s interim head coach. So the Lions were due for this performance, which coach Kyle Smith said was the “best game we’ve played since I’ve been here.” Columbia opened the game on a 15-4 run and watched Penn climb back to make the score 28-26 only to throttle the Quakers for the entire second half. Alex Rosenberg exploded for 26 points and Columbia shot 64.2 percent from the floor and committed just four turnovers on the night. Everything the Lions wanted, they got, a night after they couldn’t get what they needed. Outstanding show by the Lions, who clearly haven’t folded. KenPom now favors Columbia to win against Yale Saturday.
Yale 76, Dartmouth 71 (OT)
Hear that whooshing sound? That’s a collective sigh of relief coming from New Haven – a season in the making against the Big Green. Nearly a calendar year after Dartmouth upset Yale with a game-winning layup from Gabas Maldunas in the regular season finale, Paul Cormier’s squad built a 50-44 lead at Payne Whitney with 9:09 left and Makai Mason struggling mightily and appearing to tweak his ankle. Mason finished with 4-for-18 shooting, but he kept Yale atop the Ivy League standings by canning an elbow jumper to tie the game with 5.4 seconds remaining after Miles Wright notched four points and a steal in a 14-second span. Yale scored nine of its 13 points in overtime from the free throw line a night after Brown drained seven free throws in the extra period of its overtime victory over Dartmouth. Yale exorcised some Big Green demons Saturday night, even overcoming a 59-58 deficit, the same score that Dartmouth upset Yale by last year. Still, Yale will need better shooting from its backcourt if it’s to pull off a regular season-ending sweep Cornell and Columbia next weekend. Here it is, Yale. Another final regular season weekend to sweep on the road.