Cornell At Top In League Wins, With Penn and Princeton At Its Heels

Just as the media predicted, Cornell has dominated the Ivy League. The Big Red is 4-0 in the Ancient Eight and put up 70 or more points in three of those games. Cornell’s offense has rolled during this stretch, with four players scoring in double figures in each game. Sophomore guards Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale have scored at least 10 points in each of the conference wins. Wittman’s 21 points against Brown included five three-pointers. The Big Red has been equally formidable on defense, most recently holding Yale to 45 points and 28 percent from the field to its 56 percent shooting.

Columbia is 1-3 in its first four Ivy games, scoring over 70 points just once in this set. The Lions have won consecutive games just once this year. The Light Blue is not lacking talent, as senior power forward John Baumann was just named the Ivy League Player of the Week. Against Yale on Friday, Baumann hit five of nine field goals and was perfect from the free-throw line, finishing with 19 points. Against Brown the next night, he scored 23 points. The rest of the Columbia starters will need to score consistently for Columbia to gain some more Ivy victories.

Penn has had to rely on freshmen, and they have come through for the Quakers. Jack Eggleston has already been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice. He is third on the team in scoring average with 7.7 points per game, while his fellow rookie Tyler Bernardini leads Penn with 13 points per contest. The Quakers are 2-0 in the Ivy League but beat Harvard by just four points and Dartmouth by two. It remains to be seen whether Penn’s freshmen can carry them to victories against Cornell, who they face February 9.

Yale opened its conference schedule with a three-point victory against Brown in overtime but went winless in its next three Ivy games. The Bulldog defense allowed Brown to score 77 points in the teams’ second meeting, and the team lost 71-58 to Columbia. On offense, junior guard Travis Pinick has scored in double figures in two of Yale’s four conference games, while junior forward Ross Morin added 18 and a career-best 24 in the two games against Brown. Morin can lead the Bulldogs if he is careful about fouling, something that plagued him against Columbia.

Dartmouth is 1-3 in the Ivy League this season but has improved since its blowout loss to Harvard. In its next meeting with the Crimson, the Big Green handily beat Harvard, 73-56. Dartmouth lost to Princeton and Penn, but both games were close and could easily go the other way in the teams’ next meetings. Against the Quakers, junior forward Alex Barnett led all scorers with 18 points. He paces Dartmouth with 16.9 points per contest this season and 19.3 per game in league matchups.

After beating Dartmouth by 26 points in its first Ivy game of the year, Harvard lost its next three. Like the Big Green, however, its losses to Penn and Princeton were close ones, so the Crimson should not be dismissed yet. Junior forward Evan Harris scored in double figures in Harvard’s first three conference matchups and, despite going scoreless against Princeton, averages 10 points per game. Sophomore guard Jeremy Lin is contributing 13.1 points per contest.

Brown has an even record in the Ancient Eight at 2-2. After each loss, the Bears came back with a victory, overtaking Yale and Columbia. They next face Dartmouth at home. After beating the Bulldogs in the teams’ second matchup of the season, senior guard Damon Huffman received Ivy League Player of the Week honors, while freshman guard Adrian Williams was the Rookie of the Week. Huffman has started all 18 of the Bears’ games, while Williams has seen action in all of them.

Princeton is currently undefeated in the league, with a four-point win over Dartmouth and a six-point win against Harvard. The Tigers are led by sophomores Lincoln Gunn and Zach Finley, who are averaging 10.5 and 10.4 points per game, respectively. Gunn, a guard, scored 17 points in each of Princeton’s conference games. The Tigers have scored at least 70 points only twice this season, so Gunn and the rest of Princeton’s offense will need to produce more to maintain a winning record in the Ivy League.