Get schooled.
Penn rolled in New England, Princeton pulled out a pair of close wins on the road, and Yale’s home court advantage overcame Cornell’s winning streak. This week’s Power Rankings bear an uncanny resemblence to the Ivy standings.
Key sequence: A Dragutin Kravic three-pointer brought Columbia to within one point midway through the second half. Mark McAndrew nailed a three-pointer to make it a four-point game, then after Kravic missed a jumper, Keenan Jeppesen grabbed his own miss and was fouled, hitting one of two free throws. McAndrew swiped the ball from Justin Armstrong, leading to a fastbreak layup by Jeppesen that turned into a three-point play. Armstrong hit one of two at the line, then Mark MacDonald rebounded a Marcus Becker miss and was fouled, getting both free throws. After a Loscalzo charge, Becker found Damon Huffman for a layup. Then Kravic missed a three-pointer at one end, and Huffman assisted a Jeppesen layup to finish off a 13-1 run that stretched the Bears’ lead to 13 with less than six minutes left.
Key sequence: Cornell’s Adam Gore drilled a three-pointer with 4:21 left to give the Big Red a two-point lead. Yale’s Casey Hughes fouled him on the play, but the freshman couldn’t complete the four-point play. Hughes missed a jumper at the other end, but Dominick Martin collected the rebound. Martin eventually found Eric Flato open on the perimeter for a three-pointer to put the Bulldogs back in front by one point at the 3:44 mark. At the other end, Lenny Collins missed a jumper that would have given Cornell the lead. Andrew Naeve got the offensive board, but couldn’t get a shot to fall from point blank range. Jason Hartford was whistled for a foul on the rebound, and Caleb Holmes sank a pair of free throws to put Yale up three. Holmes then stole the ball from Collins and found Flato, who was fouled and hit both free throws for a five-point Bulldog lead with 2:44 remaining.
Key sequence: Leading 17-7 midway through the first half, Mark Zoller found Steve Danley inside for a layup. After Harvard freshman Evan Harris missed a wild shot inside, Zoller buried a three-pointer off a returned favor from Danley. Just 90 seconds later Zoller drilled another three to stretch the Penn advantage to 18 at 25-7.
Key sequence: After Mike Lang’s floater inside the foul line drew Dartmouth to within 46-45 with 12.1 seconds left the Big Green tried to pressure the inbounds pass. Instead of throwing the ball forward, Scott Greenman tossed it to a teammate behind the baseline and then caught the return pass in front of the Dartmouth bench. Immediately fouled, he made a pair of free throws to make it 48-45. After Mike Giovacchini made one of two free throws to make it 48-46 with 8.2 seconds left it was Greenman getting fouled and knocking down another pair of free throws for a 50-46 lead, just enough when Giovacchini’s NBA-strength triple from straight out went down with 2.8 seconds to go.