Harvard Takes Over Number One Spot

Heading into the final weekend of Ivy League play, the number one spot for a conference championship is still up for grabs. Three teams still have legitimate bids to win a conference championship, and after last weekend, a new leader has emerged in what has been a tight, season-long race for the Ivy League crown.

On Friday, Cornell (9-3 Ivy) lost a devastating 46-44 contest on the road against Dartmouth (9-3 Ivy). This dropped the Big Red into a tie with Harvard, who escaped with a 1-point win against Columbia (6-6 Ivy) at home to set up a battle for the Ivy League lead the next night against the Big Red.

In that game, the Crimson solidified its reign atop the league with a narrow 3-point win over the Big Red, 51-48, avenging a blowout loss at Ithaca earlier this season. Senior Lindsay Hallion led Harvard with 18 points on 6-15 shooting from the floor. She also shot a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line, including two clutch makes with 26 seconds left to help seal the win.

In other action, Princeton (4-7 Ivy) trumped Brown (1-11 Ivy) on Friday 67-59 and Yale (6-6 Ivy) on Saturday 69-64. Penn (1-9 Ivy) fell against Yale 79-70 and beat Brown 56-45. Dartmouth followed up its win against Cornell with a 59-41 win over Columbia on Saturday.

Harvard endured two nail biters to earn a weekend sweep, and more importantly, the top spot in the conference heading into the final week of play. With its 10-2 record, Harvard is in the driver’s seat to repeat as this year’s Ivy League champion, provided that it wins its remaining two games at last-place Brown and Yale this weekend. If Harvard were to somehow slip and lose one of those games, things could get interesting. Both Cornell and Dartmouth are tied with a 9-3 record, and each team will be rooting for Brown or Yale to pull off an upset.

If either Cornell or Dartmouth can win its final two games of the season and Harvard loses both of its games, there would be a one-game playoff between Cornell and Dartmouth to determine who would advance to the NCAA tournament. In the event that Cornell or Dartmouth wins its final two games and Harvard loses just one of its final two games, the Big Red would have a chance to make up for its mistakes from last weekend in a playoff against Harvard, while Dartmouth, the dark horse candidate, could have a chance at winning its second tournament bid in three years.

With the conference title and an NCAA tournament spot on the line, Cornell hosts Pennsylvania and Princeton this weekend in Ithaca, while Dartmouth will travel to Yale and Brown. All eyes will be on Harvard to see if it can hang on to win its 11th Ivy League championship.