Entering the weekend with Cornell, Yale and Penn within a half-game in the Ivy League standings, three was a crowd for the Quakers.
But Penn dealt a major blow to Cornell's championship hopes, and the Ivy title hunt will likely be a two-horse race.
The good news for the Big Red is that they still get to face Yale this Friday, and a win would pull them into a tie for second. But even if they managed to win their four remaining games, they would still have to hope for Penn to lose two of its final five just to share the championship.
Yale controls its own destiny, but the path is far from easy. Because Cornell and Penn played each other this weekend, Yale's schedule is the most difficult from here out. The Elis host Cornell Friday and travel to Philadelphia the following weekend.
Penn is by no means safe, but here's some comforting news: No matter what happens, the Quakers must lose at least two Ivy games - including a possible playoff - to lose the automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
As for the five other teams, barring Penn and Yale losing their combined next nine games - which would be just short of a miracle - they're all long gone.
Hughes problem. Not only do the Elis have a tough road to the title, they might have to start it without their second-leading scorer and top rebounder.
Athletic swingman Casey Hughes sprained his foot in a win over Dartmouth and didn't return, nor did he play against Harvard the following night.
Hughes is listed as questionable and will no doubt be a huge omission if he can't play against Cornell on Friday. Hughes - who showcased his hops on a few dunks in the win over Penn - grabs 6.1 rebounds per game and scores 9.8 points on 50 percent shooting.
Hughes is also a key to Yale's defensive effort. At full strength, the senior could give Cornell swingman and leading scorer Ryan Wittman some trouble. In Yale's one-point loss at Ithaca, N.Y., Hughes and company held Wittman to 4-of-14 shooting.
Big Green Tigers. If you thought Princeton's numerous 35-point showings are the lowest scoring the Ivy League has to offer, think again.
Dartmouth (8-15, 3-7 Ivy) scored 16 points in the first half and 17 in the second to lose 53-33 at Brown (9-16, 4-6).
Granted the game was played at a fairly slow pace (Brown coach Craig Robinson was a former two-time Ivy Player of the Year for Princeton), but Dartmouth's offensive stats were quite remarkable.
A weekend after they put up 53 on the road against Penn without their leading scorer, the Big Green looked to do even better with Leon Pattman and his 17 points per game.
And yet they managed to shoot 26 percent from the floor, 0-for-12 from three-point range, and combine for a total of three assists (an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.23). Dartmouth had scoreless runs of 7:52 and 4:22.
Pattman went 3-of-12 for six points, but the bench was much worse - a combined 0-for-11 from the field for one point.
Line 'em up! Princeton outshot the Big Red 44 percent to 37 percent, hit seven more field goals and doubled them in the assist column.
So Princeton notched its second league win, right?
Not quite. Cornell scored 25 points on 32 attempts from the free-throw line, compared to Princeton's three points, as Cornell won its seventh conference game. Louis Dale hit 8-of-10 of his freebees, while Alex Tyler and Ryan Wittman each went 4-for-4.
