In the league’s penultimate weekend, each of the three first place teams won, while Brown pulled a game ahead of Cornell for fourth place.
Penn and Dartmouth had their offenses clicking at the Palestra on Saturday afternoon.
The Quakers shot 73% from two and 42% from three, while the Big Green made 62% from inside the arc and 45% from outside. With most shots going in from the field, the Red & Blue pulled away for their eighth straight win on the strength of their free throw shooting (17-for-18 vs 8-for-14) and rebounding (28-21).
The victory allowed Penn to remain in first place, while the defeat ended Dartmouth’s chance for their first Ivy Tournament berth.
Trying to rebound from a huge second half collapse against Yale last weekend, Princeton used a 10-2 run over the last five minutes of the opening half to take a 37-23 halftime lead at Harvard. The Tigers upped their advantage to 18 at the 15-minute mark of the second half, but the Crimson used a 20-4 run to make it a two-point game with five minutes left in regulation.
Contrary to last week, the Orange & Black would not give up the lead.
The teams combined to make one of the next ten shots from the field, as Princeton held a three-point advantage with twenty seconds remaining. An Evan Nelson layup cut the deficit to one, but Ryan Langborg sank two free throws to make it 56-53. Tigers coach Mitch Henderson followed Jon Rothstein’s advice and fouled Nelson, who missed the first of a one-and-one. Caden Pierce came down with the rebound and hit both free throws to put the game away.
The win sets up a showdown with long-time rival Penn to claim at least a piece of the regular season championship.
Despite being without Matt Knowling for the second straight game, Yale posted a convincing win over Cornell in the team’s final game at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Bulldogs, who were up 34-28 at the half, stretched their lead to 21 by the 11-minute mark and the Big Red didn’t get any closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
The win was Yale’s eighth in the last nine games and allowed them to keep pace with the Ps. It was also the 200th regular season Ivy victory for coach James Jones. Jones, who is wrapping up his 24th year in New Haven, is 200-121 in league play and 110 conference wins away from former Princeton coach Pete Carril.
For Cornell, Saturday’s defeat was the fifth in their last six games and puts them on the wrong side of the Ivy Tournament bubble with one game to go.
Brown had a 14-point lead in the first half, but Columbia used four three-pointers in the latter part of the half to cut the Bears lead to five at the break. The game was tied at 59 with 8:30 to go, but a 9-0 run over the next two minutes gave Bruno enough of a cushion to dash the Lions’ hopes of getting their third league win.
The win breaks Brown’s two game losing streak and allows Bruno to control its own destiny for the program’s first-ever spot in Ivy Madness.
Saturday’s results
Penn over Dartmouth, 89-79
Brown over Columbia, 84-73
Princeton over Harvard, 58-56
Yale over Cornell, 76-58
Standings
*Yale 9-4 (19-7 overall)
*Princeton 9-4 (18-8)
*Penn 9-4 (17-11)
Brown 7-6 (14-12)
Cornell 6-7 (16-10)
^Harvard 5-8 (14-13)
^Dartmouth 5-8 (9-18)
^Columbia 2-11 (7-21)
* Clinched spot in Ivy Tournament
^ Eliminated from Ivy Tournament
Season Series
Yale: vs Princeton (2-0), vs Penn (1-1), vs Brown (1-0), vs Cornell (1-1), vs Harvard (2-0), vs Dartmouth (1-1), vs Columbia (1-1)
Princeton: vs Yale (0-2), vs Penn (1-0), vs Brown (1-1), vs Cornell (2-0), vs Harvard (2-0), vs Dartmouth (1-1), vs Columbia (2-0)
Penn: vs Yale (1-1), vs Princeton (0-1), vs Brown (2-0), vs Cornell (1-1), vs Harvard (2-0), vs Dartmouth (1-1), vs Columbia (2-0)
Brown: vs Yale (0-1), vs Princeton (1-1), vs Penn (0-2), vs Cornell (1-1), vs Harvard (1-1), vs Dartmouth (2-0), vs Columbia (2-0)
