Tiger basketball fans got a rare opportunity to watch both their men’s and women’s teams in a doubleheader Sunday. The women continued their amazing start with a 40-point thrashing of New Hampshire, 77-37. The Tigers’ Player of the Year candidate Bella Alarie enjoyed her 37th career double double with 18 points and 11 rebounds in just 21 minutes. Earlier this week the Tigers reached the USA Today Top 25 and received seven votes in the AP rankings. The Ivy slate opens on January 11 at The Palestra.
Cornell dominated by Penn State, 90-59
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The Cornell Big Red were only able to hang around for a few minutes against No. 20 Penn State (11-2), losing a Sunday matinee by a score of 90-59 to conclude 2019.
“They’re enormous and athletic. At our level, it’s rare,” said head coach Brian Earl about the Nittany Lions (11-2). “I know Yale has that sort of size, and they made a fight out of their game [against Penn State]. For us, we just don’t have the horses to match [Mike] Watkins and [Lamar] Stephens.”
The two senior forwards each had 19 points to lead the Nittany Lions.
Yale bests North Carolina, hands Tar Heels their first home loss under Courtney Banghart
Watch out, Princeton and Penn. Yale is lurking in the background in plain sight.
The Elis upset favored and high scoring UNC, 66-63, Saturday at fabled Carmichael Arena, before a crowd of 2,632. It was the lowest point output of the season for the Tar Heels, coached by former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart.
Harvard’s Seth Towns to miss entire 2019-20 season
One of the Ivy League’s biggest mysteries of the last two years has finally (mostly) been solved. Harvard has announced that Seth Towns, the 2018 Ivy League Player of the Year, will undergo surgery on his left knee and miss the entire 2019-20 campaign.
Towns finished the 2017-18 regular season with 15.8 points per game, including 18.6 per Ivy contest. The versatile 6′ 7″ forward hit 49.3% of his three-point attempts, while averaging 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per night. In addition to earning the league’s top award, Towns was named a Lou Henson All-America and an AP Honorable Mention All-American.
Ninth straight Cornell loss hurts more than most
There was hope for Brian Earl and Cornell Sunday afternoon, a little gleam that shined through at Chase Family Arena. Sure, Hartford is a middle-of-the-road America East team (see: probably not Yale, Harvard, or Penn), but there the Big Red were, making shots, dominating inside and outside, finally able to remove some of the stench from an eight-game losing streak that had morale not-so-cheery as Christmas approaches.
And then it all fell apart.
Columbia can’t slow down red hot Raiders, lose 89-71 in pre-Christmas matinee
HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Columbia Lions struggled to piece together stops and allowed the Colgate Raiders to shoot 53% from the field in an 89-71 matinee loss to the reigning Patriot League champs Sunday.
“We mixed and messed up some coverages, [and] they passed the ball really well so they picked on us when we messed up a coverage,” said Columbia head coach Jim Engles.
Cornell hits rock bottom, blows 15-point lead at Hartford
It’s official. Cornell has hit rock bottom.
Everything was going right for the Big Red Sunday at Hartford. Josh Warren had just made a layup to extend the Big Red lead to 15 with 10 minutes left. But then, Cornell forgot how to play basketball.
Dartmouth frustrated by Bryant, but not discouraged
Saturday afternoon’s 64-60 loss to Bryant at Leede Arena left a bitter taste on the lips of Dartmouth as it breaks for the holidays.
And rightfully so. The Big Green (7-6) have overachieved for much of the first two months of this campaign, and if they are going to contend to compete in the Ivy League Tournament for the first time, they should be able to handle an NEC team – particularly a banged up one – at home.
Penn grinds out win over Drexel in defensive Battle of 33rd Street
On a day when the ball seemed too slick to handle, the Penn women managed not to let a victory slip away, beating a persistent Drexel team 53-49 at the Palestra.
Credit some key threes by guards Kayla Padilla and Phoebe Sterba, a resurgence for center Eleah Parker, clutch steals by Kendall Grasela and sterling play on both ends by Tori Crawford.
Princeton must move on after “very bad” outing versus Hofstra
The less said about this one, the better.