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A career-best 17 points from Columbia men’s basketball senior forward Josh Odunowo led the Lions to a huge 83-69 road win over Brown at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Columbia (12-8, 3-4 Ivy) was in control for most of the game, using 11-2, 9-0 and 12-0 runs in a 17-minute period overlapping the two halves to open up an insurmountable 18-point lead and remain in fourth place in its quest for the program’s first-ever appearance in the Ivy League Tournament.
With injuries to Marcus Smart and their other stars, there have been few reasons to tune into the 2023-24 Memphis Grizzlies. However, for the faithful readers of Ivy Hoops Online, the Grizzlies have been must-watch hoops for the last week.
That shift is because the Grizzlies, wracked with injuries, signed former Princeton star Tosan Evbuomwan to a 10-day contract in order to help fill their roster.
In three games, the mononymous Tosan has had a low-usage offensive role, but he’s logged ample minutes, averaging 22 a game for the woeful Grizz. He’s scored just 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting (2-for-7 from three-point range) while adding 14 rebounds. It also took the New York Knicks’ public address announcer four tries to pronounce Evbuomwan correctly, a true sign of a rookie.
Despite unspectacular numbers, there’s plenty to like about Tosan’s game and reason to think he could stick around for a second 10-day contract or even more NBA time in the months and years to come. Having watched his second and third games against the Celtics and Knicks, here’s my Quakeaways takeaways on Tosan’s game:
A National Labor Relations Board director ordered a union election for 15 Dartmouth men’s basketball players Monday in a ruling that found the players are employees of the university.
The result could be the first labor union for NCAA athletes.
After hard-fought wins for both teams on Friday night, Cornell men’s basketball looked to use its depth, while Harvard hoped its physical defense would be the difference in the second night of the opening weekend of back-to-back contests.
While the two teams slugged it out in the first half, the Big Red’s relentless roster wore down the Crimson over the final 20 minutes and came away with an 89-76 win in front of an Alumni Night crowd that featured NCAA president and Ivy Basketball Legend Charlie Baker.
For the second time in 24 hours, the No. 25 Princeton Tigers fought off a fierce challenge from an Ivy foe, defeating the Brown Bears, 76-63, on Saturday night at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark breaks down a 70-60 Saturday night win for Princeton (16-3, 4-2 Ivy) at Brown (6-15, 2-4):
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Penn’s losing streak hit five games after one kill shot too many from Yale Saturday night.
The Red and Blue fell, 74-58, after a 10-0 Bulldogs run over 90 seconds at the start of the second half turned a manageable six-point halftime deficit into a 16-point hole. Penn (9-12, 1-5 Ivy) had already fought-back from a 7-0 game-opening Yale (15-6, 6-0) run to take a lead, then promptly surrendered a 10-0 run to flip the scoreboard back in the Bulldogs’ favor.
A rattled-in three from Niklas Polonowski cut the Penn deficit down to nine points with just over eight minutes to play, but Ivy League Player of the Year candidate Danny Wolf responded with a personal 10-0 scoring barrage to put the game on ice.
If you had told the average fan after the Quakers’ stunning upset over Villanova that Penn would be buried in the Ivy standings before the Super Bowl, they would have told you that you were crazy. But that is the sad reality.
Letdown? No way.
Yale men’s basketball navigated the treacherous trap game waters with excellence by downing Penn, 74-58, at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday night for its eighth consecutive win.
Yale coach James Jones did not see any letdown.
On the first night of the Ivy League’s opening back-to-back weekend, the Columbia women hosted Harvard, while the Crimson men welcomed the Lions.
When the dust cleared on Friday evening, both home teams held serve in competitive contests.
With the wins, the Lions women (14-5, 5-1 Ivy) claimed sole possession of second place and the Crimson men (11-7. 2-3) sat in a fourth-place tie with Brown.
The Harvard (11-8, 4-2) women dropped to a third-place tie with Brown, while the Lions (10-8, 1-4) men fell into a sixth-place tie with Dartmouth and Penn.