Inside Ivy Hoops – Feb. 7, 2019

In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Yale coach Allison Guth and IHO writer George Clark.

Mike and George reflect on last weekend’s Ivy matchups, including a weekend to remember for the Princeton men and women, and also look ahead to a full slate of league games this weekend – including what appear to be several must-wins already:

 

Coach Guth walks Mike through the sequence leading up to Roxy Barahman’s buzzer-beating, game-winning three-pointer just past mid-court versus Harvard Friday, breaks down the reasoning behind adopting a pack-line defense this season, reflects on the development of Barahman and emergence of first-year standout Camilla Emsbo, discusses a scheduling committee’s ongoing review of Ivy back-to-back weekends and much more:

 

Sometimes you need a fiber prescriber, so Mike talks about Flannel Night:

Ivy women’s hoops Saturday recap

Harvard (10-7, 3-1 Ivy) 100 at Brown (9-11, 1-3 Ivy) 83

With Brown holding a 51-50 lead one minute into the third quarter, Harvard used two separate runs of 10-0 and 15-3 over the next ten minutes to take a 78-59 advantage.  The Bears battled back, going on their own 21-7 run over the next five minutes to make it a 85-80 with four minutes left in regulation.  A Justine Gaziano three 30 seconds later made it a 87-83 contest, but the Crimson scored the game’s last 13 points to win going away.

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Ivy women’s hoops Friday recap

Princeton (9-8, 1-1 Ivy) 79 at Columbia (5-11, 1-2 Ivy) 64

Friday evening’s action began with an all-time performance from last year’s Ivy League Player of the Year, Princeton’s Bella Alarie.  Alarie scored 45 points, besting the previous record of 43 points set by Dartmouth’s Gail Koziara in 1978, while making a conference record 20 field goals.  As if that wasn’t enough, the 6′ 4″ forward captured 14 rebounds and added 4 blocks, setting a new Princeton career record of 160.

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Ivy women’s hoops weekend review – Jan 26-27, 2019

Sat., Jan. 26

Yale (11-6; 1-1 Ivy) 84 vs Brown (9-9; 1-1 Ivy)

Eight days after being defeated by Brown, 86-71, in Providence, Yale turned the tables on their travel partners in New Haven.

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Ivy women’s hoops weekend review – Jan. 19-20, 2019

Brown (9-8, 1-0 Ivy) 86 vs Yale (10-6, 0-1 Ivy) 71

The Bears starters used a fast paced offense and defense to pave the way for a 86-71 victory in front of a boisterous Education Day crowd at the Pizzitola Sports Center.  Shayna Mehta led the way for Brown, scoring a career high 37 points on 10 for 19 shooting from the field and 14 of 15 from the free throw line.  In all, Brown had four players in double figures with Justine Gaziano adding 19, Taylor Will scoring 13 and Erika Steeves putting in 11.  Bruno shot 52 percent from the field, including 8 three pointers at 44 percent, and hit 76 percent (16-21) from the charity stripe.  On defense, Yale was held to 29 percent shooting from three and 50 percent (8-16) from the line, while Roxy Barahman, who entered the day as the league’s leading scorer at 20.1 points per game, was limited to eight points on 23 percent shooting.  The Bears full court pressure stymied the Bulldogs to the tune of 18 steals and 20 forced turnovers that led to 29 points.

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Ivy hoops weekend takeaways – Jan. 18-19, 2019

Women’s

Brown’s offense is too potent to miss Ivy League Tournament again 

If Brown misses the Ivy League Tournament for a second straight season with as much offensive firepower as it has, it’ll really be a shame.

Brown senior guard Shayna Mehta’s career-high 37 points led the way, and the Bears’ elder Mehta has been one of the league’s standout scorers for a long time now, going back to her Ivy Rookie of the Year campaign in 2015-16.

