Although Penn and Cornell both met with upset defeats last weekend in Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League action, Ivy League court followers are of the belief that tomorrow night's contest between these co-favorites at Philadelphia should prove an important factor in determining the ultimate winner of the title.

Both squads suffered only one loss in league competition, but Cornell's third victory Monday night, a 38 to 35 decision over Dartmouth at Hanover, places the Ithacans in third place, half-a-game ahead of the Quakers, who have two triumphs. Still undefeated and leading the league are Columbia and Princeton, with two wins apiece.

The Penn-Cornell affair will be the last Ivy League court action until after midyear examinations, when Princeton and Columbia settle their first place dispute at New York on February 5. The Crimson returns to league competition on February 8, opposing Princeton on the Tigers floor.

Individual scoring statistics, released yesterday by the league office in New York, place Yale's Tony Lavelli in first place with 68 points in five contests, an average of 13.6 per game. Dartmouth's Ed Leedo has averaged almost 16 markers per encounter, but his overall total of 58 points in four games places him behind Lavelli. The Crimson has played in only two league engagements, so that none of its scorers rate high on the league ladder. George Hauptfuhrer leads Bill Barelay's squad with 25 points in Ivy action, a figure which nets him seventeenth place at the moment.

In the Eastern Intercollegiate swimming league, the Varsity team has yet to get its feet wet, but meets held thus far show a three-way tie for the lead between Dartmouth, Princeton and Yale. Coach Hal Ulen's charges enter Ivy contention against thrice-beaten Army at the Indoor Athletic Building on February 8.