The weekend’s basketball produced no interesting storylines for either the women or men’s teams at Princeton.
Carla Berube’s women’s team traveled to Hanover to administer another beating to the hopelessly overmatched Dartmouth Big Green, 70-48. Berube’s excellence has raised the fanbase’s expectations considerably. One venerable Tiger alum, writing on an Ivy message board, suggested that the Tigers’ performance at both ends of the court was “disappointing.” Not sure where that’s coming from.
A 26-8 margin in the third quarter turned an eight-point halftime lead into a 24-point rout.
Once again, Berube was able to go deep into her bench to get playing time for everyone. Abby Meyers (19 points) and Julia Cunningham (16 points) led the Tigers to their 10th straight win, 17th overall. To make matters worse for their Ivy opponents, the Tigers are at home for four of their five remaining contests. This week Princeton hosts Brown (Feb. 18) and Yale (Feb. 19) in a rare Ivy back-to-back.
On the men’s side, we start by noting the constant fear harbored by coaches that their team will experience the inevitable night when everything goes wrong.
Dave McLaughlin’s worst fear materialized on Saturday night at Jadwin Gym.
Open shots won’t fall, bad passes result in turnovers, rebounds bounce the wrong way and the defense just disappears. On Saturday, Dartmouth’s off night was a huge factor in the Tigers’ lopsided 85-40 takedown of the Big Green.
To be fair, the Tigers took the floor with a defensive intensity seen rarely this season, as the Tigers have been content to shoot their 10 threes, believing they can outscore anyone. To a great extent this strategy has proven to be effective for the 17-5 Tigers. Defense can, of course, be the cause of the other guy’s off night. In any case, Dartmouth shot 23% from the field and made just one three-ball in 20 attempts.
Brendan Barry, by any measure a strong contender for All-Ivy honors and a double-figure scorer, went 1-for-7 from the field, scoring three points in the contest.
The Tigers led by 30 at the half, enabling Mitch Henderson to clear the bench for much of the second period.
Thirteen Tigers made the scoring column. Tosan Ebuomwan (15) and Ryan Langborg (12) led the way.
Must have been a dreary bus ride back to Hanover.
At 7-2, the Tigers are a clear favorite to reach the Ivy League Tournament, along with Yale and the ever-improving Penn Quakers. Henderson’s club has four of its last five on the road, which may mean a struggle to wrap up the fourth seed. All of the remaining contests involve clubs still in the Ivy Madness race, starting with Brown (Feb. 18) and Yale (Feb. 19). Two games with Harvard in three days next week, while the Quakers await at The Palestra on March 5 to wrap up the regular season. The Tigers may need a win in Philadelphia to sneak in via the tiebreaker route.
Harvard is in jeopardy of winding up as the only men’s squad to host the Ivy tournament without being eligible to play in it.
As always, the mad scramble is just a ton of fun!