Home of the Roundball Poets
Princeton men’s basketball coach Mitch Henderson, junior guard Dalen Davis and junior forward Jacob Huggins reflect at their postgame press conference on Tuesday night’s 73-63 win for the Tigers (1-1) over Bucknell (2-1) at Jadwin Gym:
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps the action that resulted in Princeton’s home-opening win over the Bison:
Playing in front of 3,348 fans, including 75 family and friends of Detroit-area native and Harvard coach Carrie Moore, the No. 13 Michigan Wolverines dominated both sides of the ball on their way to a comfortable 84-55 victory at the Crisler Center on Sunday afternoon.
The game was knotted at 7-7 three minutes into the contest before the Maize and Blue (2-0) went on a 17-0 run to end the first quarter up 24-8. Harvard (1-1) battled back in the second frame, twice cutting the deficit to 10 with less than two minutes to go in the half. But three layups over the final 61 seconds sent Michigan to the locker room with a 40-24 lead.
The Wolverines didn’t let up in the second half, extending their advantage to 20 late in the third quarter and 29, 84-55, by the time the final buzzer sounded.
Some reflections on a tough first road game of the season for the reigning Ivy League Tournament champions:
While politicians in Washington blame each other for the government shutdown, the Princeton women’s basketball team refused to let flight delays likely caused by the shutdown spoil their season opener against Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.
Despite a 12-hour flight delay that resulted in a 3 a.m. arrival at the team hotel last night, the Tigers rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Yellow Jackets, 67-61, at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta.
The game was a triumphant homecoming for junior Olivia Hutcherson, a native of Johns Creek, Ga., who told the ACC Extra announcers before the game, “I have all of Johns Creek here.” The defensive star didn’t disappoint her fan base, tallying a career-high 15 points and grabbing six rebounds.
Hutcherson also played her usual lockdown defense, helping the Tigers claw 26 turnovers from Georgia Tech, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
“Olivia was amazing,” coach Carla Berube told Ivy Hoops Online. “What she was able to do on both ends kept us in the game in the first half when our shots weren’t falling.”
HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men’s basketball team was the surprise of the Ivy League last season, defying preseason prognostications to finish third and qualify for its first Ivy League Tournament. That was some vindication for coach David McLaughlin in his ninth season in charge, as the Big Green’s winning conference record was the program’s first this century.
All praise is fleeting, of course, and a new campaign is upon us, one that got off to a bit of a rocky start with a 75-56 loss to Marist Sunday afternoon at Leede Arena.
Playing against a Division I opponent for the first time this season, Penn showed some signs of progress and a few trouble spots in an 84-78 loss on the road Sunday against American, the defending Patriot League champion.
The Quakers (1-1) battled all the way back from a 13-point deficit to take the lead a few times in the second half, climbing ahead for the final time when senior wing Michael Zanoni drained an open three in transition to give Penn a 67-66 advantage.
American (1-1) responded immediately on the next possession with a wide-open three from freshman Madden Collins off some nice passing and never looked back; Collins finished with a game-high 25 points.
However, the game was arguably lost long before then. The Quakers dug themselves a deep hole in the first half with a long stretch of live ball turnovers and offensive discombobulation, which gave themselves little margin for error the rest of the way.
Penn will face a much stiffer test on Tuesday at Providence, which should be a contender for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers will likely be 20-point-plus Vegas underdogs against the Friars.
What did Penn fans learn from a tough afternoon?
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps Princeton men’s basketball’s season-opening 104-69 loss at Akron Saturday afternoon:
The outcome of the Penn women’s first basketball game of the season was decided the moment it was scheduled: The Red and Blue would overwhelm King’s College, a Division III team from Wilkes-Barre, and showcase their new and returning players in a low-pressure tip-off. King’s, meanwhile, would face big-school challenges that could boost its play for the coming season — and get a kick out of playing in front of family at the Palestra. (Every woman on the King’s roster is from Pennsylvania or New Jersey, many from the Philly area.)
If you’ve followed Harvard women’s basketball throughout the Carrie Moore era, you know the team is a reflection of the coach and her Detroit grit. That style was on full display on Friday evening, as the Crimson battled through injuries and rough shooting from the field to come away with a 61-56 win over visiting St. John’s at Lavietes Pavilion.
The season-opening victory, which put an exclamation point on a night that started with Harvard (1-0) raising its 2025 Ivy League Tournament championship banner, was the second straight over the Johnnies (1-1) and fifth in a row against a Big East opponent.
Penn men’s basketball opened the Fran McCaffery era with all guns blazing Friday night, setting the team single-game scoring record in a 119-72 pasting of Division III opponent Rowan at the Palestra.
The Quakers (1-0) did what they were expected to do against a lower-division team: physically dominate the game on both ends of the floor. As teams like Boise State and Western Michigan have already shown in this young college basketball season, that’s not always a given.
Penn finished with a plus-30 rebounding margin and had 49 free throw opportunities. One of the few blemishes for the home team was that it could only convert 33 of those shots (67.3%) from the charity stripe.
There are much bigger tests to come on the road (American, Providence) in the next few days, but here are just a few of the happy Quakeaways from an easy win: