ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell fought off a feisty Princeton team to claim its fourth straight victory, a 50-47 win over the Tigers on Friday night at Newman Arena. The Big Red never trailed while improving to 24-4 overall and 10-1 in the Ivy League. Princeton fell to 16-8 (7-3 Ivy).
Senior center Jeff Foote led the Big Red with 19 points, while classmate Ryan Wittman added 12 points, half coming on a perfect 6-for-6 effort from the foul line. Wittman converted two free throws with 2.8 seconds left to account for the final margin leaving the Tigers with the challenge of inbounding the pass and getting in position for a desperation 3-point attemp which did not come close.
Foote and Wittman each lead Cornell with five rebounds apiece, with Foote adding two blocks and making 6-of-7 shots from the floor.
Dan Mavraides scored 13 poinits and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Tigers, who got 11 and 10 points from Kareem Maddox and Pawel Buczak, respectively.
Cornell led by just a pair, 26-24, at the half. The Big Red's largest lead was a nine-point cushion, 16-7, at the 10:22 mark of the first half. Princeton then outscored Cornell 17-10 the rest of the opening stanza to make it anyone's game at the half.
A nip-and-tuck battle ensued in the second half with Cornell leading by no more than eight points. The Big Red took a 38-31 lead with 9:58 to play. Buczak hit a driving layup with 2:31 left to pull within 45-43. Princeton would get no closer than one point the rest of the way before Wittman converted the two crucial free throws.
The Big Red returns to action Saturday when they host Penn at Newman Arena at 7 pm.
By Brian Delaney
The Ithaca Journal
February 26, 2010
ITHACA -- Playing against Sydney Johnson's hardened version of Princeton basketball, Cornell refused to succumb to the inevitable pangs of frustration.
The deliberate pace. Possessions that lasted a full 35 seconds. The physical, take-away-what-you-do-best defensive mindset.
"It's real tough," Cornell center Jeff Foote said. "Every possession is just magnified so much. It's a tough, grind-out game."
And so it was Friday night. On a a court where no Ivy League team has won since the 2006-07 season, Princeton very nearly defended its way back into first place.
However, Ryan Wittman hit two free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining and Dan Mavraides' desperation 3-point attempt from near midcourt fell well short as Cornell moved closer to a third league championship with a 50-47 victory over the Tigers in front of 4,473 at Newman Arena.
"You've just got to be tough mentally," senior Alex Tyler said. "They like to talk; they like to get in you. You just have to remain poised and just gut it out. That's what we did."
Princeton held Cornell (24-4, 10-1) to just four field goals in the second half. But the Big Red converted 22 of 25 free throws, and 15 of 17 in the second half, to earn a second three-point win over the Tigers this season.
The biggest thorn in Princeton's side? Foote, but not only because of his consistent post play. A sub-60 percent foul shooter on the season, Foote made seven of eight from the stripe, six of seven from the field and finished with 19 points.
"Without free throws, we wouldn't have won tonight," Foote said.
Princeton coach Sydney Johnson had no qualms about playing Foote as physically as possible. But the Tigers caught Foote on the wrong shooting night.
"That's his Achilles heel, so to speak," Johnson said. "And he made them."
The win gave Cornell (24-4) a commanding two-game lead atop the Ivy League standings at 10-1, with three games remaining. Princeton (16-8, 7-3) and Harvard (19-6, 8-3) are two games back in the loss column. Cornell can clinch a share of its third straight Ivy title by beating Penn Saturday night.
railing by three with about 17 seconds left, Princeton took a timeout to set up what should have been a game-tying 3-point attempt. But Cornell hounded the Tigers' perimeter shooters, and Mavraides opted to drive to the basket and score inside to make it 48-47 with 4.7 seconds left.
It was an instinctive play, but it left Princeton with precious little time to complete a potential comeback.
"Obviously, we talked (in the timeout) a lot about wanting a 3," Johnson said. "I think all our guys are smart players, but we haven't executed perfectly down the stretch in those moments, and we'll address that. By no means do I feel like that -- and it's a big play -- but I don't think it decided the game."
Princeton entered the game leading the nation in scoring defense, and used the same suffocating team defensive system to hold Cornell in check.
The Tigers just fouled a few too many times.
