Late Night Snacks: Harvard, Princeton stay perfect in the Ivy League

Feb 9, 2013, 1:00 AM EDT

Game of the Day

The Crimson almost let a 21-point lead get away from them. Harvard didn’t score for the final four minutes, as Cornell went on a 13-0 run. Errick Peck’s 3-pointer was off the mark as Harvard stayed perfect in the Ivy League. An important victory as Harvard keeps a half game lead over Princeton in the standings. Those two teams meet on Saturday at Harvard.

Important Outcomes

Princeton 63, Brown 46

The Tigers have now won six straight games and hold a perfect 4-0 record in league play. Princeton is the only other undefeated team in the Ivy besides Harvard. Princeton hosts Yale on Sunday, followed by a road game against Dartmouth. Next week they make the trip to Cambridge to play the Crimson, which could potentially be for first place. Denton Koon had team-high 17 points, while Ian Hummer added 15.

Utah State 63, San Jose State 36

The Aggies are doing damage control. A four-game losing streak in January has left them out of the top of the conference, currently held by Louisiana Tech and followed by New Mexico State and Denver. Utah State is only three and a half out of first place and after winning three straight the Aggies can make a statement with a two-game home stand against Denver and New Mexico State this week.

Loyola (MD) 63, Siena 51

Six days removed from a double overtime win over MAAC-leading Niagara and Loyola continued its winning ways with a double-digit victory over Siena. Erik Etherly had a season-high 25 points to help the Greyhounds separate themselves from Canisius, Rider and Iona — all hold 8-5 records, good for third place. Loyola is in sole possession of second place, one game out of first.

UNC-Asheville 90, VMI 79

The win keeps UNC-Asheville at 9-2, which is good for the best record in the Big South. The Bulldogs hold a half game lead over Charleston Southern in the South Division while High Point leads the North Division with a 7-3 conference record.

Starred

Siyani Chambers, Harvard

Although the freshman missed a crucial free throw in the game’s final minutes, Chambers finished with 18 points and 11 assists, his third double-double on the season and second consecutive. The freshman has exceeded expectations this season and narrowly has the Crimson in first place in the Ivy League

Stan Okoye, Virginia Military

In a loss, Okoye was the game’s leading scorer and rebounder with 34 points and 16 rebounds. While it was a season-high in rebounds, it was the fourth time the 6-foot-6 senior dropped 30 in a game this season. D.J. Covington also had a standout game in the loss with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

Spencer Butterfield, Utah State

For the fifth consecutive game, Butterfield finished with a double-double. This time it was 22-point, 10-rebound performance in a win for the Aggies. The 6-foot-3 junior scored his game-high 22 points of 9-of-11 shooting.

O.D. Anosike, Siena

For the 14th time this season, the Siena senior has recorded a double-double. In a loss to Loyola (MD), the 6-foot-8 senior recorded 16 points and 16 rebounds.

Struggled

Austin Morgan, Yale

The Bulldogs leading scorer shot a woeful 1-for-10 from the field for only nine points. Coming off a 20-point performance in loss to Dartmouth, Yale still picked up the 68-59 win against Penn on Friday night.

Columbia free throw shooting

The Lions went 10-of-17 from the line, in a three-point loss to Dartmouth. Columbia was not much better from behind the arc, shooting 3-of-20 (15 percent), as opposed to Dartmouth’s 47 percent shooting from deep.

San Jose State offense

The Spartans shot 27 percent from the field for the game, 20 percent from behind the arc, only tallying 36 points in a loss to Utah State. D.J. Brown, San Jose State’s leading scorer, with 16 points shot 5-of-13, however he was 4-of-9 from three. The rest of his team was 0-for-11 from deep.

Terrence is also the lead writer at NEHoopNews.com and can be followed on Twitter: @terrence_payne