Justin Feil

By: centraljersey.com
Sweeps of Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend would allow both the Princeton University men’s and women’s basketball teams to claim Ivy League championships Saturday night.
The Tiger women are home to Dartmouth 7 p.m. tonight, then host Harvard 6 p.m. Saturday in their final home game of the year, and one in which they will honor the seniors.
"In this league, or any league, you play the game because it’s anyone’s game," said PU women’s coach Courtney Banghart, whose team is 21-4 overall, 10-1 in Ivy play. "We’ve had success because of not overlooking anyone.
"Friday is just as important as Saturday," she added. "Then we’ll take it from there."
Dartmouth is in a spoiler role at 3-8 in Ivy play. Princeton handed the Big Green a 75-50 loss on the road Feb. 5 by getting out early and forcing the pace.
"We’re going to try to be the more physical team from the start," Banghart said. "Their team has a lot of length. We have to be quicker and more physical."
Harvard is the only Ivy team to beat Princeton this year. The Crimson won, 73-67, on their home court Feb. 4, the Tigers’ only league loss in its last 30 games.
"Only Vanderbilt scored more against us," Banghart said. "You can’t give up 73 points. Defensively was our breakdown. We didn’t make shots and we didn’t stop people. Over the course of a season, you’re going to have games where you shoot poorly. You have to use defense as an anchor. That’s the one game where our defense wasn’t where it needed to be.
"It was such a bummer," she said. "I think we’ll push the pace better. I think we’ll shoot the ball better. I’m sure we’ll play defense better."
It’s the only slip-up in Ivy play for the Tiger women, which is why they still hold a two-game lead over Harvard in the loss column. The Tigers want to prove that they’re a better team than in their first meeting with the Crimson.
"It’s our chance to reclaim the frustration of that night," Banghart said. "And hopefully we’ll be sending our seniors out the way they deserve to be sent out."
The Princeton women need to win two of their final three games – they will play at Penn on Tuesday – to clinch their second straight outright Ivy championship. Yale also sits two games behind in the loss column with two games to play. Harvard also has three games left.
The Princeton men will be on the road, playing at Dartmouth 7 p.m. tonight and at Harvard 7 p.m. Saturday. The Tigers are 22-5 overall, 10-1 in the Ivies, one game ahead of Harvard, the only team that can catch them.
"I’ll be disappointed in our players and coaches if we’re looking ahead at anything," said PU men’s head coach Sydney Johnson. "Brown was able to beat us. They had a great effort on the road. They weren’t necessarily favored. Columbia played terrific basketball when they came to our place. We realize we’re getting everyone’s best shot. If we do anything but focus on who we’re playing, we’re going to come up short."
Princeton swept their meetings at Jadwin with the Harvard and Dartmouth, but it wasn’t easy. The Tigers were challenged by Dartmouth in the first half before pulling away for a 68-53 win.
"I know that they’re going to be tough to play at home," Johnson said. "That’s the toughest thing to do in sports. They were the better team when they played us in the first half the first time we played them. We have to be locked in defensively. We have to play our style on offense to make sure we’re not letting people slow us down. Defensively, we have to be ready to play."
The Tigers also held off Harvard, 65-61. The Crimson led by 11 points in the first half, then whittled a Princeton 11point second-half lead to two points in the waning seconds. The rematch Saturday will be on ESPN3.com.
"We’ll have that Friday game and have a better feel for where we are," Johnson said. "We’ll try to learn those lessons from Friday and carry that over to Saturday. Harvard doesn’t have any seniors, so there’s no added component of Senior Night. It’s just play a basketball game. We’ve played on national TV before.
"I think our focus has to be on trying to play well against Harvard and not getting caught up in everything surrounding that."
Johnson doesn’t want to jump too far ahead, but a win Friday could make Saturday’s rematch the game to clinch the outright title. It makes it the biggest game of the year for a program that hasn’t won an Ivy title since 2004.
"In truth of the matter, it’s just about everything we’ve worked for since we’ve arrived," said Johnson, who is in his fourth season at the helm. "The coaches, the players, we’ve worked very, very hard to put us in that position to have a legitimate chance to win a championship.
"You hope for the best. This is just about everything we’ve asked and worked for. It’s a nice moment. As soon as that jump ball comes, we have to be locked into what we want to accomplish."