Princeton women’s basketball rolls past Harvard for seventh straight win

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“We communicated well, got our hands up and worked really hard,” Princeton coach Carla Berube said to Ivy Hoops Online about her team’s defense in a 72-49 win over Harvard Saturday. (Princeton Athletics broadcast)

Princeton women’s basketball delivered one of its best defensive performances of the season to notch a wire-to-wire win over Harvard, 72-49, Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion.

Although this contest was billed as a rematch of the 2023 Ivy League Tournament championship game, also won by Princeton, the Tigers might have had revenge on their minds dating back to last season’s road trip to Lavietes.  A year ago, the Tigers lost their Ivy opener at Harvard in shocking fashion, 67-59.  It was the first league loss for Carla Berube in her coaching tenure at Princeton.  

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Brown women’s basketball holds off Yale to move to 2-0 in Ivy League play

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A furious run in the final quarter wasn’t enough to keep Yale women’s basketball from a 76-71 defeat at home versus Brown Saturday.

Defense travels, and that was the story of the first half. Brown is the second-best Ivy defensive team, giving up just 57 points per game, and the Bears held Yale (3-12, 0-2 Ivy) to a paltry 23 first-half points.

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Q&A with Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones

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James Jones’ Yale Bulldogs are 10-6 on the season, including 1-0 in Ivy play. (James Jones’s X page)

Ivy Hoops Online sat down with Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones after a Yale practice Thursday:

Ivy Hoops Online: How is your team performing relative to your expectations before the season started?

James Jones: We are at 80% of where we should be now. At some points during the season, we were at 50%.We need to be more connected.

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Nazir Williams leads Cornell men’s basketball to Ivy League-opening win over Columbia

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Junior guard Nazir Williams led Cornell to a 91-79 win over Columbia Tuesday night. (Cornell Athletics)

ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time this season, Brian Earl finally gave junior guard Nazir Williams the nod to start. After an offseason knee procedure, he had been coming off bench and playing fewer minutes than last year.

Naturally, he delivered.

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Yale men’s basketball bests Brown in Ivy League opener, 80-70

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Yale men’s basketball owns Brown.

The Bulldogs have now won 10 out of their last 11 games against the Bears under coach James Jones, whose team won another road contest in the series Tuesday night, 80-70. Brown never led.

“Great way to start league play,” Jones said. “Always tough to win on the road, especially with our travel partner. The team is starting to come together. We’re close to playing Bulldog basketball.”

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Princeton women’s basketball shuts down Cornell, 79-38, in Ivy League opener

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The Princeton women’s basketball team opened the Ivy League season in impressive fashion on Saturday afternoon with a dominant win over the Cornell Big Red, 79-38, at Newman Arena.  The 41-point margin of victory was Princeton’s largest since the Tigers defeated Brown by 43 points last February. 

With the win, the Tigers moved to 11-3 on the season and 1-0 in the Ivy League.

In an Ivy Hoops Online interview published Thursday, Princeton coach Carla Berube expressed little concern that her players would look past this contest to the Tigers’ marquee matchup against Harvard next weekend.

“I think they understand how important every one of these Ivy League matchups are,” Berube said. “You take nobody lightly, you take nobody for granted.  You respect them and play your very best in each of these contests.”  

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LISTEN: Thoughts on Princeton men’s basketball’s 89-58 win over Harvard

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Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark shares his thoughts on Princeton men’s basketball’s 89-58 rout of Harvard Saturday – and his observations of which NBA team’ scouts were present for sophomore guard Xaivian Lee’s 33-point performance for the Tigers:

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 80-51 rout of Dartmouth

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PHILADELPHIA — Penn men’s basketball stormed out of the gates of conference play on Saturday, using strong shooting across the board to pick up an easy win over Dartmouth, 80-51.

The Quakers (9-7, 1-0 Ivy), never trailed against the Big Green (4-10, 0-1) at the Palestra. A flurry of threes from freshmen Tyler Perkins and Niklas Polonowski pushed Penn out to a 23-9 lead, and the Red and Blue never looked back from there.

Playing without the services of leading scorer Clark Slajchert — who is still wearing a walking boot on his left foot after hurting his ankle against Houston last Saturday, Penn merely shot 50.9% from the field and hit 14 threes on 56% shooting from beyond the arc.

Not bad, huh?

The Quakers got contributions up and down the roster on Saturday, which leads nicely into how …

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LISTEN: Postgame press conference following Princeton men’s basketball’s 89-58 win over Harvard

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Sophomore guard Xaivian Lee delivered 33 points on 13-for-22 shooting from the field in Princeton’s win over Harvard Saturday. (Princeton Athletics)

Ivy Hoops Online contributor George Clark brings us the audio of Princeton men’s basketball’s postgame press conference after the team’s 89-58 win over Harvard in their Ivy League opener at Jadwin Gym Saturday. Sophomore guard Xaivian Lee dominated with 33 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Tigers. Coach Mitch Henderson and Zach Martini joined Lee at the presser to reflect on Princeton’s win:

Columbia women’s basketball bests Penn in Ivy League opener

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Columbia women’s basketball opened its defense of its Ivy hoops title Saturday at home with a solid 79-66 win over Penn.
As if to underline that this isn’t the same Lions team as last year’s, the game’s standout player wasn’t even playing in Manhattan until the fall. Bucknell junior transfer Cecelia Collins had 19 points, five rebounds and seven seriously nifty assists. On a subpar day for senior guard and leading scorer Abbey Hsu (a mere 14 points on 5-for-14 shooting), Collins frustrated the visitors on both ends of the court.

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