Cornell: vs Yale (1-1), vs Princeton (0-2), vs Penn (1-1), vs Brown (1-1), vs Harvard (0-2), vs Dartmouth (2-0), vs Columbia (1-0)
Harvard: vs Yale (0-2), vs Princeton (0-2), vs Penn (0-2), vs Brown (1-1), vs Cornell (2-0), vs Dartmouth (0-1), vs Columbia (2-0)
Dartmouth: vs Yale (1-1), vs Princeton (1-1), vs Penn (1-1), vs Brown (0-2), vs Cornell (0-2), vs Harvard (1-0), vs Columbia (1-1)
Columbia: vs Yale (1-1), vs Princeton (0-2), vs Penn (0-2), vs Brown (0-2), vs Cornell (0-1), vs Harvard (0-2), vs Dartmouth (1-1)
Rankings (as of Friday, Feb. 24)
Yale: Sagarin 79, KenPom 72, BPI 52, NET 68, RPI 78
Princeton: Sagarin 127, KenPom 122, BPI 123, NET 122, RPI 124
Penn: Sagarin 111, KenPom 133, BPI 128, NET 141, RPI 139
Brown: Sagarin 180, KenPom 186, BPI 183, NET180, RPI 165
Cornell: Sagarin 156, KenPom 137, BPI 129, NET 118, RPI 118
Sat., March 4
Penn at Princeton, 12:00 p.m. (Game #1: Princeton, 72-60; Princeton seven-in-a-row over Penn and 15-2 over last 17 games)
Columbia at Cornell, 2:00 p.m. (Game #1: Cornell, 102-85; Cornell four-in-a-row over Columbia)
Harvard at Dartmouth, 2:00 p.m. (Game #1: Dartmouth, 60-59)
Yale at Brown, 7:30 p.m. (Game #1: Yale, 81-78; Yale seven-in-a-row over Brown and 14-1 over last 15 games)
Ivy Madness Implications (Ivy tiebreak procedures are here)
Yale:
Win over Brown: Co-Champions and #1 seed no matter what happens with Penn at Princeton
If Princeton wins, Yale is 2-0 in head-to-head
If Penn wins, Yale split season series but has better record against third-place Princeton (2-0 vs 1-1)
Loss over Brown: Tie for 2nd place; #2 seed no matter what happens with Penn at Princeton
If Princeton wins, Yale split season series with Penn, but has better record against Princeton
If Penn wins, Yale has 2-0 head-to-head record over Princeton
Princeton:
Win over Penn: Sole Champion and #1 seed, if Yale loses; Co-Champion and #2 seed, if Yale wins (see above)
Loss over Penn: Tie for 2nd place and #3 seed, if Yale loses; 3rd place and #3 seed, if Yale wins
Penn:
Win over Princeton: Sole champion and #1 seed, if Yale loses; Co-Champion and #2 seed, if Yale wins (see above)
Loss over Princeton: Tie for 2nd place and #3 seed, if Yale loses; 3rd place and #3 seed, if Yale wins
Brown:
Win over Yale: Sole 4th place and #4 seed, no matter what happens with Columbia at Cornell
Loss over Yale: Sole 4th place and #4 seed, if Cornell loses
Cornell:
Win over Columbia: Tie for 4th place and #4 seed, if Brown loses to Yale
If Princeton beats Penn, Cornell and Brown would be combined 1-3 against co-champions Yale and Princeton, but Cornell would have advantage over third place Penn (1-1 vs 0-2)
If Penn beats Princeton, Cornell will have better combined record against co-champions Yale and Penn (2-2 vs 0-4)
Below are 10 of the top performances from the weekend:
Dame Adelekun (Dartmouth)
vs Penn: 24 points (9-12 2FG, 1-2 3FG, 3-7 FT), nine rebounds, five assists, one block, one steal
Jordan Dingle (Penn)
vs Dartmouth: 27 points (4-5 2FG, 4-9 3FG, 7-8 FT), three steals, two rebounds, one block; KenPom MVP
E.J. Jarvis (Yale)
vs Cornell: 34 points (10-14 2FG, 3-4 3FG, 5-6 FT), 10 rebounds, one assist, one steal; KenPom MVP
Ryan Langborg (Princeton)
vs Harvard: 18 points (5-6 2FG, 2-5 3FG, 2-2 FT), six rebounds, one steal; KenPom MVP
Kino Lilly Jr. (Brown)
vs Columbia: 23 points (7-16 2FG, 2-8 3FG, 3-3 FT), three assists, three steals
Lucas Monroe (Penn)
vs Dartmouth: 13 points (5-7 FG), 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals
Evan Nelson (Harvard)
vs Princeton: 19 points (3-9 2FG, 4-7 3FG, 1-3 FT), five rebounds, two assists, one steal
Caden Pierce (Princeton)
vs Harvard: 9 points (2-3 2FG, 1-5 3FG, 2-2 FT), eight rebounds, one assist
Guy Ragland Jr. (Cornell)
vs Yale: 13 points (2-2 2FG, 2-5 3FG, 3-4 FT), nine rebounds, two assists, one steal
Paxson Wojcik (Brown)
vs Columbia: 20 points (7-8 2FG, 0-1 3FG, 6-9 FT), eight rebounds, six assists, two steals; KenPom MVP