All business in New York

Penn took care of Columbia and Cornell to set up showdown with Princeton ITHACA, N.Y. -- The night after Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and countless other Red and Blue alumni witnessed a late second-half run to boost the Penn men's basketball team to victory, the sparse pro-Quakers crowd at Cornell (10-16, 5-9 Ivy League) watched what could simply have been a rerun. As Penn effectively ruined the Big Red's senior night with a 70-55 victory Saturday, they also wrapped up the most crucial road trip of the season -- staying within one game of Princeton for the Ivy League lead. With the Tigers also making a clean sweep of the New York schools, a showdown Tuesday in the Palestra will determine whether or not a playoff game will be needed to decide who gets the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If needed, that playoff would be held on March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Lehigh's Stabler Arena. Despite the importance of the weekend, the Quakers played sluggish in the first half of both games, requiring second-half runs to put them on top. In what would foreshadow the 82-62 victory at Columbia (7-19, 3-11), Friday's trip to New York started off poorly as the Quakers (16-9, 11-2) arrived late, thanks to Amtrak delays. The Levien Gym turned out to be a home away from home, however, as there were more Penn fans than Columbia faithful in the stands. Despite the support, the Quakers blew multiple chances to game the lead wide open as sloppy transition play and Donald Moxley's early foul trouble cost them dearly. Despite efforts by seniors Ira Bowman and Tim Krug to fire things up, Penn looked as lifeless as a moratorium. The Lions, however, acted as the Quakers' life support by committing several key mistakes, including three technical fouls -- one on coach Armond Hill, one on Boris Piskun and one during halftime charged to the Lions bench. With 12 turnovers, countless missed layup opportunities and offensive rebounds in which the Quakers failed to convert, it looked like another upset was in the making as Columbia took the lead with 4 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the half. Moxley was called for his third foul with 6:30 left in the first half. Coach Fran Dunphy was forced to reach deep into his bag of bench players -- even calling on reserve guard Mike Dzik just before the half. Moxley's foul trouble may have been the consequence of some questionable officiating -- at least in the vociferous opinion of the Penn faithful. "There was a series when Moxley got a straight-arm in the chest, Ira got a charge called, and then there was an iffy call right then and there," said Krug, who scored a career-high 27 points. "When layups aren't falling, that sort of thing happens." Krug tried desperately to act as a sparker, nailing two jams -- including one off a missed Dzik jumper. Bowman got into the act as well, as he slipped a dazzling no-look dish to Krug, who buried an open jumper. But Columbia's three-point shooting kept the Lions close. In the first half alone, Columbia connected on six treys, including three by Gary Raimondo. But with a late 6-0 run, Penn led 37-32 at halftime. That momentum carried over through intermission as the Quakers capitalized on sloppy Lions' play and opened the second half with a 12-3 run. But the Lions weren't finished yet. An 11-0 spurt brought the game to 49-47 at the 13:13 mark -- forcing Penn to take a timeout, and actually energizing the comatose Columbia crowd. Penn's biggest problem in the second half was giving up easy drives in the lane -- as Boris Piskun proved by waltzing through the paint for the final two points of the run. Penn tipped the seesaw back with its own 7-0 run, but Justin Namolik brought life back to the Columbia offense by draining a wide-open trey with nine minutes remaining. A short C.J. Thompkins jumper later and the Quakers' lead was only 56-52. "[The three-point threat] was not something that surprised us," Krug said. "It was something that we tried to prevent defensively. We just let them get too many open looks, and they were knocking them down, to their credit." After Bowman picked up his fourth foul with 6:30 remaining, Romanczuk powered his way into the limelight, as he muscled a jam over Piskin. Kreitz then nailed a huge trifecta to salvage a sloppy Penn possession -- putting the lead at nine. From there, the Quakers defense took over, allowing only four Columbia points in the final 5:41 and putting the game on ice. In snowy Ithaca, N.Y., the Quakers repeated their Manhattan woes. Sloppy offense again hurt them tremendously, and again the Red and Blue allowed easy penetration in the first half. Eddie Samuel, Cornell's 28-year-old, 6-foot-6 center, neutralized Krug, who was 2-for-8 in the half. But the Big Red was having troubles of its own as Brandt Schuckman converted on only 2-of-9 three-point attempts. Relief came a bit sooner for the Quakers on Saturday than on Friday. With only a four point lead at halftime, Bowman launched his ballistic second half by scoring eight points during an 18-4 Quakers run. It was that run which simply demoralized the Big Red and would ultimately put the game too far out of reach. Bowman ended up with 20 of his career-high 30 points in the half, and was the cornerstone of the Quakers' offense all night. As the Red and Blue exited the Newman Arena with two wins under its belts, and Princeton eked out a 57-55 victory over the Lions, the Ivy title was still up for grabs.