Dartmouth (9-9, 2-3 Ivy) 63 at Cornell (7-9, 1-4 Ivy) 56
Cy Lippold scored 21 and Isalys Quinones added 19 to lead the Big Green to a 63-56 victory over Cornell, its first win in Ithaca in nine years. The two captains shot a combined 10-for-17 from beyond the arc with each making five three-pointers. As a team, Dartmouth ended up hitting 11 shots from three at a 50 percent rate.
The teams were close throughout with Dartmouth holding a 32-30 lead at the half and a 50-45 advantage after three. Cornell tied it at 50 on an old-fashioned three by Caitlin Smith with 8:42 left in the fourth quarter. With the Big Green up 53-52 at the seven-minute mark, Cornell shot 1-for-9 over the next 6:30 as Dartmouth went on a 10-2 run to put the game away.
Laura Bagwell-Katalinich led the way for the Big Red with 14 points and nine rebounds. On the night, Cornell struggled from the field, shooting 35 percent overall and 29 percent from three (4-for-14).
Columbia (6-12, 2-3 Ivy) 65 vs Harvard (10-8, 3-2 Ivy) 55
The Lions used a 22-0 run over the last 9:40 of the first quarter to build a large enough cushion to defeat Harvard for the first time since 2015 and only the fourth time in program history. After Harvard scored the game’s first two points, Columbia finished the first 10 minutes up 22-2. The Lions increased their lead to 42-20 with 2:15 to go in the half, before the Crimson finished the quarter on a 7-0 run to make it a 15-point deficit at the break.
A Jeannie Boehm layup at the 2:50 mark of the third quarter brought Harvard to within nine but a Sienna Durr three-pointer on the following possession got the Lions lead back to double digits. Columbia ended the quarter on a 9-2 run to make it a 16-point lead after thirty minutes of action. With the score 60-42, a Nani Redford three capped a 12-0 Harvard run to make it a six-point game with four minutes to go in the game. With the lead still six with two minutes to go, the Lions sank seven of eight free throws to seal the victory, the biggest Ivy win in coach Megan Griffith’s three years leading her alma mater.
Columbia’s Riley Casey led all scorers with 23 points on 50 percent shooting, including a 5-for-10 performance from three. Durr and Janiya Clemmons both had double-doubles with 22 points/10 rebounds and 21 points/12 rebounds, respectively. The Lions shot just 39 percent from the field and 32 percent from three, but hit 89 percent (24-for-27) from the line. Four players had double-digit scoring for Harvard with two posting double-doubles. Redford finished with 13 points, Madeline Raster scored 11, while Boehm had 10 points/13 rebounds, while Jadyn Bush added 11 points/13 rebounds. Katie Benzan only scored three points for the Crimson on a 1-for-7 evening. Harvard struggled with its shooting all night, making only 28 percent (26-for-92!) overall, 22 percent (10-for-45!) from three and 43 percent (3-for-7) from the charity stripe.
Penn (14-3, 4-0 Ivy) 83 vs Brown (9-12, 1-4 Ivy) 43
The Quakers used a first-half 22-0 run to pull away from Brown, ultimately defeating the Bears by 40 points. Leading by only three with 6:30 to go in the second quarter, Penn used its dominant run to finish the half up 43-20. After extending the lead to 31 midway through the third quarter, the Red & Blue emptied their bench. The Bears followed suit a few minutes later.
Penn, which won its fifth straight game and 10th in its last 11, had four players with double-digit scoring. Ashley Russell and Princess Aghayere each scored 13, while Eleah Parker scored 12 and Emily Anderson put in 10 points. Kendall Grasela dished eight assists in only 22 minutes. In winning their 15th straight against the Bears, the Quakers shot 52 percent from two, 38 percent (11-for-28) and 86 percent (6-for-7) from the line.
Brown entered the night as the league’s most prolific offensive team but was kept to its lowest offensive output of the year by the Ivy League’s stingiest defense. The Bears did make 80 percent of their free throws (4-for-5), but only shot 35 percent from two and 16 percent (5-for-31) from beyond the arc. Bruno had no double-digit scorers, with Erika Steeves having a team-high eight points. Shayna Mehta and Justine Gaziano, who entered the game as the second and third-leading scorers in the Ivy League, were held to just seven and five points, respectively.
Yale (14-6, 4-1 Ivy) 96 vs Princeton (10-9, 2-2 Ivy) 86 OT
In the women’s game of the night, Princeton’s Bella Alarie (38 points, 13 rebounds, six steals, four assists, three blocks) and Yale’s Roxy Barahman (33 points, seven rebounds, five steals, four assists, one block) did not disappoint the boisterous Jadwin Gym crowd. The All-Ivy players and their respective teams needed an overtime session to settle Friday night’s affair with the Bulldogs coming away with 96-86 win. The victory, their first win at Princeton in 10 years, their fourth straight Ivy in league play, moves Yale into sole possession of second place ahead of a showdown with first-place Penn on Saturday night. The Tigers loss moves them into fourth place, a half-game behind Harvard and a half-game ahead of Dartmouth.
The first quarter had nine lead changes before Yale finished the first frame up 21-18. The second quarter had two more lead changes, but ended with Yale still up by three, 42-39. The Bulldogs extended their advantage to as many as nine by the two minute mark of the third quarter, but the Tigers cut the deficit to five, 62-57, heading into the fourth quarter.
With just over three minutes left in regulation, Barahman hit a short jumper to give Yale a seven point lead. As the visiting bench erupted, coach Allison Guth must have had a sense of deja vu as her Bulldogs had Harvard down seven with 2:30 to go before the Crimson tied the game with just seven seconds to go. This week, the Tigers went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to one, 74-73, with 90 seconds left in regulation.
On the next possession, Barhaman hit a contested three from the left wing to give Yale the four-point advantage. With the same score at the 30-second mark, Alarie faked out Yale first-year Camilla Emsbo and hit a step-back three-pointer from the top of the arc to get Princeton within one, 77-76. After Tori Andrew hit two free throws to give Yale a three-point lead, Rush hit a deep three from the left wing over the outstretched arms of Megan Gorman to tie the game with 10 seconds left.
Yale had a chance for a second straight Friday night buzzer-beater, but the inside pass to Emsbo was too deep and she ended up turning the ball over to Littlefield with four seconds on the clock. Littlefield immediately raced up the right side of the court and found an open Qalea Ismail near the left side of the basket, but the pass was too high and went out of bounds at the buzzer.
Despite Emsbo fouling out 15 seconds into overtime, Yale scored the first seven points of the extra session with the highlight being a Barahman three from the left side that hit side of the rim, bounced off the top of the backboard and then fell through the net. With the Bulldogs still up seven with a minute to go, the league’s second weakest free throw shooting team hit six straight from the charity stripe to ice the game.
Yale’s 96 points was a school record, besting a 94-point effort against Hofrstra in 1991. The Bulldogs ended up shooting just 44 percent from two, but hit an incredible 48 percent (10-for-21) from three and 76 percent (28-for-37) from the line., They also managed to outrebound the Tigers 45-31, including 16 offensive rebounds, which led to a 15-2 advantage in second-chance points. In addition to Barahman’s outstanding performance, reserve forward Alexandra Maund had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Andrew added 15 points and Alex Cade scored 12 in the Yale win, the team’s ninth in its last 10 contests.
For Princeton, Alarie was joined by Rush, who had 18 points and five three-pointers, while Littlefield and Sydney Boyer each scored 11. The team shot well for the night, hitting 47 percent from two, 50 percent (9-for-18) from three and 77 percent (17-for-22).