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Ivy League Roundup: Yale, Harvard share Ivy title; Penn clinches spot in Ivy Madness
- Updated: March 10, 2019
Yale – 81, Princeton – 59
Playing at Princeton, where Yale has often been mesmerized, if not plain defeated, the 2019 Bulldogs had no trouble beating the under par Tigers (16-11, 8-6 Ivy) 81–59. Yale thus becomes co-champion, of the Ivy League, along with Harvard. This is the seventh time Yale has won the Ivy championship either outright or by sharing it, as is now the case.
Yale’s captain, Blake Reynolds, poured in a career matching high 20 points and fellow senior Alex Copeland scored 15. Miyi Oni, the heralded junior who is likely to be drafted this year and enter the NBA, had a second consecutive low scoring game with 12 points after getting only two the previous night against Penn. He scored 35 in the previous contest between these teams earlier at Yale.
Richmond Aririguzoh had 15 points for the Tigers and Myles Stephens 13.
Princeton finished the regular season without the high scoring Devin Cannady, who normally would have been one of those recognized on senior night before the game. Cannady, as has been reported several times here, has left school under unfavorable circumstances. In addition, his talented replacement, Ryan Schwieger, missed his second straight game because of a concussion he suffered a few weeks ago.
Coach Mitch Henderson could only say that the team is hopeful about Schwieger’s status for next weekend’s Ivy League Tournament when the Tigers will again face Yale (20-7, 10-4 Ivy), this time on its home court, in one of the semi-final games.
The Bulldogs are the #2 seed under the tiebreaker rules, having lost twice to Harvard. The Crimson will face #4 Penn in the first semi-final.
The 22 point margin of victory was the largest ever by Yale against Princeton. Its bench contributed 25 points, including 14 from Azar Swain and four from little-used Austin Williams.
Reynolds later remark “Those guys come in every day and work hard. To see them come in and contribute in such a big way, that’s one of the best parts of basketball for me. It’s a team game.”
Although Yale has won basketball titles in the historic Eastern Intercollegiate League, this year’s team joins those in 1957, 1962, 1963, 2002, 2015 and 2016 as champions since the Ivy League was formalized in the 1956-57 academic year.
Harvard – 83, Columbia – 81 (overtime, again!)
It wasn’t like the triple overtime classic the teams played earlier in the season, but Harvard (17-10, 10-4 Ivy) and Columbia went into extra time again at Levien Gym in New York, and again the Crimson was the winner. Harvard thereby escaped from New York with an 83-81 victory.
Harvard’s Noah Kirkwood hit two free throws with 18 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 67-67 and force overtime.
Although Harvard led by five points with less than 10 seconds to go in the extra-5, it took a miss from deep to keep the Lions (10-18, 5-9) from dropping Harvard down to second place in the Ivy League.
With 2.7 seconds left in OT Columbia trailed by two following a pull-up triple by Gabe Stefanini. Almost immediately Harvard turned it over and Columbia had a last chance to win or tie, but only 2.4 seconds in which to do it. Quinton Adlesh, one of three Lions to be cited before the game on Senior Night, took a pass from Stefanini in the left corner, but what could have been a game-winning triple bounced off the back rim and Columbia lost another heartbreaker to Harvard.
For Columbia, Patrick Tape posted 18 points, going 6-of-10 from the field. Stefanini added 16 and eight rebounds.
Columbia had a seemingly comfortable 10 point lead, with 4:00 to play in regulation. Harvard answered with shot making and by capitalizing on two turnovers and it was 67-67 with 18 seconds left. Columbia had the last shot which was off the mark. Here it came again, Columbia’s fifth overtime game of the season, a school record.
Justin Bassey returned to the Harvard lineup after missing three games due to an injury.
Pennsylvania – 58, Brown – 51
Defending Ivy Tournament champion Pennsylvania (19-11, 7-7 Ivy), qualified for this year’s event the hard way, by finishing in a three-way tie for the fourth and last seed, beating Brown, 58-51. Its 7-7 record is the same as Brown and Cornell have. So with Penn, Brown, and Cornell finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place, the tiebreaker system puts Penn in the tournament. In the first semi-final next Saturday, the Quakers will now face Harvard in a rematch of the 2018 title game that Penn won.
Although the University was still on spring break, the game attracted 4,033 to the Palestra.
Brown (19-11, 7-7) held a 40-39 lead on a three-pointer from Obi Okolie with 14:39 to go. But the Bears were hurt by committing 22 turnovers.
Devon Goodman (20) and AJ Brooder (18) powered the Quakers, especially in the second half. They accounted for 38 of the Quakers’ 58 points. Desmond Cambridge topped the losers with 13.
Brown held a one-point lead with 14:34 left to play. Then Penn hung around until it moved in front by double digits with about nine minutes to play. Brown reduced it to four, but Brodeur stopped the bleeding with a layup with 3:05 left to play.
Although Penn swept the Philadelphia Big 5 opponents, it had a rough time in Ivy play, which began with a pair of losses to Princeton.
Cornell – 66, Dartmouth – 51
Cornell (15-15, 7-7 Ivy) defeated Dartmouth 66-51 to finish the campaign 7-7, tied with Penn and Brown for fourth place. However, the Big Red failed to qualify for the Ivy Tournament under the tie-breaker head to head rule.
Cornell senior Matt Morgan’s consecutive game streak of scoring in double figures came to an end. He was held to eight points, and ended his run at 81 games, still good enough to place him at No. 11 on the NCAA’s all-time list.
Dartmouth led 29-28 at halftime but had only 22 after the break, its lowest one-half total for the season. Chris Knight had 11 points for Dartmouth, which ended on an eight-game losing streak.
