Cornell men’s basketball appears back on track after scorching second half in Albany win

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The story of this Cornell men’s basketball season begins, as it has each of the past several seasons, at the three-point line. The Big Red lead the nation averaging 14.2 three-point field goals made as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Cornell kicked off the month of December with a three-game losing skid in which it conceded 90+ points each game. Only 15 Division I men’s basketball teams are currently allowing more points per outing than the Red. Entering Sunday’s matchup at Albany, the defense had been struggling especially in the second half.

Cornell got the season back on track with an 83-75 victory against the Great Danes, overcoming a mediocre start to do so.

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Harvard men’s basketball falls to St. John’s, 85-59

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Harvard men’s basketball traveled south to Queens to visit St. John’s on Wednesday night and went back north a few hours later with an 85-59 defeat to the Red Storm.

With one game left in the nonconference schedule, Tommy Amaker’s squad fell to 6-7 on the season, while Rick Pitino’s group ended its out-of-conference slate and improved to 8-4 (1-0 Big East).

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Harvard women’s basketball loses buzzer-beater to Maine

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In a game that featured 30 lead changes, 15 for each team, it was Maine that grabbed the final bucket at the buzzer to beat Harvard 59-57 at Lavietes Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.

The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Crimson and evened its season record to 6-6, while the Black Bears earned its second straight victory and improved to 5-8 on the year.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 70-69 loss at Rutgers

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Penn’s first game against Rutgers in 50 years should have been a statement win.

It wound up becoming a collapse right up there with the worst losses of the Steve Donahue era.

Plagued by a toxic combination of fouls, turnovers, mental mistakes and poor free throw shooting, the Quakers frittered away the 66-59 lead they held with 2:24 to play against the Scarlet Knights at Jersey Mike’s Arena Saturday night.

The coup de grâce in a 70-69 loss came when junior forward TJ Power missed two free throws with eight seconds left that would have effectively iced the game. After the second miss, Rutgers (6-6) guard Tariq Francis capped off a career-high 34-point evening by draining a pull-up game-winning three-pointer with 0.9 seconds to play over a good contest from freshman guard Jay Jones.

For Penn (6-5), the only saving grace about the loss is that it occurred in nonconference play and means nothing for the team’s Ivy and postseason ambitions. It’s better for this young team to learn a harsh lesson like this now when it can still be used as a learning experience.

So, about that learning experience. What did fans learn on Saturday night?

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A Christmas season miracle lifts Princeton women’s basketball to an overtime win at George Mason

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Do you believe in miracles? How about two of them?

Trailing 63-56 late in the fourth quarter, the Princeton women’s basketball team scored seven points in 15 seconds to force George Mason into overtime.

Then, like Lazarus, the Tigers rallied from the grave in the extra stanza to pull out yet another road win, 71-69, on Saturday afternoon at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va. It was the first ever meeting between the two programs.

The triumph, the ninth in a row for the No. 25 Tigers, may be the most memorable and improbable comeback in the storied history of Princeton women’s basketball.

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Dartmouth women’s basketball holds on to defeat Iona

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Following the horrific shooting that took place at Brown University on Saturday afternoon, the Ivy League basketball show went on in New Rochelle, N.Y. a few hours later with the Dartmouth women taking on Iona.

The Gaels cut an 11-point deficit to four with 75 seconds left in regulation, but junior guard Nina Minicozzi slammed the door shut on the Iona comeback by drawing two consecutive offensive fouls around the basket, grabbing a big defensive rebound and sinking two free throws.

When the buzzer sounded on the 65-57 victory, the Big Green stretched its winning streak to four and improved to 7-2 on the season, the program’s best start since 1995. On the other side, Iona’s five-game victory streak ended, and the team finished its nonconference schedule at 7-3.

“We have an amazing group of young women, and they’ve bought in. They really believe in each other. They believe in the staff,” Dartmouth coach Linda Cimino said to the ESPN+ reporter immediately after the contest. “It’s all coming to fruition right now, and I’m really proud of them.”

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Princeton men’s basketball outmatched at home by Merrimack

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reports on a 59-56 loss for Princeton men’s basketball (3-10) to Merrimack (6-6) at Jadwin Gym Wednesday:

Princeton women’s basketball rolls over Rutgers

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It’s beginning to look a lot like the 2019-20 season for the Princeton women’s basketball team.

In that season, Carla Berube’s first at the helm of the Orange and Black, a dominant Princeton team led by superstar Bella Alarie won 11 of its 12 nonconference games, defeating Penn State and Seton Hall, while falling only to a powerful Iowa team on the road in overtime.

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Yale men’s basketball axes Albany to notch Division I-highest 11th win

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Yale men’s basketball downed Albany, 93-82, in the MGM Springfield Basketball Hall Of Fame Classic in Springfield Wednesday to become the first team in the country with 11 wins. Yale (11-1) entered the game against Albany (3-8) tied with Duke at 10.

“I thought that the game went along pretty much as I thought it would,” coach James Jones said. “They (Albany) were really patient.”

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