In a match up for first place in the Ivy League, Princeton traveled to the Palestra to take on the Penn Quakers Tuesday night. Coming on the heels of a comeback victory over Harvard on Saturday, the Tigers took command early and cruised to victory 67-53.
Princeton opened the game in a blitz style, with a handful of threes mixed with fast break layups to take an early 21-6 lead. .
The lead hovered around 10 points for the majority of the second half reaching its closest point at six with 4:23 to play. Princeton responded with a 13-1 run over the next 3:02, and never again got the lead down to single digits.
Point guard Ahmed El-Nokali led all scorers on the night with a career-high 17, shooting 11-11 from the charity stripe, while Wysocki added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Center Geoff Owens led Penn with 15, the only Quaker in double figures, as leading scorer Lamar Plummer was held to only four points on 2-12 shooting.
Princeton now sits with a 6-1 league mark against an 11-8 overall record while Penn falls to 5-2 in league, 8-14 overall.
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This past weekend Ivy League play picked up, as Yale kept itself in the top half, while Columbia suffered a pair of heart-breaking losses which could have left the Lions in a tie with Harvard for third place.
Brown 60, Columbia 59
Chris Wiedemann hit a layup of a gorgeous pass from two-time Ivy Player of the Week Craig Austin with four second remaining against Brown to give the Lions a 59-57 lead. The stage was set for a horrifying finale for all Columbia faithful.
The inbounds pass went all the way to the three point line to sharpshooter Jesse Wood. Wood turned into Derrick Mayo and launched an errant shot, but Mayo was whistled for a foul, much to the dismay of Mayo and the Lions crowd.
Wood buried all three free throw attempts to win the game for the Bears. Austin led all scorers with 20 points, strengthening his case for Ivy Player of the Year.
Cornell 73, Yale 70
Cornell but a damper on the Eli's hope for a first place push with a tight victory in New Haven. Cornell hit 4-6 free throws in the final 1:59 to close out the game, after the Bulldogs rebounded from a 16-point deficit.
Ray Mercedes led all scorers with 22 points, and blocked Yale's final shot of the game. Yale was led by center Neil Yanke with 16 and forward Ime Archibong with 15.
Yale 80, Columbia 78
Columbia pushed Yale to double overtime in a battle for fourth place in the Ivy League, before succumbing to the Bulldogs 80-78. Forward Scott Gaffield garnered his only field goal of the night on a last second putback for the victory.
The Lions led by as many as 20 points in the scond half before being pummeled by a 22-4 Eli run which knotted the score at 59. Yale finally grabbed the lead at 1:36 of the first overtime but an open trey from Austin with six seconds to play forced a second overtime.
Austin led all scorers with 31 and Wiedemann chipped in with 19. Leanza came back from the tough Cornell game to lead the Eli's with 20 points, and Yanke added 16.
Brown 85,
Cornell 52
The Brown Bears opened the game on an 11-0 run and proceeded to destroy the Big Red en route to one of the most lopsided games in recent Ivy League memory. League scoring leader Earl Hunt paced the way for Brown with 18 and added 11 rebounds.
Omari Ware chipped in 14 for the victors, who improved to 3-4 in the league, and passed Columbia for fifth place with help from Yale. Luke Vernon led Cornell with 13, as the Big Red remained in last place in the league standings.
