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Rob Browne Saturday’s What to Watch
A large number of important games on deck for this Saturday afternoon and evening. The Penn at Cornell and Princeton at Columbia women’s games do not look to be exciting, but the rest of the games do have strong implications on the Path(s) to the Palestra. So, skip the Olympics (or, at least DVR it so you can eventually watch the skating and hear the always informative commentary from Tara Lipinski & Johnny Weir) and get ready for another exciting day of Ivy hoops.
The Princeton women (17-4, 7-1 Ivy) made a strong statement on the first night of league play, when they defeated two-time defending champion Penn (15-5, 6-2) at the Palestra, 70-55. After Tuesday night’s even more convincing 20-point blowout of the Quakers at Jadwin Gymnasium, the Tigers have put the rest of the conference on notice that they are the clear favorites to take the regular season and tournament titles.
Fri., Feb. 9
Princeton 80 vs Harvard 47
Penn 65 vs Dartmouth 47
Yale 73 at Columbia 50
Cornell 70 vs Brown 68
Sat., Feb. 10
Princeton 82 vs Dartmouth 63
Penn 69 vs Harvard 49
Yale 65 at Cornell 55
Brown 84 at Columbia 80
Tie 1st – Princeton (6-1 Ivy; 16-4 Overall)
Fri., Feb. 2
Penn 88 at Brown 55
Harvard 85 vs Columbia 67
Dartmouth 55 vs Cornell 40
Yale 73 vs Princeton 59
Sat., Feb. 3
Princeton 77 at Brown 62
Penn 69 at Yale 54
Dartmouth 88 vs Columbia 65
Harvard 80 vs Cornell 58
1st – Harvard (5-1 Ivy; 13-6 Overall)
Wed., Jan. 24
Penn 74 at Temple 59
Fri., Jan. 26
Harvard 97 vs Yale 73
Dartmouth 78 vs Brown 73
Sat., Jan. 27
Columbia 72 at Cornell 54
Harvard 87 vs Brown 85
Yale 57 at Dartmouth 39
Sun., Jan. 28
Penn 89 vs Gwynedd Mercy (Division III) 25
Standings
The women’s and men’s basketball teams for Columbia and Cornell arrived at Levien Gymnasium on Saturday winless in conference play. While the main goal for each team was to secure its first league win, it was almost as important for the individual teams to feel good about their games as they move into the hardest stretch of their seasons.
The Columbia men had, perhaps, their best game of the season as they dismantled Cornell, 88-62. On the women’s side, the Big Red led for 36:49 of the 40-minute contest in route to an important 57-47 road win over the Lions. In dominating their respective games, the Columbia men and Cornell women have strong momentum heading into next Saturday’s rematches in Ithaca. The two losing squads and their staffs, however, were left trying to come to grips with their play and figuring out how to turn things around, for next weekend and the remainder of the year.
Brown 81 vs Yale 71 (OT)
In Yale’s 77-63 win in New Haven last Friday, the Bulldogs were able to prevent the Bears from getting into its fast paced offensive flow. At the start of this week’s return match in Providence, Brown (13-2; 1-1 Ivy) was determined not to let that happen again. However, they ended up forcing the pace to go a bit too fast and both teams struggled over the first 20 minutes. The Bears managed to take a four-point lead into the locker room, but they shot 36 percent overall, 40 percent from two and 27 percent from three, as well as committing 10 turnovers. Yale (8-7; 1-1 Ivy), meanwhile, shot 27 percent overall, 33 percent from two and 29 percent from three.
Record: 8-9 Overall and 1-0 Ivy (4-2 Home; 4-7 Away)
Rankings: KenPom #196; Bart Torvik #212; TeamRankings #152
What’s Hot
Sharing the Rock, Defensive Rebounding and Two-Point Shooting
Over the previous three seasons, Yale has been in the top 100 for assists. After the first half of the 2017-18 campaign, the Bulldogs are tops in the conference averaging 18.4 assists a game and their 67.2 percent rate is second in the country.
The Elis have a defensive rebounding rate of 73.0 percent, which is fourth in the Ivy League and top 90 nationally. While it may not be as high as the program’s 75.7 percent rate in its historic ‘15-‘16 season (top 10 nationally), it is on pace to be the second-best performance in the last 10 years.
Princeton 75 vs Cornell 54
Cornell (4-11; 0-2 Ivy) challenged the Tigers (13-3; 3-0 Ivy) in the first half, finishing the second quarter down 36-34. Princeton came out of the break on a 17-0 run in the first five minutes, completed the quarter up 22 and coasted in the fourth stanza for a convincing 21-point victory over the Big Red.
Leslie Robinson had 16 points and Bella Alarie scored 13, while Gabrielle Rush continued her hot hand in league play with 75 percent three point shooting and 11 points. Cornell’s Samantha Widmann, from nearby Lawrenceville, led the Big Red with 17 points and seven rebounds.
Yale 77 vs Brown 63
Yale (8-6; 1-0 Ivy) opened up its march to Ivy Madness with a double digit victory over Brown (12-2; 0-1 Ivy) in a Friday matinee contest at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. After a poor shooting first quarter from both teams, Yale entered the second frame up 3 and stretched it to six at halftime. The Bears came out hot at the beginning of the third quarter, going on an 8-0 run over the first 1:36 to take a 39-37 lead. From there, the teams stayed close and were tied at 58 with 6:54 left in the fourth quarter. Two Tamara Simpson steals and layups in nine seconds sparked Yale to a 10-0 run that put the game out of reach.