Cornell dominates, Princeton upset by Brown

Cornell is alone at the top once more.

As the Big Red (22-4, 8-1 Ivy) swept its weekend matchups against Harvard and Dartmouth, the Princeton Tigers (16-7, 7-2 Ivy)—the only other Ivy League squad with just one loss in conference play—found themselves upset by Brown, 57-54.

Brown’s Saturday-night win in Princeton, N.J., followed another road victory at Penn on Friday, marking only the second time ever that the Bears topped both Killer P’s on the road in a season.

On Saturday, Brown (10-17, 4-6 Ivy) became the first team all year to top Princeton when the Tigers took a lead into the locker room at halftime. Princeton, who had been 11-0 when leading at the half, opened up a 33-26 lead a minute into the second half with a Douglas Davis three-pointer.

Brown responded with a 16-6 run to put themselves on top, 42-39, after a trey by Peter Sullivan. Sullivan ended the night with 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting.

Throughout the weekend, the Bears were led by senior big man Matt Mullery, who posted 22 points in an 80-73 win at Penn on Friday, and contributed 15 points to the Bears’ cause on Saturday with 66 percent shooting from the field. Freshman Tucker Halpern gave the visitors a boost against Princeton in the first half, coming off the bench to nail six of his eight attempts. Halpern finished with 12 points, all of which came before intermission.

It wasn’t just those three that were hot from the field for the Bears. Brown’s dead-eye shooting was the story of the night. Princeton, the league leaders in defense, saw their opponents shoot 57.6 percent from the field overall, the highest percentage conceded by the Tigers all season.

The Bears were clinical from the charity stripe, too, converting 18 of 19 attempts from the charity stripe, good for an unheard-of 94.7 percent as a team. Two of those were vital to the win, as senior Steve Gruber iced the game with two made free throws with eight seconds to go. After Princeton’s Patrick Saunders cut the Brown lead to 55-53 with 18 seconds remaining, Marcus Schroeder pulled the Tigers within one when he knocked down a free throw with 11 seconds. That’s as close it got, though, thanks to Gruber’s free throws at the other end.

Schroeder led Princeton with 15 points.

The Tigers’ loss came on the heels of an 82-58 thumping of Yale, an offensive explosion from a team that is not known for scoring points. In that game, Dan Mavraides, Kareem Maddox, Saunders, and Davis all scored in double figures, with Mavraides leading the way with 20.

The other big game of the weekend, however, was Cornell’s trip to Cambridge, Mass. to take on the youthful and talented Harvard Crimson. The game was a boon for NBA scouts, as both the Big Red’s Ryan Wittman and the Crimson’s Jeremy Lin are considered legitimate candidates to be the first Ivy Leaguers drafted in years. It was Wittman who stole the show, scoring 27 points in leading Cornell to a 79-70 win. Louis Dale added 20 for the visiting Big Red.

Harvard slipped to 17-6 overall and 6-3 in conference as the 6-foot-6 Wittman showed the more-than-a-dozen NBA scouts in attendance the versatility of his game, adding eight rebounds, two blocks, and an assist to his game-high scoring total. Lin did not underperform, though, scoring 24 points to lead the Crimson, which shot 94 percent, 32 of 34, from the free throw line. That impressive showing did not do enough to prevent the loss and Harvard’s relegation to third place in the Ivy League.

Cornell set its school record for wins in a season the next night with an 88-74 win in Hanover, New Hampshire over last-place Dartmouth.

Princeton, despite its loss to Brown, still sits at second in the conference. Penn has been the surprise of the Ancient Eight so far, posting a 4-5 league record after winning just one game in their nonconference schedule. After beating then-nationally ranked Cornell last weekend, the Quakers (5-18, 4-5 Ivy) beat Yale on Saturday to earn their fourth straight weekend split.

The Bulldogs (10-17, 4-6 Ivy) had a rough weekend, and after double-digit losses to both Penn and Princeton—both on the road—they are tied with Brown for fifth in the Ancient Eight. At the bottom of the standings, Columbia (9-15, 3-7 Ivy) finds itself ahead of only Dartmouth after dropping away decisions to both the Big Green and Harvard.