Ivy Basketball Standings Tighten As Tigers Lose

The Ivy's League's traditionally topay-turvy basketball race was topsier and turvier than ever Saturday after lowly Columbia pinned a shocking 69-66 upset on defending champion Princeton.

The Lions, consigned to seventh place in the league by most experts, grabbed a 12-point halftime lead and withstood Princeton's second half rush. The Tigers' phenomenal All-American Bill Bradley scored 32, but none of his teammates even got into double figures.

In another Saturday surprise, Cornell walloped Penn 35 to 70 and took a precarious lead in the Ivy standings. On Friday the Big Red had been handed their first league defeat by Princeton, 37 to 32, as Bradley dumped in 49 points.

With a 2-1 Ivy record, Harvard stands in fourth place behind Cornell (4-1), Penn (3-1), and Princeton (3-1). This weekend's results must be encouraging to Crimson followers; last week the quintet whipped giant-killing Columbia, and lost by a scant three points to Cornell.

Harvard returns to Ivy competition Jan. 31 at Brown, and should have little trouble handling the Bruins. But the next night the Crimson will play an extremely important contest at Yale. The Elis were co-favorites with Princeton for the Ivy championship, but are off to a slow start this year. An upset over the Blue could give Harvard a genuine shot at a high finish in the league this season.