But Mehta wasn’t alone in gouging a strong Yale defense in the Bears’ 86-71 win over the Bulldogs Friday. Seniors Erika Steeves and Taylor Will, who missed Ivy play last season due to injury, and junior Justine Gaziano combined for 43 points on 18-for-34 shooting. The Bears overwhelmed Yale inside and out, topping Yale by double digits at Pizzitola Sports Center while scoring 80-plus points for the second straight season.

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Ivy women’s weekend preview: Jan. 18-19, 2019

Yale (10-5, 0-0 Ivy) at Brown (8-8, 0-0) – Friday 1/18/19 11:00 am
1/12/18 Yale home win, 77-63
1/19/18 Brown home win, 81-71

Yale
RPI #109; Strength of Schedule #256
Current Steak 5 wins; Last Five 5-0

Roxy Barahman (junior, guard) – 20.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.5 apg, 2.2 stealspg, 36.2 minutespg
Camilla Emsbo (first-year, forward) – 11.0 ppg, 50.4% FG, 8.9 rpg, 1.8 blockspg
Megan Gorman (junior, forward) – 7.3 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 32.4 minutes pg

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Ivy women’s hoops in review: Dec 23 – Jan 4 (Pre-Ivy edition)

Princeton (8-7)
Div I Opponents Win Rate: 53.3 percent (#108, nationally)
12/29 at New Hampshire, 90-42

The Tigers have won seven straight, outscoring those opponents by an average of 72.3 to 49.6.  For the season, they are leading  the league in free throw (79.6 percent; #6 nationally) and second in three point (33.3 percent; #86) shooting.  The two point shooting is last in the league (43.9 percent; #175), but is quickly improving with the return of Bella Alarie (19.3 ppg; 55.3 percent from two) and Taylor Baur (11.0 ppg; 60.0 percent from two) to the starting lineup.  The defense is controlling the paint with a 13.7 block rate (#2  Ivy; #14), as well as holding rivals to 66.7 percent from the free throw line (#3 Ivy; 113) and 41.8 percent from two (#4 Ivy; 95).  While they are last in defensive three point shooting (34.4 percent; #289) for the season, in their last seven games the Orange & Black have held teams to 28.6 percent (38-133) from beyond the arc.

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Inside Ivy Hoops – Jan. 3, 2019

Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris and IHO writer George Clark for the season premiere of the Inside Ivy Hoops podcast.

Mike and George preview both the men’s and women’s Penn-Princeton tilts to come Saturday, making sense of the two very different trajectories that the Penn and Princeton men are on going into their matchup as well as what has changed and what hasn’t for the Penn and Princeton women, plus why the Penn-Princeton scheduling this season is particularly disappointing:

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Ivy women’s hoops weeks in review: Nov. 29 – Dec. 12

Princeton (4-7)
12/2 vs Davidson 65-57
12/8 vs Quinnipiac 54-42
12/11 vs Monmouth 79-47

Before the return of Bella Alarie on Friday night, Princeton went 2-7 with home victories bookending a seven game losing streak.  While the youthful Tigers have gained valuable game experience during this time, culminating in a come from behind win over Davidson, the return of the reigning Ivy Player of the Year immediately showed why they were picked to repeat as league champs.  In Alarie’s first game back, she had 16 points, a career high 19 rebounds and 5 blocks.  Not only did the Tigers win by 12 over a Quinnipiac squad that made it to the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament, but Alarie was named Ivy League co-Player of the Week.  In her follow-up performance at Monmouth, she put up 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

During Alarie’s absence, Carlie Littlefield and Gabrielle Rush stepped up for the Orange & Black.  Littlefield averaged 15.3 points (4th Ivy), 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists (11th), 1.8 made threes (9th) and 1.7 steals (4th) in 33.9 minutes per game.  Rush, meanwhile, added 13.6 points (8th), 6.7 boards (9th), 2.8 made threes (2nd) and 1.7 steals (6th) per contest.

Over the first part of the season, the team has been uncharacteristically weak in two point shooting (40.9 percent), three point defense (35.9 percent) and offensive rebounding rate (27.5 percent).  With their premier post player back and other important rotation players expected back from the DL soon, the Tigers should expect those numbers to improve significantly.

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