Now that the Red locked up an NCAA tournament bid, none of the teams in the Ancient Eight are challenging for the title anymore, but there is still a dogfight going on for position in the standings. Second-place Brown won both games over the weekend and matched the school record for wins with 17 on the season. The Bears handed Penn its worst-ever Ivy loss — a 32-point margin of victory on Saturday in which four Brown players scored in double-figures.
The fourth-place Quakers had a .500 weekend thanks to a 70-63 win over Yale on Friday. Despite failing to make a single shot from inside the 3-point line, senior Brian Grandieri led the fifth-place Bulldogs with 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
Columbia also failed to make a move in the standings over the weekend; after winning their Friday game over Harvard, the Lions dropped a matchup with Dartmouth to remain in third place.
In women’s action, Harvard came out on top in two close games to overtake the Red for first place in the Ivy League. Despite shooting only 38.7 percent — compared to the Lions’ 54 percent — Harvard defeated Columbia, 71-70, on Friday night. Much of the Crimson’s success was due to its 42-22 advantage on the boards.
Dartmouth also swept Columbia and Cornell over the weekend to pull into a second-place tie with the Red. Dartmouth used the efforts of two seniors, Kristen Craft and Sydney Scott, to hand the Lions their first loss of the weekend. Because of their two-loss weekend, the Lions dropped into a fourth-place tie with Yale.