Ivy Basketball Roundup: Jan. 27

With Ivy play finally underway, we take a look around the Ivy League to see how each team finished nonconference competition, and how they fared early on in the Ancient Eight.

Harvard (15-3, 2-0 Ivy) continued its recent dominance of Dartmouth (7-9, 0-2), taking down the Big Green 61-45 on Jan. 11 and issuing an 80-50 thumping on Jan. 26 in Hanover.

The Crimson have now defeated Dartmouth 10 straight times. Brandyn Curry led Harvard with 17 points – all in the second half – and six assists in the Crimson’s first Ivy League victory, in which Harvard scored 24 points off turnovers.

Dartmouth, led by junior center Gabas Maldunas’ career-high 23 points, failed to threaten Harvard despite the Crimson missing leading scorer Wesley Saunders.

Sandwiched between Harvard’s two wins over Dartmouth was a 68-53 loss at the hands of 7-13 Florida Atlantic, a game in which the Crimson shot a miserable 23 percent from the field.

Dartmouth also lost its final nonconference game, 69-55, at St. John’s despite shooting 60 percent behind the arc. Maldunas was injured after the game and will subsequently miss the rest of the season.

Harvard guard Laurent Rivard led the team in scoring against Dartmouth on Sunday with 15 points, including three triples.

Columbia (13-6, 2-0), who has surprised this season after being ranked dead last in the Ivy League preseason poll, beat Cornell (1-15, 0-2) by double digits on back-to-back weekends to open conference play.

After finishing non-conference play with a 104-78 drubbing of Central Pennsylvania on Jan. 11, the Lions took down the Big Red, 71-61, at home on the 18th, and took it to Cornell again the next Saturday, winning, 74-58, on the road.

Columbia junior forward Alex Rosenberg, co-Ivy League Player of the Week from Jan. 13-19, led the Lions with 20 points the first go-round with Cornell, and sophomore guard Maodo Lo paced the Lions with 20 points in Ithaca on the 25th. The Lions’ bench combined for just 13 points in the two wins over Cornell.

The Big Red earned their first win of the season in their last nonconference game, on Jan. 11, by a score of 77-55 over Oberlin College.

Cornell freshman guard Darryl Smith was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week January 20th after posting 12 points and five rebounds vs. Columbia in the Big Red’s first Ivy League loss.

Junior guard Devin Cherry led Cornell with 12 points in the Big Red’s second straight loss to Columbia, a game Cornell led 35-32 at halftime.

After blowing out Daniel Webster 91-50 on Jan. 11, Brown (9-7, 1-1) split their first two conference games with Yale (7-9, 1-1). Yale won the first contest, 74-67, in New Haven.

Yale sophomore forward Justin Sears, who was named co-Ivy Player of the Week on Jan. 20, led all scorers with 20 points in the back and forth battle.

Brown senior guard Sean McGonagill, the Ivy League’s leading scorer, led the Bears with 17 points in a game where Brown committed 19 turnovers – which led to 21 Yale points.

Back at home against the Elis last Saturday, Sean McGonagill’s 29 points – which included seven treys – led the Bears to a comfortable 73-56 victory. 17 bench points also contributed to Brown’s first Ivy win of the season.

Princeton (12-3, 0-1) dropped its first conference showdown against Penn (4-11, 1-0), 77-74, in a thriller at the Palestra on Jan. 11.

The Tigers, who have often relied on their three-point shooting (38 percent on the season), shot a lackluster 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) from behind the arc against the Quakers.

Senior forward Will Barrett, who led the Tigers with three treys, tied the game up with 22 seconds left before Penn iced the game with free throws. Fellow senior guard T.J. Bray led all scorers with 19 points. Penn’s 42-25 rebound advantage was key.

Princeton finished up its non-conference schedule on Sunday with an 84-54 rout of Kean University. 14 of the 16 Tigers who saw time scored, and the squad poured in 17 threes on a program-record 43 attempts.

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