Not one, but two Ivy League basketball programs are recognized in national polls. Considering that an Ancient Eight team has not won a game in the NCAA March Madness tournament since the Princeton men and the Harvard women in 1998, this is big news.
For the second week in a row, the women’s basketball team received votes in the Associated Press national poll. With Cornell’s men’s team at No. 22 in the ESPN/USA Today poll, the Ivy League is reclaiming some of its former legitimacy on the national hoops scene.
The Tigers are currently running on a 12-game winning streak. After two handy wins over Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, Princeton (17-2 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) will face Columbia (13-7, 4-2) and Cornell (5-14, 0-6) on the road today and Saturday, respectively. If the Tigers can sweep these opponents, they will have defeated every conference team once, putting themselves in solid position going into the second half of the season and the final race to the Ivy crown.
“It would be really nice to get a win against all the other teams,” senior guard and co-captain Tani Brown said. “Every team is going to give us their best game, and knowing that you can beat a team going into the game is very helpful the second time around.”
Princeton is currently the only undefeated squad in the Ivy League, while the Lions come in second. With two losses to Harvard and Yale but convincing wins over Dartmouth, Brown and Cornell, the Columbia squad could pose a true threat to the Tiger lineup.
“Columbia is having a great year,” head coach Courtney Banghart said in an e-mail. “They play up-tempo and are going to pressure us in the full court for the duration of the game. We will have to remain poised and be the aggressors on the road.”
Star forward Judie Lomax leads the charge for the Lions. Lomax easily tops the Ivy League in scoring, averaging 19.1 points per game — with second place going to Princeton’s own standout forward, freshman Niveen Rasheed, who averages 14.9. She also dominates the boards with a league-high 14.3 rebounds per game. Lomax, who played her freshman season at Oregon State before transferring, earned first-team All-Ivy honors last year and has earned Ivy League Player of the Week four times this season.
“We take pride in playing together, and we’ll attempt to limit Judie Lomax in the same way we have all year: with a solid team effort,” Banghart said. “Given that she is a post player, we’ll need another solid outing by our handful of posts, but we’re confident that when we play together, we’re hard to beat.”
Columbia averages over five points more than its opponents, second in the league to the Tigers. Guard Kathleen Barry and center Lauren Dwyer complement Lomax’ efforts, as both of them average double-digit scoring. Dwyer also leads the team with 31 blocks.
Cornell, on the other hand, sits at the bottom of most Ivy categories. After three weekends on the road, Cornell will be happy to host Penn and Princeton this weekend. The Big Red is struggling on an 11-game losing streak, and the team has yet to win in 2010. Cornell has the worst scoring defense in the conference, averaging 11.5 points fewer than its opponents.
Despite these dismal stats, Banghart said they misrepresent Cornell’s real strengths.
“Cornell is a threatening team in their home gym,” Banghart said. “They rely heavily on the three-point shot, meaning that they’re never really out of a game. Their record is a bit of a misnomer, as they have started the year on the road. They are definitely a better home team.”
Guard Allie Fedorowicz leads the Big Red’s offense with 12.7 points per game, while guard Lauren Benson ranks second in the league with 5.2 assists per game. Fedorowicz, Benson and guard Virginia McMunigal boast three of the league’s top 10 three-point percentages.
While Columbia might pose a challenge, the Tigers should be able to easily handle the Big Red. Princeton’s top four scorers — Rasheed, sophomore center Devona Allgood, sophomore guard Lauren Edwards and junior guard Addie Micir — all average double digits. After freshman guard Lauren Polansky hurt her ankle in the game against Yale, sophomore guard Laura Johnson stepped in as the fifth player in the starting lineup.
After playing all 80 minutes in last weekend’s matchups, Micir earned her second nod as Ivy League Player of the Week. She netted the basket that put Princeton up for good against Harvard, and she posted a stellar 25 points against Dartmouth. Rasheed also earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week, her seventh recognition this winter. Allgood, on the other hand, currently boasts the league’s best field-goal percentage by far, making 61.7 percentage of her shots.
The key to the team’s success? According to Brown, it has been reliance on each other.
“Trust is by far the most important thing,” Brown said. “We trust each other on the court. I trust that [Lauren Polansky] will get the rebound, that Addie and Lauren [Edwards] are going to shoot the ball [and] that Cheryl will set up a screen. It makes the game easier.”
With so many statistics and victories on their side, the Tigers must use past seasons as inspiration to fight complacency and overconfidence going into this weekend.
“At the end of last season, this team set some very high goals, and they’ve been committed to working to reach them.” Banghart said. “I credit our senior leadership for that. We have started strong, but all within the program are excited about continuing to improve. We’re not yet a finished product.”
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