As the college basketball season winds down, last night began another Ivy League weekend. Ivy League weekends are fun and can be unpredictable as the schools play back-to-back on Friday and Saturday nights, unlike in most conferences, which spread their games throughout the week. The Ivies do it this way for travel purposes and to minimize the amount of time players are out of school.
The biggest news of the weekend was the suspension of Tony Hicks, Penn’s leading scorer and star player. Penn head coach Jerome Allen suspended Hicks, a junior guard, for both games this weekend due to his behavior during and immediately after last Saturday’s game against Brown. Hicks sat out last night’s blowout loss to Harvard and will miss tonight’s game at Dartmouth.
Friday’s Games
Pennsylvania 46, Harvard 69
Harvard maintained a first-place tie with Yale by sweeping the season series from the Quakers with another romp. Harvard won the first game 63-38 on January 31. Wesley Saunders led all scorers with 15 points while Steve Mondou-Missi and Siyani Chambers contributed 14 and 10 points, respectively. Penn was led by freshman guard Antonio Woods with 12 points while Matt Howard added 10 for the Quakers. Harvard is now 18-5 and 8-1 in the league while Penn falls to 7-15 and 2-6 in the league.
Cornell 51, Yale 62
Yale kept pace with co-leaders Harvard by defeating Cornell 62-51 with Javier Duren leading the way with 13 points. Duren also contributed eight rebounds and four assists while Justin Sears had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Armani Cooper also had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Cornell was led by Galal Cancer, who led all scorers with 19 points, and Devin Cherry with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Yale is tied with Harvard at 8-1 and is now 19-7 overall while Cornell fell to 4-5 in the Ivies and 12-13 overall.
Princeton 63, Dartmouth 56
Princeton remained in third place with a 63-56 victory over Dartmouth. The Tigers ended the game with four players reaching double figures. They were led by Amir Bell with 12 points and Clay Wilson with 11 points while Steven Cook added 10 points and 9 rebounds. Spencer Weisz added 10 points as well. Dartmouth was led by Gabas Maldunas and Miles Wright with each player scoring 16 points. Maldunas added 7 rebounds. Princeton improves to 5-3 in the Ivy League and is back at .500 overall at 12-12. Dartmouth falls to 2-7 in the league and 9-14 overall.
Columbia 76, Brown 59
Columbia continued a decent season by defeating Brown 76-59 and staying in the middle of the Ivy pack with Cornell. The Lions were led by star guard Maodo Lo, who was unstoppable and led all scorers with 35 points. Jeff Coby came off the bench to add 13 points. The Bears were led by Cedric Kuakumensah with 20 points. Rafael Maia added 14 and Steven Spieth contributed 10 points for the Bears, who remain tied for last place with Dartmouth at 2-7. They are a half game behind Penn at 2-6. Columbia improves to 12-11 and 4-5 while the Bears are now 11-15 overall.
Standings
Harvard 9-1 18-5
Yale 9-1 19-7
Princeton 5-3 12-12
Columbia 4-5 12-11
Cornell 4-5 12-13
Penn 2-6 7-15
Brown 2-7 11-15
Dartmouth 2-7 9-14