Yale 90, Brown 66
Last week, Yale built a 21-4 lead hosting Brown before the Bears clawed their way back in to pester the Bulldogs the rest of the game. Friday night brought just the opposite.
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Yale 90, Brown 66
Last week, Yale built a 21-4 lead hosting Brown before the Bears clawed their way back in to pester the Bulldogs the rest of the game. Friday night brought just the opposite.
The panel breaks down the first few games of conference play, and it has an extended discussion about the various Ivy gyms. Peter Andrews, Mike Tony, and Ian Halpern are joined by Jacob Mitchell of the Yale Daily News for this episode.
Yale 77, Brown 68
As it did last season, Brown gave Yale a scare in New Haven, but not a loss.
Late free throws by Makai Mason and Jack Montague iced the game for the Elis, and Mason led Yale with 20 points in 32 minutes. Brown overcame an early 21-4 deficit to cut Yale’s lead to 37-31 at halftime. Cedric Kuakumensah, Tavon Blackmon and JR Hobbie combined for 50 of Brown’s 68 points and 15 of its 20 field goals. Brown and Yale combined for 49 fouls and 36 turnovers in what turned out to be a sloppy game.
IHO takes a closer look at Saturday’s two Ivy conference matchups.
Brown at Yale, 5 p.m.
Last season: Then-senior guard Javier Duren canned a jumper with 3.4 seconds remaining to break a 65-65 tie and help ensure a Bulldogs victory. Yale’s 69-65 win completed a sweep of Brown, and the Elis took the lead for good with 12:28 to go in the game after Brown had led 31-25 at halftime. Justin Sears and Duren scored 27 and 24 points respectively, combining for 15 of Yale’s 20 field goals. Brown got a more balanced scoring attack, with Rafael Maia, Steven Spieth and Tavon Blackmon combining for 50 of Brown’s 65 points just five days before it Leland King’s departure from the Brown basketball program was announced. (King played only in the first matchup of this series in Providence last season, his final game as a Bear.)
Penn 50, Princeton 48
Any roundup of Saturday’s Ivy action has to include Penn’s white-knuckle win over Princeton on the women’s side. Penn (10-2, 1-0 Ivy) prevailed for its home win over Princeton (11-4, 0-1) since 2008 by shutting down the Tigers defensively, holding Princeton to just one field goal in the final 4:16 and turning the Tigers away twice in the final eight seconds of the game. Junior center Sydney Stipanovich finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and three assists for the Quakers, who Princeton to 17-for-62 (27.4 percent) shooting with a formidable 2-3 zone that Princeton coach Courtney Banghart curiously called a “junior high school” level zone after the game.
Super proud for our team. Resilient , determined and played together. Loved our effort. Special shoutout to our 2-3 zone👍👍!!
— Mike Mclaughlin (@MikeMcLaughli) January 10, 2016
When it rains, it pours. Just over two months after senior guard Tony Hicks announced he was leaving the Penn basketball program, Penn Athletics announced Saturday that sophomore guard Antonio Woods has been declared ineligible for the remainder of the 2015-16 season due to insufficient academic progress under University policy.
Woods will not be allowed to re-enroll in the University until the start of the 2017 spring semester.
Woods is averaging 10.7 points, 3.3 assists and 2.2 rebounds per game. Losing Woods is a huge setback for a young Penn squad still trying to find player combinations under first-year Quakers coach Steve Donahue, as Woods ranked fifth in the Ivy League in minutes played.
IHO breaks down the two games comprising Saturday afternoon’s Ivy conference play-opening slate:
Dartmouth at Harvard, 2:00 p.m.
Last season: The Big Green ended an 11-game losing streak with a surreal 26-2 second-half run en route to a 70-61 win, shocking the Crimson at Lavietes. Alex Mitola, who is no longer with the Big Green, led the way with 18 points, but Malik Gill sparked Dartmouth off the bench with nine points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals in just 25 minutes. Harvard’s Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers combined for 26 points on 7-for-20 shooting from the field, and the Crimson committed 18 turnovers.
Peter Andrews, Mike Tony, George Clark, Steven Tydings and Robert Crawford come together to recap a memorable nonconference slate, select our 2015-16 All-Ivy first-teamers so far and look ahead to Ivy conference play.
IHO sizes up the Ivy League’s power rankings, along with some other 2015-16 nonconference highlights, now that the start of league play is just three days away.
Former Penn guard Tony Hicks will play his final collegiate season for Louisville, per Card Chronicle. Hicks will graduate from Penn in May and then play for the Cardinals in 2016-17.
Hicks announced through Penn Athletics in October he would sit out the 2015-16 season:
“After speaking with Coach (Steve) Donahue about the best situation for Penn basketball and myself, I have decided the best decision for me will be to take a break from basketball,” Hicks said in the release. “I plan to graduate from Penn in May, and then take my next step as a basketball player next year.
“This is a personal decision, and I wrestled long and hard with it because I have thoroughly enjoyed playing for Penn the last three years and wearing the Red and the Blue. I want to wish the guys on the team and the coaches all the best for this season and future seasons, and I will definitely be backing them in The Palestra during these next several months.”
Hicks led the Quakers in scoring as a junior and sophomore, but he was also suspended in each of his three seasons (one game in 2012 after a failed drug test and two games last season after he lost his temper during and after a home loss to Brown).