New York Ivies show up Tigers

By Matt Conrad

Senior Staff Writer

mlconrad@sas.upenn.edu

New York, New York. Although neither team accomplished its goal of finishing the first weekend 2-0, both Cornell and Columbia achieved something of significance last week.

With Columbia and Cornell's back-to-back victories over Princeton this weekend, the two Empire State Ivies beat the Tigers in consecutive home games for the first time since 2001. And Columbia earned back-to-back wins against Princeton for the first time since 1993.

But the New Yorkers' chances against Penn haven't increased. The Quakers haven't been swept at Cornell and Columbia since 1991, and neither team has won consecutive games against Penn since the Lions did it over the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons.

Still No. 1. The Tigers entered Ivy League play as the top team in the nation when it comes to scoring defense, allowing only 49.2 points per game.

And despite losses to Columbia and Cornell, in which the Tigers allowed 64 and 55 points, respectively, the Orange and Black still rank atop the nation in defensive prowess.

Princeton's opponents' scoring average, now sitting at 50.5 points per game, is an entire 12 points lower than the next-lowest Ivy team, Brown.

So how is it that the nation's best defensive team is 0-2 in the Ivies, and only 9-6 overall? The Tigers' slow-paced offense not only slows down their opponents scoring, but their own as well. Princeton is averaging only a +2.1 scoring differential over opponents - third in the Ivies, but not nearly enough to get them past the C's this past weekend.

The right track. Yale entered the weekend at 4-9, the second-worst record in the league. It now stands at 1-0 Ivy, the only team besides Penn without a loss.

While their win was over the lowly Bears, the Elis are headed in the right direction. They have won three of their last four games, and the win at Brown broke a five-year losing streak at the Pizzitola Center.

The uptick in the Elis' fortunes has largely coincided with the return of senior forward Sam Kaplan. He returned to the court last week after missing four games with a broken nose, and immediately contributed with 10 points off the bench at Brown.

While Yale has more to prove before being considered a title contender, the fact remains that they are one of only two Ivy teams without a loss - and the momentum they gain from that fact may yet prove to be a factor.

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