Princeton at Pennsylvania, 7:00 PM Eastern, Comcast Sportsnet-Philadelphia/ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com
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Due to some game being played at 8:00 Thursday night, this week has been dubbed “Rivalry Week”. Regardless of what you may or may not think of that game, tonight’s Under the Radar Game of the Day is definitely the top rivalry in the Ivy League and one of our favorite Under the Radar matchups. Princeton enters play tonight as one of only a small handful of teams remaining undefeated in conference play, 5-0 in the Ivy and 12-6 overall. The Tigers are coming off of a thrilling come-from-behind win at Harvard on Saturday. Steven Cook led the way in that game with 19 points and 9 rebounds, while Spencer Weisz added 13 points and 8 boards. Cook’s game-winning shot with under three seconds left put him at 999 career points, so expect him to celebrate point number 1000 tonight.
Princeton may be one of only a handful of teams that have not lost a conference game, but Penn on the other hand is among the small group that have yet to win one. The Quakers enter play tonight at 0-5 in the Ivy and 7-11 overall. They almost got that first win over the weekend, but came up 3 points short at Dartmouth. Despite the 0-5 conference mark, the Quakers did pick up a victory back on January 25 when they stepped out of league to play at Big Five rival La Salle, and won by 3 points. Freshman AJ Brodeur had a monster game for the Quakers in that win, scoring 35 points. He will need to channel some of that tonight for Penn, as Brodeur has failed to score in double digits since that victory. Princeton may look like the better team on paper tonight, but this is a rivalry game, and the stat books can and should be thrown out when these two rivals go head-to-head.