After a strong start to the young season, Ivy teams took a step backward over the weekend, including a disappointing 0-4 showing on Saturday.
Ivy front runner Cornell, coming off two huge road wins over Alabama and UMass, failed to get the job done at home against the Big East’s Seton Hall. The Big Red stayed close for 20 minutes before the Pirates bolted to an 18-point lead after the break and cruised to victory. While it’s hard to expect a win against a BCS opponent, the loss certainly slowed the momentum of a team that had overachieved even relative to its lofty pre-season expectations.
Despite splitting its weekend contests, Brown was likely the team of the weekend, pushing St. John’s to the limit before handling Maine at home. The Bears have already taken on two major conference opponents and Rhode Island en route to a solid 2-3 start.
The only other two winners over the weekend were Harvard and Columbia, who took down a pair of D-I independents in Bryant and Longwood, respectively. Both teams are still quite hard to figure as the Crimson’s strong win over Holy Cross was followed by a weak escape at home against William and Mary. The blowout of Bryant hardly sheds more light on that murky picture. The Lions’ close loss to DePaul to open up the season looks better after the Blue Demons’ win over Northern Iowa, and Columbia looked good in easily dispensing with Longwood. But we should learn more about the Lions over the next week in its games against Bucknell and Syracuse.
On Saturday, Yale shaved a 17-point deficit to four against Quinnipiac, but couldn’t get any closer, falling by seven. Bulldogs guard Alex Zampier had 29 points and five assists, but it wasn’t enough to save a Yale team that uncharacteristically got outrebounded 53-30.
Coming off two difficult games against major conference foes, Penn returned to the Palestra only to blow a double-digit lead midway through the second half, as Zack Rosen’s 25 point outburst was overshadowed by his, Rob Belcore’s, and Darren Smith’s early departures due to fouls. The Quakers posted a 71 percent mark in efficient field goal percentage in the first half. The final 30 minutes weren’t so kind, as Delaware outlasted Penn in two overtimes.
Through 13 minutes in Jadwin, Princeton was down 21-6 to Army, and it only got worse for awhile, as the Black Knights led 41-21 with 14 minutes to go. A 13-1 run later in the half made the contest tight to the finish, but ultimately the Tigers fell 56-52, leaving Harvard as the lone remaining Ivy undefeated team. The Crimson pay a visit to Army tomorrow night.
In the final Saturday disappointment, Furman jumped out to a 29-19 lead and pushed it to 40-23 at the half. Dartmouth trailed by more than 20 for most of the second half and only turned it on on offense in the final 10 minutes with the game not in doubt.
There are nine games involving league teams over the next three days, including six on Tuesday, with only a couple of them featuring the Ivy squad as a favorite. The 11-15 league non-conference record could get much worse before it gets better.
