Princeton (11-9, 3-2 Ivy) 93 vs Brown (9-13, 1-5) 74
The Tigers rebounded from Friday night’s overtime loss to Yale by beating the Bears by 19 on Saturday night. In front of the team’s alumnae, including the ’14-’15 team that went 30-0 in the regular season, Princeton jumped out to a nine point lead after one quarter and eleven at the half. The Bears cut the lead to six, two and a half minutes into the third quarter, but that would be as close as the they would get.
Bella Alarie had another huge night with 20 points, 16 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and one steal, while Gabrielle Rush led all scorers with 22 points and a career-high six three-pointers. The Tigers dominated the inside, shooting 59 percent (30-for-51) from two, outrebounding Brown 53-33 and scoring twice as many points in the paint (44-42). The Bears hit 57 percent from three (13-for-23), but only managed 30 percent (14-for-47) from inside the arc and half as many second chance points (8-for-16). Brown’s Justine Gaziano led all scorers with 23 points and Shayna Mehta added 19 in the losing effort.
Princeton, which sits alone in fourth place, travels north to face Harvard on Friday and Dartmouth on Saturday. Brown, which has lost its last five games and is tied for seventh, welcome Cornell and Columbia next weekend as it tries to get back into the Ivy Tournament race.
Harvard (11-8, 4-2 Ivy) 68 at Cornell (7-10, 1-5) 61
Harvard, which jumped out to a 17-point lead after the game’s first 15 minutes, held off a late Cornell rally to manage a split of its Empire State weekend. Down 60-47 with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Big Red sank 10 of 12 free throws and hit two layups the rest of the way, while holding held the Crimson without a field goal. Unfortunately for Cornell, Harvard managed to hit eight of its 12 free throw attempts to claim its fourth Ivy victory.
Both teams shot poorly from the inside (40 percent for Harvard, 35 percent from Cornell) and well from the free throw line (17-for-24 for H, 19-for-25 for C), but the difference was at the three point line where the Crimson had nine made baskets and the Red only hit two.
Katie Benzan scored 22 points and hit five three-pointers, while Madeline Raster put up 20 points on 46 percent shooting. Jadyn Bush and Jeannie Boehm put up a combined 17 points and 22 rebounds in the win. For Cornell, Laura Bagwell-Katalinich had a career-high 25 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.
Harvard, which is tied for second place with Yale, will host fourth-place Princeton and first-place Penn next weekend at Lavietes Pavilion. Cornell, which is tied for seventh with Brown, will visit the Bears on Friday night and Yale on Saturday.
Dartmouth (10-9, 3-3 Ivy) 70 at Columbia (6-13, 2-4) 69
With both teams coming off strong wins on Friday night, Dartmouth and Columbia met on Saturday night and played the game of the night. In a back and forth tilt that was not decided until the final seconds, the Green came away with the 70-69 victory, completing its first Empire State sweep since 2007.
The first half, which was filled with runs from both teams, ended with the Lions up 38-33. The third quarter had more of the same, with Columbia going up 46-35 at the 4:36 mark and Dartmouth tying the game at 49 with 30 seconds left in the frame. After Janiya Clemmons hit two free throws to put the Lions back up two with four seconds left, Cy Lippold raced up the court and found Paula Lenart under the basket to make it 51-51 with 10 minutes left in regulation.
The Big Green went up 61-55 halfway through the fourth quarter, but back-to-back threes from Madison Hardy and Riley Casey knotted the game at 61. Dartmouth had the ball and was up two with 30 seconds left, when Lippold was double-teamed near midcourt and turned the ball over. Sienna Durr drove the lane and dished it to an open Hardy near the right baseline, as four Dartmouth players converged on her. Hardy missed the three pointer, but was fouled by a leaping Quinones. The first-year guard sank all three free throws to give Columbia the one point lead with 14 seconds remaining.
Coming out of the timeout, Lippold went to the right along the free throw line and crossed a pass to Quinones near the left side of the basket. The senior forward went in for the layup and was fouled by Durr with 4.7 seconds left. She hit both free throws and Clemmons’s buzzer-beater rimmed out, ending the game.
Dartmouth shot 50 percent from two and 79 percent (15-for-19) from the line. They also outrebounded the Lions 38-22, which helped the Green to 10 more second chance points. Quinones scored 21 points, Lippold 20 points and Lenart put up a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. The Lions shot 54 percent from two and 40 percent from three (10-for-25), but only 65 percent (11-for-17) from the free throw line. Columbia ended with four players in double-digits with Clemmons putting up a game high 23 points, Durr adding 15, Hardy coming off the bench with 14 and Casey scoring 14.
The Big Green, in fifth place by only a half-game behind Princeton, will host Penn on Friday and Princeton on Saturday. The sixth-place Lions will travel to Yale on Friday and Brown on Saturday.
Penn (15-3, 5-0 Ivy) 54 vs Yale (14-7, 4-2) 48
In a match-up between the league’s top two teams, Penn arrived winning 10 of its last 11 games and Yale had been victorious in nine of its last 10. After a hard-fought battle, the Quakers ended the night holding onto its home court advantage and taking a two game lead in the standings.
Phoebe Sterba’s three at the 4:15 mark of the third quarter gave the Red & Blue a 41-25 lead, but the Bulldogs finished the frame on a 10-0 run to leave Yale down six with 10 minutes to go. Tori Andrew hit a three for Yale with 2:19 to go to make it a 47-43 game. With Penn holding onto the four point lead with 40 seconds left, Princess Aghayere was fouled in the backcourt and hit one of two free throws to make the score 50-45. After Yale took control of a jump ball on the next possession, Andrew found Roxy Barahman along the right baseline for a three pointer with 26 seconds left.
Ashley Russell hit only one of two free throws to give Penn the 51-48 lead. Barahman took a game-tying three from the left wing with 15 seconds left, but the league’s leading scorer missed and the ball was rebounded by Aghayere. Penn then hit three of four free throws to close out the win.
In the defensive tussle, the Quakers shot 33 percent from two, 28 percent (5-for-18) from three and 50 percent from the line, while Yale hit 33 percent from two, 32 percent (6-for-19) and 46 percent from the charity stripe. A major factor for Penn was winning the turnover battle. The Red & Blue scored 11 points off 15 Yale turnovers, while the Bulldogs could only score two points off seven Penn turnovers.
Penn’s Eleah Parker had 16 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, while Aghayere added 15 points and 9 boards. Yale was led by Barahman with 14 points and Andrew had 10.
The first-place Quakers will next travel to Dartmouth and Harvard next weekend. The Bulldogs, tied for second place, will host Columbia and Cornell.