Harvard continues to dominate league, with Penn close behind

Outside of Columbia’s heartbreaking loss in Ithaca, this weekend abounded in hard-fought, down-to-the wire Ivy League games. Harvard continued its conference dominance with a pair of wins. With Yale’s loss to the Crimson, Harvard and Penn are now the league’s only two undefeated teams.

Harvard
The Crimson (18-2, 4-0 Ivy) continued its unbeaten run in Ivy League play with a 65-35 trouncing of Yale—which had been tied for first in the conference—followed by an unexpectedly close win against the underdog Bears (7-14, 1-3 Ivy). Sophomore guard Laurent Rivard and freshman forward Steve Moundou-Missi both scored in double digits to contribute to Harvard’s greatest margin of victory against the Bulldogs in their 183-game history. After outscoring Yale 30-19 in the first half, the Crimson went on a 27-9 run to end the game, aided by 12 second-half Yale turnovers. Harvard was able to stay on top of a resilient Brown on Saturday—the big difference came from Harvard’s bench, which outscored the Bears 13-0. Sophomores Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry led Harvard with 20 points and 15 points, respectively. Harvard hosts Cornell on Friday with a fifth-straight league win in mind.

Yale
The Bulldogs (13-5, 3-1 Ivy) managed to pull out a win on the weekend after a sobering loss again Harvard, joining in on the league’s collective domination of a winless Dartmouth team, 62-52. In a back-and-forth game, both teams had more than 13 turnovers and shot under 50 percent from the field. Yale managed to overcome an early Dartmouth lead, scoring 12 straight points and taking a 33-26 lead going into halftime. The Big Green retook the lead in the second half before losing it again, and with eight minutes left, the relentless Bulldogs managed to close the game out—senior Reggie Willhite’s seven points and the Bulldogs’ stifling defense led Yale on a 17-6 run.

Penn
Penn (12-9, 3-0 Ivy) ended the Tigers’ three-game win streak at the Palestra on Monday to remain undefeated in the Ancient Eight. The star of the high-scoring and exciting matchup was Penn’s senior guard Zach Rosen, who led all scorers with 28 points. The Quakers’ long game was working, especially in the first half, when seven-for-10 shooting beyond the arc allowed Penn to build an eight-point lead at the break. Princeton managed to cut Penn’s lead to five at several points in the second half, but could not muster the defensive effort to stifle offensive attacks by Rosen and the other Quakers. Penn takes its talents to New Haven on Friday to fight third-place Yale.

Princeton
After being sidelined for over two weeks for finals period, the Tigers (10-9, 1-2 Ivy) had a tough time shaking off the rust against the surging Quakers. Princeton shot an impressive 69 percent in the first half, but struggled to keep pace with Penn’s strong three-point shooting. The Tigers also failed to contain their opponent on the glass, losing the rebound fight 33-19, and 13-4 on the offensive end. Junior forward Ian Hummer led the away team with 21 points and four rebounds, but couldn’t compete with the stellar play of Penn’s Zach Rosen. The Tigers will hope to get back in form against Brown and Yale this weekend on the road.

Cornell
The Big Red (7-11, 2-2 Ivy) sought and secured vengeance against Columbia on its own turf on Saturday. with a 65-60 victory As expected, senior guard Chris Wroblewski stepped up his game, ending with 19 points, five assists, seven rebounds, and two steals. Just as Columbia got off to an early lead and staved off a surging Cornell last weekend, the Big Red returned the favor and managed to pull out the close victory. A one-point Cornell lead with under two minutes to play expanded when the Lions fouled and the Big Red capitalized, hitting 5-6 from the line to close out the game and split the season series. The win evened Cornell’s Ivy record and put them a game behind fourth-place Yale.

Brown
Brown (7-13, 1-2 Ivy) managed to come back and outlast Dartmouth (4-15, 0-3 Ivy) by the score of 66-59, before falling to Harvard the following night.
The first half of the Dartmouth game was fairly even, as both teams traded buckets and shot opportunities. The Big Green ended the first half with a lead that they extended in the second, but Brown crawled even on the back of junior forward Andrew McCarthy, who led the Bears with 19 points. After Brown gained a 56-54 lead with three minutes to go, the game was decided when junior guard Stephen Albrecht stole the ball and made a three-pointer, which ensured the win for the Bears.

Dartmouth
The Big Green looked set to pick up its first Ivy win—it took a 48-40 lead against Brown with 13 minutes left in regulation. Dartmouth’s strong play went for naught as Brown snatched and held on to a last-minute lead. Freshman forward Jvonte Brooks led the Big Green with 16 points while sophomore guard Tyler Melville added 11 points.
Dartmouth had an impressive start against Yale, getting off to a 21-15 lead after 10 minutes of play. It managed to slip away, though, through poor shot accuracy and a number of turnovers. A 10-2 run to give the Big Green a second-half lead also failed to stick, and Dartmouth picked up its fourth Ivy loss in as many contests.