Home of the Roundball Poets
Mike Tony 
For the first time in program history, Harvard women’s basketball is headed for the third round of the WNIT.
The Crimson advanced to the third round of the WNIT Monday night with an 89-87 win at Massachusetts, propelled by memorable performances from sophomore guard Harmoni Turner and junior guard Lola Mullaney.
Postseason wins are never to be taken for granted.
Columbia women’s basketball was expected to prevail in its WNIT opening-round matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson at Levien Gym Friday, and it did just that in a ho-hum 69-53 victory.
But as the Knights fell to the Lions Friday night, their No. 16-seeded men’s counterparts shocked the basketball world by toppling No. 1 Purdue in the Round of 64 in a 63-58 triumph.
It says a lot about the advancement of Columbia (24-5, 12-2 Ivy) under coach Megan Griffith that the Lions have transitioned from going without a postseason win for its first 36 years in Division I to being well-positioned to make a deep WNIT run for the second season in a row.
And the Lions made history of their own against Fairleigh Dickinson (24-8, 14-2 NEC) Friday night.
The Ivy hoops postseason picture is emerging.
The Princeton men were handed the lowest seed handed to an Ivy since Penn was disrespected with a No. 16 seed in 2018, while the Columbia women were deprived of a NCAA Tournament berth altogether despite a top-50 NET ranking.
Ivy back-to-backs can bring out the worst and best in teams, often in the same weekend.
Coming off an 80-37 drubbing against Princeton at the Pizzitola Sports Center in which it got outscored 33-2 in the third quarter, Brown rebounded 22 hours later with a 68-59 win over Penn.
Dartmouth’s been a resilient team throughout this season, bouncing back from a 13-point second-half deficit to push past Penn last month and overcoming a four-point overtime deficit almost midway through the extra period to top UTSA in November. So Dartmouth blowing a 76-71 lead with 70 seconds left in regulation to drop its first meeting with Princeton at Jadwin Gym in an 83-80 overtime decision last month was never going to be the final word on the Big Green’s season.
In its rematch with Princeton at Leede Arena Saturday, it was Dartmouth that delivered a second-half comeback, climbing out of a seven-point hole early in the second stanza to notch an 83-76 win. Dartmouth’s now tied with a quickly cooling Cornell at fifth place in the Ivy standings,
Some thoughts on how Dartmouth got there and where they could be headed:
Princeton women’s basketball lost its first Ivy game in 43 contests dating back 1,423 days Saturday afternoon.
And it wasn’t even the biggest Ivy hoops upset of the day.
That accomplishment belonged to Columbia men’s basketball, which shrugged off its last-place projection in the Ivy preseason media poll to topple league rankings leader Yale at Levien Gym, 62-60.
1,423 days.
That’s how long it had been since Princeton women’s basketball lost a game to an Ivy opponent.
But Harvard snapped the Tigers’ winning streak spanning 42 games, three Ivy League championships and two head coaches at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday afternoon in the Ivy opener for both teams.
