PRINCETON, N.J. – Brown and Harvard picked up pivotal wins to tighten the Ivy Madness race Friday evening. Yale used a late basket to improve to 8-0 in league play and increase its advantage in the standings to three games. Dartmouth’s win pushed the Big Green up to a three-way tie for second place at 5-3 with Cornell and Princeton.
 
The top four teams will earn a spot to Ivy Madness. The Ivy League men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be held at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence from March 14-16. Full information is available at IvyMadness.com. 
 
DARTMOUTH 78, COLUMBIA 56
Dartmouth (11-10, 5-3 Ivy) picked up its third consecutive win, topping Columbia (12-9, 1-7 Ivy). The Big Green’s tandem of Ryan Cornish and Brandon Mitchell-Day each scored 17 points. Mitchell-Day recorded a double-double, finishing with a game-high 13 rebounds. Dartmouth hit 11 3-balls, marking the 11th time this season that it has hit at least 10. Columbia guard Kenny Noland finished with a game-high 19 points, shooting 9-of-16 from the field.
 
YALE 72, PENN 71
First-year guard Isaac Celiscar hit the game-winning layup on a find from junior forward Nick Townsend to lift Yale (15-6, 8-0 Ivy) over Penn (6-15, 2-6 Ivy) and give the Bulldogs their ninth consecutive win. Yale’s entire starting five finished in double figures, led by Bez Mbeng’s 18 points. This is the sixth time during Yale’s win streak that at least four players have scored in double-digits. The Bulldogs scored 40 points in the paint. Penn’s Sam Brown dropped a game-high 23 points, shooting 9-of-16 from the floor and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.
 
BROWN 70, PRINCETON 56
Brown (11-10, 3-5 Ivy) opened the weekend with a big win over Princeton (16-7, 5-3 Ivy). Kino Lilly Jr. recorded a team-high 17 points, shooting 5-of-11 from the floor and 3-of-8 from 3-point range. Forward N'famara Dabo contributed 13 points off the bench. The Bears closed the first half on a 17-4 run to take a 38-20 lead into halftime. Princeton’s Dalen Davis had a team-high 15 points.
 
HARVARD 75, CORNELL 73
Harvard (8-13, 3-5 Ivy) withstood a fierce comeback effort from Cornell (13-8, 5-3 Ivy) to pick up a crucial win. The Crimson led by 17 points at the break, but the Big Red shot 62 percent from the field in the second half to make it close at the end. Harvard had a quartet of double-digit scorers led by Thomas Batties II’s 21 points. The sophomore guard was 9-of-14 from the field. Cornell’s Cooper Noard posted a game-high 22 points and connected on four triples.
 
Action continues Saturday, starting with a battle between two of three teams tied a second in the standings with Cornell and Dartmouth clashing at 5 p.m. and wraps with Princeton and Yale squaring off on ESPNU at 8 p.m.