Fouled shooting a 3 with 2:05 remaining, Louis Dale knocked down three free throws for a 48-43 lead. The teams traded misses before Mavraides was fouled and hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to cut the Tigers' deficit to three with 55.8 seconds left.
Every time Cornell extended its lead, Princeton had an answer. But the Tigers never led.
Cornell's largest cushion of the second half was 38-30, moments after Johnson was whistled for a technical for arguing a call. Afterward, the third-year coach said there were some issues he did not want to comment on -- but he clearly was unhappy with the officiating.
"There were some things going on out there, just the competitor in me felt like I didn't want to accept," he said. "I encourage people who care a lot about Princeton basketball to watch that tape, and maybe they might agree."
Princeton forced Wittman and Dale into a combined 3-for-16 shooting effort. Cornell shot 35.1 percent from the field, the first time this year it has been held under 40 percent.
Still, Cornell can clinch the Ivy title outright Saturday night with a win over Penn, a Columbia win over Princeton and a Yale win over Brown. At 24-4, Cornell is the winningest non-Penn/Princeton team in Ivy League history.
"It just feels real good, and we control our own destiny," sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski said.
Princeton's deliberate style at both ends of the court zapped energy from the home crowd, and the final 10 minutes of the first half took on the feel of a game at a neutral site.
If not for Foote, the Tigers wouldn't have trailed 26-24. The 7-foot senior center scored half of Cornell's points. The rest of the team shot 4-for-16, including three unusual airballs -- two from Wittman -- and a couple chippies inside.
Cornell led by as many as nine at 16-7, but two fouls apiece to Wroblewski and Dale stunted the Big Red's offense. Dale sat the final 8:32, and Princeton capitalized on the former player of the year's absence.
Kareem Maddox was key. The 6-foot-8 junior scored nine points and grabbed three of his team's seven offensive rebounds.
But Princeton failed to take a lead early in the second half, and was forced to play catch-up throughout.
Cornell was tough defensively, most notably junior Geoff Reeves. In 23 minutes, Reeves helped hold Princeton leading scorer Doug Davis to just four points on 2-of-11 shooting. On Feb. 13, Davis scored 20 in Cornell's 48-45 victory.
Victory Gives Red Two Game Ivy Lead with Three to Play
For the second time this month, the Cornell Big Red and the Princeton Tigers played a physical, intense, and ugly game, but once again the Cornell Big Red eeked out a three-point victory against Princeton, this time by a score of 50-47 at Newman Arena Friday night.
Center Jeff Foote led Cornell with 19 points on 6-7 shooting from the field. Forward Ryan Wittman, who struggled in the first half but made some critical free throws in the second half, finished with 12.
Coming into the game, Princeton held its Ivy League opponents to an average of 13 points per game fewer than the next best team, and they were able to impose their style on Cornell. The Red shot just 35% from the field and was just 2-9 from behind the arc. Long possessions and tough, contested shots characterized the game for both teams.
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue noted afterward that the game was an “extremely hard-fought basketball game where neither team wanted to give an inch.” “You gotta embrace [Princeton's] style and I think that's what we did…they force you to play that way.” Wittman added, “everything's not gonna be pretty…they make you use the whole 35-second shot clock.”
Cornell led the entire game and by as many as nine early in the first half, but the game remained very close thereafter. Cornell led 38-30 with just under 11 minutes remaining, shortly after a technical foul on Princeton coach Sydney Johnson, but a 9-2 Princeton run capped by a Dan Mavraides three cut the lead to one.
Cornell guard Louis Dale made all three foul shots after being fouled on a three-pointer with just over two minutes left to give Cornell a 48-43 lead. Mavraides responded, however, with a pair of foul shots in the final minute and a lay-up with 4 seconds left to bring the Tigers within one. Princeton then fouled Wittman, who made a pair of clutch free throws. The Tigers' inbound pass ricoheted off forward Kareem Maddox's hands at halfcourt and went to Mavraides, who missed badly on a desperation three from just inside halfcourt as time expired.
Early on, Jeff Foote keyed the Red. Being guarded mainly by one defender, he was able to post up effectively, scoring 13 first half points on 5-5 shooting. No other Cornell player had more than one field goal in the half.
“I felt like I had a little bit of an advantage,” said Foote, who is three inches taller than any Tiger who played tonight. “I kinda knew their tendencies” on defense.
