Harvard men’s basketball takes down Columbia in regular-season finale

Senior guard Chandler Pigge matched his career high of 26 points to pace Harvard men’s basketball in an 81-71 victory over Columbia in front of a large contingent of family and friends at Lavietes Pavilion Friday evening.

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Yale men’s basketball beats Columbia, clinches share of regular season title

In the second game of an Ivy League back-to-back weekend, the Yale men’s basketball team put aside Friday night’s loss to Cornell and gutted out a 60-54 victory over Columbia at Levien Gymnasium on Saturday night.

“Great teams respond to adversity,” senior forward Nick Townsend, who led the Bulldogs with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists, told SNY’s Lance Medow after the game.  “It’s good to get a win after that long ride from Cornell.”

The triumph for the conference leaders, coupled with Harvard’s 64-61 loss to Penn at the Palestra, gave the Bulldogs (22-5, 10-3 Ivy) at least a share of the Ivy League regular season title.

With wins by the Quakers and the Big Red, as well as a loss by Dartmouth, the Lions (16-11, 5-8), which have never appeared in the Ivy League Tournament, were officially eliminated from tournament contention.

Even if the Bulldogs and Crimson end the regular season tied for first, the former will have the No. 1 seed for Ivy Madness based on a better record against Penn.

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Columbia women’s basketball escapes Brown in physical battle

Completing an undefeated February, Columbia women’s basketball endured a tough defensive battle at Brown to defeat the Bears, 59–56, Saturday night in Providence. The two were never separated by more than six points in a likely Ivy Madness semifinal preview.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s home sweep of Columbia and Cornell

Penn has a clear path to an Ivy Madness berth after pulling off one of its best Palestra homestands in years.

The Quakers (13-10, 6-4 Ivy) have a tight grip on third place in the League standings after using a late surge to rally past Columbia on Friday, 76-67, and following that effort up with an 82-76 triumph over Cornell in a game that was played within a possession for much of the evening.

Penn, by virtue of its head-to-head sweep over Cornell (12-11, 5-5), is effectively two games ahead of the Big Red with four to play. If the Quakers just go .500 in their remaining contests, they’ll be two steps away from their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

It’s a position that few outside observers expected Penn to be in, given its opening KenPom ranking of 275 and consensus seventh-place pick in the Ivy preseason poll.

But now? The Quakers look like an ascending team in its first year under Fran McCaffery, who has taken a team which consists almost entirely of players he did not recruit and turned it into one of the most improved teams in the country.

How much so? We’ll get into that now, starting with how …

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Columbia women’s basketball takes revenge on Penn

Columbia wasn’t going to let lightning strike twice.

Two weeks after the women’s basketball team lost to Penn in West Philly, it put on a showcase of smothering defense, consistently found the open shooter in the lane or on the perimeter, withstood a Penn comeback and won comfortably at home Saturday, 69-56, at Levien Gym.

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LISTEN: Columbia men’s basketball overcomes Princeton at Jadwin Gym

Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 75-65 win for Columbia men’s basketball (15-9, 4-6 Ivy) over Princeton (8-17, 4-6) at Jadwin Gym Saturday night:

Columbia women’s basketball rallies in the second half to devour No. 24 Princeton

For the second time in two weeks, the Columbia Lions women’s basketball team made history by knocking off a top-25 opponent.

Their victim in each case was the same team, the Princeton Tigers.

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