Penn (19-5, 11-0 Ivy) all but wrapped up the Ivy League championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with wins over Yale and second-place Brown this weekend. Brown (15-11, 10-2) avoided a home-sweep by the “Killer P’s” with a win over Princeton (14-10, 8-3) Saturday.
Columbia (2-23, 0-12) remained winless in the Ancient Eight with a 50-36 shoot-out loss to Dartmouth and a close 66-63 miss against Harvard. The Lions, who have now lost 16 straight, are one loss away from matching the longest drought in the program’s 103 year history.
Pennsylvania 69, Brown 65
On Friday, Brown’s candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year, Earl Hunt, scored 26 points to lead all scorers. But Hunt could not connect on a game-tying three-pointer.
Behind 68-65 with 24 seconds to play, both Hunt and Patrick Powers missed opportunities to even a game of runs.
Though Brown built an early lead, Penn used an 11-0 run to gain an advantage that the Bears could only whittle to 40-38 at the half. The Quakers managed another 10-0 spurt in the opening minutes of the second to take a 50-38 lead. Brown’s 16-7 counter cut the deficit to two with less than 2:30 left.
Penn’s Koko Archibong, a first-team All-Ivy selection last season, was a perfect 7 of 7 from the field and led the Quakers with 17 points. Teammate Ugonna Onyekwe, last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year, scored 15 and snagged 7 rebounds. Penn’s Jeff Schiffner made 4 of 8 three-pointers — the only field goals he attempted — for 13 points.
Brown’s Jason Forte scored 12 for the Bears. Forte and Hunt, who both played all 40 minutes of the game, each grabbed six boards.
Brown 88, Princeton 74
On Saturday, the Bears rebounded well — both literally and figuratively — from their loss to Penn. Brown outrebounded the Tigers 27-16 and made a remarkable 30 of 34 foul shots (Princeton was 9 of 11).
Forte scored a career-high 30 points; he and Hunt combined for 28 of the team’s 35 first-half points. Hunt finished with 21. Forte ended 6-7 from the floor, 4-4 from beyond the arc, and 14-14 from the foul line.
The Bears trailed the entire first half, which ended with Princeton ahead 36-35. A 3-point field goal by Powers to open the second half put Brown ahead for good. The Tigers pulled to within three but could get no closer; the Bears made 11 consecutive free-throws in the final 2:36.
Princeton’s Judson Wallace continued his hot streak, scoring 24 points after a 23-point performance at Yale’s John J. Lee Amphitheater the previous evening. Wallace’s previous career-high was 20 points against Harvard this season.
This winter is the first time Brown ever swept the season series from Princeton.