Princeton doubled Foote more often in the second half, limiting him to six points in the final twenty minutes. Foul shooting and stingy defense saved the Red, who did not make a field goal in the final 7:19. Cornell shot 22-25 from the line, compared to 7-11 for Princeton.
“For the most part, we were really solid without fouling” on defense, Donahue said. He added that Cornell guard Geoff Reeves “really bothered” Doug Davis, who only scored 4 points after scoring 20 the last time these teams met.
In the final six minutes, Cornell was 8 of 9 from the foul line. Foote, who had struggled in previous weeks from the charity stripe, was 7-8 from the line.
The win puts Cornell two games in front of Princeton and Harvard in the Ivy League standings. The Red have three games remaining, and can clinch the Ivy League outright tomorrow night with a win and losses by both Princeton and Harvard.
Cornell returns to action for what promises to be an emotional Senior Night tomorrow against Penn. You can hear that game live on WVBR 93.5-FM or online at wvbr.com.
Box ScoreITHACA, N.Y. -- For the second time in as many weeks, Princeton’s men’s basketball team forced Cornell to play at its pace, and yet the Tigers came up three points short.
Princeton never led in its 50-47 loss at Cornell Friday night, yet the Tigers never let the game get away.
It wasn’t much of a consolation prize immediately after such a hard-fought defeat, but in a much more hostile environment, and against the two-time defending Ivy champions, Princeton didn’t let this one unfold like it did six days ago against Brown.
“On the heels of Saturday, where I think we disappointed ourselves, it was a tremendous effort,” said Sydney Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green ’40 head coach of men’s basketball. “Our guys responded really well in terms of how much harder they needed to play, and I’m encouraged by that.”
The Cornell (24-4, 10-1 Ivy) win gives the Big Red a stranglehold on the Ivy League race, up two games in the loss column with only three to play.
Being so close to surprising the preseason favorite Big Red and yet coming up short may feel like a disappointment now, but the effort shows the Tigers (16-8, 7-3) are moving in the right direction.
“It’s frustrating. It’s definitely frustrating,” junior Dan Mavraides said. “This year you had to beat Cornell to win the Ivy League championship, and we came up short.”
Mavraides led the Tigers with 13 points on the night, and one of his plays on defense sums up the effort Princeton brought in front of a sellout crowd of 4,473 in Ithaca.
Down 42-39 with less than seven minutes left, Mavraides had Cornell’s Chris Wroblewski well defended against his own basket. Wroblewski looked to have slipped past Mavraides’ initial attempts to push the ball loose, and yet Mavraides kept at it, knocking the ball loose on his third attempt.
“From our standpoint, that’s what we’ve been doing all year is playing tough defense and that’s how we got to where we are today,” Mavraides said.
Mavraides hit the floor to secure the steal and called timeout, leading to a Davis bucket that made it a one-point game.
Cornell led by five with one minute left before Mavraides hit a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game with 55 seconds left. At the other end, Zach Finley grabbed a missed Wroblewski shot with 24 seconds to go, and the Tigers called timeout to set up a game-tying play.
“We talked a lot about wanting a three,” Johnson said. “I think all our guys are smart players, but we haven’t executed perfectly down the stretch in those moments. It was a big play, but by no means do I think it decided the game.”
After being unable to get a good enough look at a three-point attempt, Mavraides cut to the basket for a layup. While the score made it a one-point game, it didn’t leave Princeton much time to answer after the obligatory foul to send Cornell to the line.
Ryan Wittman, who finished with 12 points, hit both free throws and left 2.1 seconds on the clock for a last-gasp attempt.
Princeton was only able to throw the inbounds pass to mid-court, and with a deflection in between, time ran out on the Tigers.
Princeton was able to hold Cornell to a season-low 34.2 percent shooting, but Big Red center Jeff Foote did what he needed to do for his team to pull though. The 7-foot senior, who entered the game second in all of Division I in field goal percentage, hit 6 of 7 shots. Just as importantly, he belied his 56.5 free-throw shooting percentage to make 7 of 8 from the line.
Though the loss makes it unlikely that the Tigers will hoist an Ivy League championship trophy in 2010, perhaps Princeton will be able to hold on to something less tangible with its first 20-win campaign since 2004 still within reach.
“I don’t think there’s a guy out there who didn’t play hard tonight for Princeton,” Johnson said.
Win or lose, that’s really all any fan can ask.
8:31 AM
seo all
