Cornell’s time in the limelight was shortlived, as the Big Red fell out of the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Poll yesterday. Though they remain in first place after beating Princeton Saturday, the Big Red unexpectedly fell to a fourth place Quakers team the night before.
Cornell’s 79-64 loss to Penn on Friday drew national attention, with many college basketball analysts suggesting that the Red and Blue brought an end to a possible at-large NCAA tournament bid for the Big Red.
A narrow 48-45 win over Princeton Saturday did not do much to restore the team’s national prestige.
Cornell led 44-38 with 1:38 left in the game, but Princeton sophomore Douglas Davis scored five straight points to narrow the gap to one.
With only 24 seconds left, the Big Red were only ahead 44-43. However Cornell made four of its four remaining free throws to take home the ‘W.’
While the game secured the Big Red’s place at the top of the Ivy League — they have played two more games than Princeton, both wins — they have since fallen to No. 53 in the current Ratings Percentage Index.
Cornell will look to further its lead at the top of the Ivy standings this weekend when it travels to Harvard and Dartmouth.
No dice for Dartmouth At the end of the first half of its game against Yale Saturday, Dartmouth appeared to be on the cusp of its first Ivy League victory.
The Big Green (4-18, 0-8 Ivy) were ahead 37-29 at the end of the first stanza after shooting 48.5 from the field and 33.3 from behind the arc. The Bulldogs, in comparison, shot a disappointing 31.3.
But a strong defensive effort rescued Yale (10-15, 4-4) after halftime. Aided by 8 rebounds from junior forward Michael Sands, the Bulldogs held Dartmouth to 6-for-32 shooting in the second half.
Even with leading scorer Alex Zampier off the court for most of the second half, the Bulldogs closed out the game on a 21-7 run.
Sands posted a career-high 20 points during the game.
Big praise for Jack Penn forward Jack Eggleston received the Quakers’ first Big 5 Player of the Week honor of the 2009-10 season after a lights-out performance in Penn’s upset of Cornell Friday.
Eggleston went 4-for-5 from behind the arc, netting half of his game- and career-high 24 points. Eggleston also grabbed 5 rebounds in his 39 minutes.
The one minute he didn’t play — the last minute of the game, during which coach Jerome Allen took out his starters — is so far his only minute off the floor in Ivy play.
Eggleston’s performance lit a fire under the Quakers and the dwindling Penn crowd. The following night against Columbia, Eggleston dropped 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting.
The last Quaker to win the Big 5 honor was Tyler Bernardini on Nov. 17, 2008, who scored 26 against then-No. 1 North Carolina, which went on to win the national title.
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