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Mike Tony Princeton shot just 2-for-11 from deep, got outscored by double-digits in second-chance and fastbreak points and didn’t score a field goal in the game’s final 6:37.
And yet the Tigers never trailed en route to a surprisingly easy 78-64 win over Penn at the Palestra Saturday night, their sixth win there against Penn in six seasons (including their 2017 Ivy League Tournament quarterfinal victory).
So what did Penn (7-5, 0-1 Ivy) do wrong against Princeton (5-8, 1-0) this time?
In the season debut episode of Inside Ivy Hoops taped Friday evening, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is IHO writers Rob Browne and George Clark, who discuss the IHO staff’s Ivy men’s and women’s power rankings and women’s and men’s players of the 2010s as voted on by IHO staff writers (all in that order), plus we preview tonight’s Princeton-Penn matchup:
(Editor’s note: This episode was lightly edited for clarity. We regretfully neglected to discuss the Brown women, who finished last in our Ivy women’s power rankings. Brown stands at 6-7 and has won three of its last four games, but the Bears have struggled defensively and shooting efficiency. It’s hard to see them making a run at an Ivy League Tournament appearance unless they shore up both areas in conference play.)
Penn may have lost 80-69 to Villanova at Finneran Pavilion Wednesday night, but the final score doesn’t reflect the fairly even play between the Big 5 rivals, notwithstanding the strong finishes the Wildcats ended both halves on to clinch the win.
How reigning Big 5 champion Penn (5-4) hung with the Wildcats (6-2) is important.
It’s Thanksgiving weekend, which means it’s time to take stock of what followers of each Ivy women’s team should be thankful for at this point of the season:
Penn did a lot of things well against No. 14 Arizona in their Wooden Legacy semifinal matchup in Anaheim that lasted past 1:30 a.m. EST Saturday, but it still wasn’t quite enough.
That’s all right, though. Penn fans who stayed up to follow along got a lot of positives to take away anyway.
For a while, Black Friday looked completely Crimson.
Harvard gave the No. 5 team in the country all it could handle in the semifinals of the Orlando Invitational Friday, holding onto a double-digit lead well into the first half and attaining a 51-44 lead with 11:45 to play.
But Maryland took a lead with 6:41 remaining that it would never relinquish en route to an 80-73 victory.
It’s Thanksgiving, which means it’s time to take stock of what followers of each Ivy men’s team should be thankful for at this point of the season:
The Juice Online: The Juice (then called The Big Orange) was founded in 1992, one of approximately 50 independent publications devoted to the coverage of its school’s athletics programs. In 2002, it became a full-color, glossy magazine which was owned by Fox Sports. The print product ceased publication in June of 2010 and was relaunched as The Juice Online in December of 2010. In February 2012, The Juice Online partnered with SportsNet New York, the official television home of the New York Mets and New York Jets. As part of SNY.tv’s Blog Network, The Juice Online supplements SNY’s coverage of more than 125 college football and basketball games, as well as other college sports programming.
Just two games into the season for both, the Brown men’s and women’s teams are off to great starts.
The Brown men followed up their season-opening 73-71 win at a Bryant squad which has since taken Rutgers to the wire and beaten Cornell with a 75-68 home win over Canisius powered by a career-high 32 points from a resurgent Brandon Anderson, who was relegated to the bench in December of his junior campaign last season.
Powered by a second-half comeback, Harvard defeated California for the second straight season Friday night, scoring a 56-53 triumph over the Golden Bears in its home opener.
The Crimson (2-0) trailed 29-19 at halftime but cut the Cal (0-1) lead to 41-39 entering the fourth quarter after an eight-point third quarter from first-year Lola Mullaney, who after exploding for 25 points in her collegiate debut at Northern Illinois notched another 14 points in 27 minutes before exiting midway through the fourth quarter due to injury, having been helped off the floor.
Three other Crimson players joined Mullaney in double figures: senior Mackenzie Barta, who also grabbed 12 boards and made two clutch free throws to extend Harvard’s lead to five with 25 seconds left, sophomore Tess Sussman, who after Mullaney exited scored nine points in the final 6:42 to help secure the win, and senior Jeannie Boehm, who pitched in 10 points in 29 minutes.
Harvard upset No. 14 California 85-79 at Haas Pavilion last season.