Over at the Ivy League office, they love ties. As Princeton was handed its first loss of the season, the Tigers are now even in that column with Harvard as the ponies pant toward the home stretch.
“Everybody wins!” That’s the Ancient Eight’s motto, and it was shouted with authority this week as Brown’s Peter Sullivan and Penn’s Tyler Bernardini were named co-Ivy Players of the Week. The League administrators up in Princeton are sawing the trophy in half as we write.
Smarter than the average Bear. Sullivan, his injured shoulder hanging on by a thread, was key in Brown’s 75-65 upset of Princeton Saturday in Providence.
The Tigers continued to foul the senior forward, but they didn’t seem to get the memo. This kid can sink ‘em — 16-for-16 from the free-throw line, doubling his season total in one night. He finished with 26 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
An astute follower of this charade we call Ivy League basketball would duly note: 364 days prior, the Bears pulled the exact same trick, defeating Princeton, which was hot on the trail of league leader Cornell.
Brown was helped by an 0-for-10 Princeton effort from behind the arc in the first half. The Tigers quickly fell behind, 15-6, and Brown continued to set the pace.
Princeton was, for a number of minutes, the only team unbeaten in its conference in all of Division I. Now it’s just a bunch of dudes wearing those colors-which-shall-not-be-named.
A little pitchy on the C-note.
Cornell fans celebrated a thumping of Dartmouth like no one else would — after all, the Big Red were just four points shy of the century mark in their 96-76 win Saturday night.
Had it been the Red and Blue, fans could have tasted the free Abner’s cheesesteaks — the nearly forgotten reward for a 100-point Penn performance — in the air. But we’re not quite sure what they give away in Ithaca. Free dairy for all!
Moooovin’ on up. Harvard is technically at the top of the Ivy pop charts with one more win than Princeton, and the Crimson held that spot with a weekend sweep over the Big Red (who only scored 60 on Friday night) and Columbia, who fell 61-42.
Yes, the Crimson held the Ancient Eight’s most potent offense — er, at least the Lions were top-scoring dogs before this weekend — to just 42 points, a season low. Lions star Noruwa Agho scored just seven. None of his teammates even reached double figures.
The Mangano Dialogues. Yale was caught on the losing end of a weekend sweep as well, falling 58-51 Friday before Penn and Zack Rosen came to town with some last minute heroics.
Bulldogs star center Greg Mangano led the Elis both nights with 15 and 26 points, but as the old adage goes, even one really, really good monster from Connecticut can’t stop Zack Rosen.
Yale will have a shot to rebound when it hosts Dartmouth next week. And if they can score 100 points, the New Havenites will be celebrating — free pharmaceuticals for all!
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