Ivy League Notebook
As we head into the all-important month of February in the Ivy League, there are three teams ahead of the pack, and it might well stay that way. Prohibitive favorite Penn is 2-0 after easily handling Cornell and Columbia in the middle of the month, while Harvard and Yale emerged from the weekend at 3-1. Princeton, Brown and Cornell all sport .500 records in the early going.
The team at the bottom, Dartmouth, is 0-4 and looks like a better team than they’ve shown. They certainly have more talent than their 2-15 overall record would lead one to believe, although a good deal of it is young. Give the Big Green a year or two, and the results should start to reflect that in due time.
Crimson Bounce Back
This weekend was a study in contrasts for Harvard, which was fresh off final exams. They had a bad loss on Friday night at Yale before getting a big game from emerging junior Jim Goffredo in their 75-58 win at Brown on Saturday.
Goffredo, who scored 21 in the loss at Yale, topped that total in the first half as he caught fire a little past the halfway point. He went on a 16-3 run all by himself to turn a 19-12 edge into a 35-15 lead, finishing the half with 22 points on 7-8 shooting, all from three-point land. He would finish the night with 30 points on 9-12 shooting, 8-10 on three-pointers. The only blemish came, ironically enough, at the foul line: he was 4-7, though he entered shooting over 90 percent.
Head coach Frank Sullivan noted that Goffredo and senior leader Matt Stehle (17 points) carried them, but was happiest about the Crimson doing well in areas where they hurt themselves the night before. He cited better defense, including no foul trouble, and their 16-19 showing at the free throw line as the areas he was happy with.
“It was good to get back, but more importantly, to correct ourselves in the areas we got hurt in last night,” Sullivan said.
The Crimson hit New York next weekend, as they play at Columbia and Cornell.
Bulldogs Pick Up Two
Yale protected its home court with two wins this weekend, a convincing 82-74 win over Harvard on Friday and a 72-55 win over Dartmouth on Saturday.
On Friday night, balance did the trick, as well as a 13-5 run to open the second half that turned a three-point halftime lead into a 46-35 cushion. The Crimson scored the next seven points to get within 46-42, but got no closer after that as the Bulldogs held them below 30 percent shooting in the second half and shot nearly 62 percent at the offensive end.
Sam Kaplan had 16 points to lead six players in double figures, the most notable of which was freshman guard Chris Andrews with ten. Both starting guards, Eric Flato (12) and Nick Holmes (11) reached double figures as well. This game proved that when the guards get going, the Bulldogs will be tough to beat, as the frontcourt is not a major concern with the experienced personnel there.
On Saturday, they rode the frontcourt play to the win, as Dominick Martin had 15 and Kaplan had 13 to pace the Bulldogs.
Turnovers were still an issue against Harvard, as the Bulldogs overcame 19 of them. They’ll need to cut down on that, and get more good guard play, as they make the trip to Princeton and Penn this weekend.
Bears Starting to Emerge
Amidst their struggles this season, Brown is starting to see some good signs for the future. The Bears have just one senior, so this season is a key for gaining experience. The Bears split their games this weekend, pulling out a double overtime win over Dartmouth on Friday before Harvard came in and handed them a 75-58 defeat on Saturday night. While Saturday night’s loss was not what the doctor ordered, the weekend as a whole wasn’t a step backwards for the team.
They got two solid games from sophomore Keenan Jeppesen, who has emerged as the team’s top player in recent weeks. He scored a career-high 25 points and had six steals in Friday night’s win, and he led the way with 18 on Saturday night. He has reached double figures in all four Ivy League games, and looks like the go-to guy.
“He’s getting comfortable and more aggressive,” head coach Glen Miller said. “We’re constantly, in practice, trying to get him to play more aggressively.”
Jeppesen’s primary help lately has been freshman forward Scott Friske, who had a tough night on Saturday but has emerged over the last month. Prior to Saturday night, he had scored in double figures in five of six games, pulling down 10 rebounds twice. He’s a competitor inside whose desire to win shows, and that’s one thing that will help a team that has struggled with confidence for most of the season.
Miller said the Bears played better offensively in the second half against Harvard. The offense is one reason he’s optimistic about where this team is headed.
“We’re a young team, and it’s no secret we’ve been struggling, but our offense is starting to come together,” Miller said. “Defensively, we’re playing a gritty 2-3 zone, and for a young team to build some confidence with a few wins is good.”
The Bears will get tested this weekend, when they make the trip down I-95 to play at Penn and Princeton.
Don’t Forget the Big Red
Time was when key personnel losses by any team meant a step back, unless you were Penn or Princeton. That has changed for Cornell, which has seen some key players depart during their recent resurgence but remains a tough team to beat. On Saturday, a key reason for that this season showed in their 81-59 thumping of Columbia at Levien Gymnasium.
The top Ivy League rookie in scoring, Adam Gore, scored a career-high 26 points just after being named the league’s Rookie of the Week. Gore is seventh in the league in scoring, complementing senior Lenny Collins and junior post player Andrew Naeve. Steady point guard Graham Dow had a career-high 19 points and added five assists on Saturday.
The Big Red don’t have great depth, and that took a blow when sophomore Khaliq Gant suffered a serious neck injury in practice last Tuesday, but they have a good lineup despite losing key players Cody Toppert and Eric Taylor from last season’s team. Gore’s instant contributions will help keep them at least in the upper division.
The Associated Press reported that as of Sunday, Gant is still hospitalized and in good spirits, though unable to move. The Big Red wore his No. 21 on their jerseys in Saturday’s game.
Other Notes
- Harvard’s frontcourt has been much ballyhooed, and for good reason. But thus far, the Crimson are third in the league in the key frontcourt stat of rebounding margin. The lead goes to Columbia, thanks in large part to improving sophomores Ben Nwachukwu and John Baumann, and Yale isn’t far behind with its trio of Dominick Martin, Sam Kaplan and Casey Hughes.
- Brown has had a hard enough time getting wins, so it was worth a few light moments when Friday’s final box score did not add the win to the team’s record.
