Frankowski Leads Columbia in Win Against Yale

There must be something in the Sunday brunches of Columbia junior Steve Frankowski. Across 24 career Ivy League games, Frankowski has averaged 5.9 points a game overall, but in his two Sunday afternoon contests the junior has averaged 21.5 ppg. Last year,  Frankowski totaled 27 points in a 15-point Columbia home win against Harvard.

On Sunday afternoon, the junior’s 17 points were crucial in the Lions’ 59-47 win over the Yale Bulldogs. The loss dropped Yale a game behind Harvard with four contests left in the regular season. The two teams will meet on Mar. 7 in New Haven for the penultimate game of both teams’ seasons.

Overall, the loss means little for the Crimson: if Harvard takes care of business in its final four games, it will win the Ivy League. Due to a weird Ivy League tiebreaker system, were Harvard to lose to Yale and each team were to win its other remaining games, the two teams—each at 12-2 in the league—would go to a playoff despite Yale having beaten the Crimson in both meetings.

For the Bulldogs, who missed 13 of 22 free throw attempts Sunday, the slipup could prove much more deadly. Harvard, with Columbia and Cornell at home next weekend, has an easier schedule than Yale down the stretch, as the Bulldogs must go on the road to face Princeton and Penn.

Even though the Killer Ps left last weekend’s tilts bruised, looking more like the Black-Eyed Ps, Yale has lost four of its last six matchups in both locations. Before sweeping both teams last year, the Bulldogs had lost the previous three meetings at both the Palestra and Jadwin.

As for Frankowski, perhaps he should have more hash browns on Fridays and Saturdays.