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The Brown men’s basketball team used a 21-point effort by senior forward Landon Lewis and a career-high 20-point performance from junior guard Luke Paragon to beat Princeton, 80-71, at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Friday night.
With their Ivy Madness chances hanging by a thread, the Bears (9-15, 3-8 Ivy) picked up a second straight win and moved to within a game of the seventh-place Tigers (8-18, 4-7), which lost their fourth in a row.
HANOVER, N.H. – Throughout a more than a little frustrating season, the defense has not been the problem for Brown men’s basketball.
The Bears are solidly in the middle of the pack in Ivy League defensive efficiency.
But the Bears just can’t score. Or more appropriately, they can’t shoot, ranking among one of the worst teams nationally in effective field-goal shooting (as well as three-point shooting).
All of which made the second half at Leede Arena Saturday night stunning.
It’s usually the Saturday game in the Ivy League back-to-backs when teams have to win ugly, but the Harvard men had to do so on Friday.
In a game in which both offenses struggled, the Crimson survived a game-tying triple at the buzzer to escape with a 56-53 victory over Brown in front of a Hawaiian shirt-wearing Aloha Night crowd at Lavietes Pavilion.
Prolific production from a trio of Harvard guards, Robert Hinton, Tey Barbour and Chandler Pigge, neutralized a monster 30-point effort from senior forward Landon Lewis and propelled the Crimson men to a 69-59 victory over Brown at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Friday evening.
With the win, Harvard (11-9, 4-2 Ivy) claimed sole possession of second place through the first six conference games of the 2026 season, while Bruno (1-5, 7-12) remained at the bottom of the Ancient Eight.
Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George ‘Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 63-53 win for Princeton men’s basketball (7-13, 3-2 Ivy) over Brown (7-11 1-4) at Jadwin Gym Saturday afternoon:
Feeling a sense of urgency after starting the 2026 Ivy League campaign with three straight losses, the Cornell men’s basketball team dominated on both sides of the ball to cruise to an 89-67 triumph over Brown at the Pizzitola Sports Center Monday.
The Cornell win marks the fifth straight time in the series that the road team came away victorious.
With the Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee win, the Big Red (8-9, 1-3 Ivy League) moved into a three-way tie for sixth place in league play with the Bears (7-10, 1-3) and Columbia, which was swept by Bruno and Yale over the holiday weekend.
“Starting 0-3 is never ideal, but we know what team we’re capable of being,” senior guard Cooper Noard told ESPN+ after the game. “It doesn’t matter how the other team is guarding us, it just matters that we have the right energy and the right confidence.”
In a physical battle that featured 17 lead changes and 15 ties over 45 minutes, Brown men’s basketball opened up its largest lead of the game in the extra session and held on for an 86-80 victory over Columbia at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Mike Martin’s Bears (7-8, 1-2 Ivy League) picked up their first conference win in three tries, while Kevin Hovde’s Lions (12-5, 1-2) dropped their second straight Ancient Eight contest.
“Really, really pleased,” Martin told the ESPN+/NESN broadcast team after the game. “That was a hard, hard-fought game. They’re (Columbia) a heck of a team.”
With the news that Alexander Lesburt Jr. is pulling a Caden Pierce at Brown men’s basketball, sitting out his senior season and entering the portal, the alarm bells are getting louder and louder.
First, as to Lesburt. He was expected to be a key player for Mike Martin after averaging 10.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game last season and is a skilled three-point shooter. But he is no longer on the team, Brown announced Tuesday, noting he left the program to preserve his final year of eligibility.
Numerous Ivy players in basketball and other sports are exploring this three-year graduation route to obtain a coveted Ivy League degree and get another payday year elsewhere.
The 2025-26 Ivy men’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:
Brown men’s basketball has not danced since 1986, but head coach Mike Martin is like a kid in a candy store when he talks about that goal. With year 14 fast approaching for Martin, it’s the furious pursuit of March magic that keeps his feet planted in Providence.
“The administration here, president [Christina] Paxson and [vice president for athletics and recreation] Grace Calhoun have been incredibly supportive in trying to help grow our program,” Martin told Ivy Hoops Online. “This is the job I’ve always wanted.”