ITHACA, N.Y. — Two things needed to happen for the Cornell men to make it to the Ivy League Tournament: beat Columbia and hope Brown loses to Yale.
Part one of that equation has been completed.
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ITHACA, N.Y. — Two things needed to happen for the Cornell men to make it to the Ivy League Tournament: beat Columbia and hope Brown loses to Yale.
Part one of that equation has been completed.
The conference’s next-to-last weekend began on Friday night with a nationally televised game between Princeton and Harvard, two of the four teams headed to the Ivy Tournament. The last time they met in January, the Crimson came away with a 67-59 victory, ending the Tigers’ 42-game Ivy League win streak.
Playing in front of more than 1,700 fans at Jadwin Gymnasium, Harvard took a 14-12 lead after the first quarter. The visitors used a late 13-2 run to open up a 12-point lead before Princeton cut it to 10, 30-20, at the half.
Yale completed its revenge tour of teams against defeated the Bulldogs earlier in the season with a decisive 76-58 win over Cornell at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday.
And oh, what a Senior Night it was for senior forward EJ Jarvis.
In a critical game in the fight for an Ivy Madness berth, the Cornell men’s offense never made the trip up to New Haven.
The Big Red scored fewer than 60 points for the second consecutive game, losing 76-58 to Yale for their fifth loss in the last six games
The loss takes Cornell out of the driver’s seat for the final spot in Ivy Madness.
The Ivy League Tournament bubble.
Certainly not uncharted territory for the Cornell men. But after the way the season started to trend for the Big Red, it’s a bit of a surprise we’re talking about this.
Cornell has lost four of its last five games, dropping the team from a tie for first to a tie for fourth. By virtue of a tiebreaker, the Big Red would be in Ivy Madness over Brown since it beat Yale and Penn. The Bears have only beaten Princeton among the trio of teams tied for the conference lead.
But that tiebreaker is by no means safe.
What happened?
In a must-win game, the Cornell men came through when it mattered most, outscoring Dartmouth 15-3 in overtime to win 95-83.
Sophomore guard Nazir Williams scored 27 points, 18 of which came in the first half. He connected on all three of his three-pointers and dished out six assists.
Junior forward Sean Hansen recorded an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double. He hit three of his six three-pointers, including a perimeter shot to give the Big Red a 79-76 lead with 1:18 remaining.
That was the last field goal Cornell scored in regulation. Dartmouth freshman Ryan Cornish split a pair of free throws to cut it to two before Hansen missed on the other end.
Dartmouth freshman forward Brandon Mitchell-Day split free throws, as did Williams for Cornell. Down two points, senior forward Dame Adelekun rolled off a screen and slammed down a thunderous dunk to tie the game.
After a pair of Cornell timeouts, the Big Red wanted to hold for the final shot. Senior guard Greg Dolan backed down in the post with the ball and lost it, giving the Big Green a final opportunity. Adelekun missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to send it to overtime, where the Big Red dominated.
Junior guard Isaiah Gray and Dolan each scored 17, and junior guard Chris Manon, who was inserted into the starting lineup five games ago, added 11.
Cornell and Dartmouth battled back and forth throughout the first half before Williams hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Cornell a 45-39 lead at the half. The Big Green battled back but never led by more than one in the second half.
Cornish and junior forward Dusan Neskovic each scored 19 points to pace Dartmouth. Junior guard Jaren Johnson added 11.
Cornell shot 48% from the field and 42% from deep, while Dartmouth shot 44% and 37%. The Big Red paced rebounding, 37-35.
Cornell hosts Harvard on Saturday while Dartmouth travels to Columbia.
Following Saturday afternoon’s action, the upper division pulled away from the bottom half, while the Brown rebuild took a positive step forward.
Columbia bounced back from a disappointing result against Princeton by taking it out on Yale in front of 1,485 fans at Levien Gymnasium. The Lions jumped out to a 32-17 halftime lead on the strength of a 14-0 second quarter run. The Light Blue made it a 20-point game after three and widen it to a game-high 28 points with just under four minutes to go in the contest. Defensively, they limited the Bulldogs to 32% shooting and only 49 points, the first time they held an Ivy opponent under 50 this season.
Week seven for the Ancient Eight saw Yale avenge its shocking opening day loss at Columbia and move into a tie at the top of the conference leaderboard. After a close half that saw the Bulldogs holding onto a slim 31-26 lead, the Bulldogs outscored the last-place Lions 58-32 for the dominant 31-point win. Yale, winners of six straight, had 13 different players in the scoring column and shot 65% from the field.
Penn picked up a potentially season-changing win on Saturday night.
By downing Cornell at the Palestra, 92-86, the Quakers (13-11, 5-4 Ivy) are now tied for third in the league and control their own destiny for an Ivy Madness berth. The win over the Big Red (15-7, 5-4) was also Penn’s first against a team considered a serious contender for the Ivy title.
The Quakers beat Cornell at its own game: a shootout. Penn hit 11 threes on 23 attempts, none bigger than the one sophomore guard George Smith hit off a feed from Lucas Monroe with 11:10 remaining to tie the game at 62.
After a few empty possessions for both teams, junior guard Clark Slajchert hit two free throws after he was fouled while shooting a three with 10:41 to play, which put the Quakers ahead for good.
Penn is now multiple games over .500 for the first time since the 2019-20 season. There will be plenty for the team’s fans to chew on before a Feb. 11 contest at Harvard, such as the fact that …