A slew of Ivy League basketball games were on the slate last weekend, as each of the Ancient Eight were in action. When the dust settled, perennial conference powerhouses Penn and Princeton were on opposite sides of the standings. While the Quakers won twice over the weekend to maintain its undefeated record in league play at 4-0, the Tigers lost both of their games, slipping to 1-3 on the year. With that, let’s recap last weekend’s Ivy League action. Penn 70, Harvard 57 A 21-point, 10-rebound effort by senior guard Tim Begley was enough to ensure a 13 point win for the Quakers (11-7, 4-0 Ivy) at Cambridge, Mass., on Friday night.
Backed by 12 points by Penn’s Ibrahim Jaaber and 10 from Eric Osmundson, the visitors took a 33-20 lead with 2:47 left in the first half. The Quakers led, 35-29, at halftime. However, the Crimson (8-11, 3-3 Ivy) came back, riding a 15-2 run to bring the game even at 35 with 18:02 left in the game.
As time wound down, Begley took control of the game, making two jumpers as Penn went on an 11-0 run. The team never looked back as Harvard was unable to recover. The Crimson’s Matt Stehle garnered 14 points and eight rebounds while Jim Goffredo added 10 points in the loss.
Dartmouth 50, Princeton 42 In a massive upset, Mike Lang’s game-high 16 points helped Dartmouth (5-14, 2-4 Ivy) defeat Princeton (10-8, 1-3 Ivy), 50-42, on Friday night. Geared by an 18-1 run in the game’s last 4:47, the Green broke its seven game losing streak against the Tigers and won its second league game of the season.
Lang came up trumps during Dartmouth’s late run, scoring nine points in that period. His two free throws with 1:18 left in the second half gave the Green its first lead of the game. After Princeton’s Judson Wallace sank a free throw on the ensuing possesion to cut Dartmouth’s lead to one, the Green replied with seven unanswered points, giving the Hanover team the win.
Green forward Chuck Flynn added 10 points and seven boards for the winning team and Tiger Noah Savage was Princeton’s high scorer with 10 points.
Yale 77, Columbia 67 Paced by a 20 point performance by Yale guard Edwin Draughan on Friday night, Bulldogs coach James Jones defeated his brother Joe for the second time, as the New Haven team snapped a four- game losing streak. The Yale coach is now 2-1 against his Columbia counterpart.
Bulldog Caleb Holmes, who scored 15 points, netted nine points in a 16-4 run during the final minutes of the first half which gave Yale a 42-34 lead going into halftime. Yale (5-12, 1-3 Ivy) never looked back, and its largest lead was at 14, with about five minutes left in the game. Part of the reason for the Bulldogs’ success was its strong free-throw shooting, where it was 24-of-33 from the line.
Columbia (12-7, 1-3 Ivy) was lead by 17 point efforts from Matt Preston and Jeremiah Boswell in the loss. Yale had five players who scored in double figures.
Penn 68, Dartmouth 44 Begley was against the star for the Quakers, as his game-high 14 points helped Penn win its fourth league game of the season over Dartmouth on Saturday night.
Part of the reason for Penn’s success was its stingy defense, where the Quakers held Dartmouth to 25.9 percent from the floor. Penn allowed the Green to score a mere 16 points in the first half, as Penn went into halftime with a 18 point lead. Four Quakers scored in double figures, including Begley, who earned his 1,000th point. Penn forward Steve Danley added 10 rebounds while Green players David Gardner and Steve Callahan both had 11 points in the loss.
Brown 54, Columbia 52 After a 36-point performance in a one-point loss to the Red a night ago, Brown star Jason Forte came back with a vengeance, scoring the winning basket with 3.2 seconds left to lead the Bears past Columbia. Forte scored 13 of his 15 points in the final 13 minutes of the game, despite missing his first six attempts from the field in the first half.
Columbia led 27-16 at the half, but Brown recovered, taking a 45-41 lead in the second half. But the Lions struck back when a Columbia 3-pointer tied the game, and set the stage for Forte’s dramatic game-winning shot.
The Lions were led by Dragutin Kravic, who scored 16 in the defeat. Damon Huffman and P.J. Flaherty had 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Bears.
Harvard 61, Princeton 57 Harvard rode a 10-2 run late in the second half, handing Princeton its second loss of the weekend and snapping the Crimson’s 10-game losing streak against the Tigers. Crimson center Brian Cusworth scored seven of his 10 points in the rally, and guard Kevin Rogus was 6-of-14 from the field, including five three-pointers.
With 5:40 left in the game, Harvard trailed 48-44, but three Cusworth free throws and a couple from Rogus gave the Crimson the lead with less than four minutes left.
Wallace scored a game-high 23 points for the Tigers and Princeton shot 53 percent from the field. With the loss, Princeton fell to 1-3 in league play for the first time since the 1994-95 season. The Crimson out-rebounded Princeton, 29-17, as Cusworth earned 10 boards.
Archived article by Brian Tsao
Sun Senior Editor