Around the Ivy League: Penn Hopes To Clinch

They might as well just come with a simple disclaimer.

“This team will self-destruct in five, four, three, two, one.”

Despite the comfortable cushion Penn has built for itself in the Ivy League race, seemingly every week a new challenger with an outside shot at the title heroically rises from mediocrity only to return to it in a gigantic ball of flames just a few days to a week later. The most recent victim, Yale, won its fourth-straight home game Saturday night over Penn to move to 5-3—just two games back in the loss column of the Quakers. For the first time all season, Penn looked confused and beaten. The race was back on.

All the Bulldogs had to do was to keep winning. Like almost every other team thrust into the spotlight as the challenger, Yale couldn’t last one contest, dropping the finale of its five-game homestand to last-place Brown, 70-64, Tuesday night.

That leaves Penn three games clear of everyone in the loss column with just five to play. With a weekend sweep over Cornell and Columbia and a loss by Yale to either Dartmouth or Harvard, the Quakers could punch their dance ticket with a full Ivy weekend and the showdown with Princeton still left on the docket.

Will Penn be the first team into the NCAA field by the end of the weekend?

Let’s get to this weekend’s games:

GAME OF THE WEEK: CORNELL (11-12, 6-4 Ivy) vs. PENN (15-8, 8-1)

Mathematical elimination isn’t quite in play here, but the reality of the situation is quite clear.

If the Big Red loses tomorrow night’s matchup, any hope of catching the Quakers will be gone. In the first meeting between the two teams at The Palestra, Cornell jumped out to a 23-11 lead with just over four minutes remaining in the first half only to watch Penn pull within four by halftime.

The Big Red kept a slim lead until the midway point of the second half, when the Quakers launched out on a 12-2 run and ran away with a 14-point win.

It’s hard to imagine Cornell falling apart so spectacularly down the stretch at home, and Penn comes into this contest off an abysmal showing at Yale. The Big Red will be able to keep this one close, but there’s a reason the Quakers are 8-1 in league play, and that should become quite apparent in the closing moments, as Penn ekes out the victory.

CORNELL vs. PRINCETON (12-11, 3-6 Ivy)

History could be made Saturday night in Newman Arena.

If the Tigers—which haven’t won a Friday night Ivy game all season—can’t get past Columbia in New York tomorrow night, Princeton would travel to Ithaca needing a win to stave off its first ever below-.500 finish in the Ivy League.

Even if the Tigers can beat Columbia, the Big Red could still make the question more of a when than if with a victory.

Princeton led Cornell 37-28 at halftime in the two teams’ first meeting, but the Big Red put together a 20-0 run over an eight minute span of the second half to charge ahead for the 66-58 win.

While a 20-0 run is hardly something to bank on, neither is Princeton scoring 37 points in the first half of a game. But assuming Penn deflates the Big Red’s hopes tomorrow night, Cornell could come out flat and fall victim to a sweep at the hands of the Killer P’s.

COLUMBIA (12-11, 3-7) vs. PENN

The Lions come into this weekend 0-for-February, after starting 3-1 in league play.

With Penn and Princeton visiting Levien Gym this weekend, Columbia might be staring an eight-game losing streak in the face, if it gets swept by the two squads for the second time this season.

The Lions played the Quakers tough at The Palestra earlier this month, grabbing a five-point lead in the second half, before a 16-2 Penn run allowed it to hold on for a 73-66 win.

If the Quakers get past Cornell, Columbia could be the last team standing between Penn and a fresh box of Ivy League Champion t-shirts and hats. The Lions are always tough in the cave/pit/fire-trap that is Levien Gym, but at this point the Quakers can feel it, and no amount of home court advantage will be enough for Columbia to pull out the victory.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.