Princeton Takes Embarrasing Loss As Their Upset Dreams Get Slim

It was supposed to be an easy win.

Instead, it was a crushing defeat that leaves Princeton in a crippling position. They now must defeat Cornell on the road in order to get back to even in the Ivies. If they lose, their upset season will most likely end.

Princeton was coming off a 24 point blowout win to Yale on Friday, and was looking good as it had won two straight after a tough loss to the Big Red last Saturday. 

All Princeton needed to do was beat a sub .500 Brown team at home. However, as the buzzer sounded on their loss to the Bears, the reality of the situation was sitting in. 

The Tigers will now travel up to Ithaca to face a very tough Cornell team on the road. A loss puts them two back with just three games to play for Cornell, four for Princeton. 

Cornell is coming off a slightly odd game to Dartmouth in which they allowed 70 points to an awful Big Green team, despite winning the contest by 18. They will be happy to return to the confines of Newman Arena on Friday after going 3-1 on the road.

Elsewhere in Ivy play there wasn't much thrilling action. Harvard crushed a struggling Columbia Lions team by 20 to stay two games back of Cornell. They will pray for a Princeton win on Friday, and for either Penn, Yale, or Brown to get the best of the top team, or else their fantastic season is finished. 

Yale lost to Penn to cap a bad weekend for the Bulldogs, who saw a good start to conference season go by the wayside as they fall a half game back behind Penn.

So next Friday is for all the marbles. If Princeton wins, they tie for first place, and would probably be facing a tiebreaker game at a central Ivy home location (if venue is available), and if they lose, Cornell goes up two games, and most likely goes onto the NCAA tournament. The game is at 7 p.m.