Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell defense held Yale to 23 percent shooting and ran away with a 64-36 victory on Saturday evening at Newman Arena. Jeff Foote had a game-high 18 points, while reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Louis Dale had 10 to go along with six rebounds.

Foote hit on 8-of-12 shots from the floor and had five offensive rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Dale did his damage in just 19 minutes, hitting 4-of-7 shots and directing a Big Red offense that shot 46 percent in the victory. Cornell also outrebounded Yale 41-35. Ryan Wittman saw his streak of 19 straight games in double figures end with eight points, but moved past Cody Toppert '05 into eighth place on the school's career scoring list (1,233 points) and also jumped to second on the career 3-pointers list with 232.

Yale was led by eight points and five rebounds from Greg Mangano, who did most of his damage in the final five minutes. Chris Andrew also had seven points. The Bulldogs hit on 12 field goals while turning it over 14 times. 

Cornell scored the first basket of the game and never trailed, limiting Yale to 17 percent shooting in the first half (4-of-23) while holding Yale without a 3-pointer. For the game, the Bulldogs connected on just 1-of-11 shots from beyond the arc.

The Big Red emptied its bench with nine minutes to play with a 35-point lead and gave its bench plenty of playing time for the second straight night following a 90-58 victory over Brown on Friday evening. The 36 points is the fewest allowed by the Big Red against an Ivy League opponent since surrendering 35 points to Princeton in a 55-35 victory in 2006-07. The 60-point cumulative margin of victory on the weekend is the largest against Ivy League teams since the formation of the Ancient Eight.

Cornell's defense was stifling, and the crowd got into the play on that end of the floor early. By the time the starters came out for good with nine minutes left, Yale was shooting a paltry 18 percent from the floor (7-of-39) and hadn't hit a 3-pointer while trailing 55-20. 

Yale's three leading scorers entering the game, Alex Zampier (0-of-8), Russ Morin (2-of-11) and Travis Pinick (2-of-6) shot a combined 4-25 and totalled 11 points. 

It was a low scoring first nine minutes that set the tone. Wittman got a steal on the defensive end to start the contest, with Alex Tyler getting Cornell on the scoreboard with a 12-foot jumper. Pinick got an offensive putback to tie the game, but it would be another five minutes before Pinick would rattle home a jumper, cutting the Big Red's lead to 7-5 after converting the three-point play. Two minutes later, Dale sank a 3-pointer to give Cornell some breathing room at 12-5, and the visitors would cut it to 14-9 before the Big Red went on its first extended run.  The final 8:07 would see the Big Red go on a 20-4 run, including two thunderous dunks and 10 points total from Foote. Wittman added six of his points during the run, including an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer that sent Cornell into the break leading 34-13.

The second half wasn't much different, as Cornell scored the first four points on a pair of Wittman free throws and an offensive putback by Foote to extend the lead to 25. That continued the run that ended as a 40-9 spurt between the two halves and made up 18:35 of game time, putting Cornell up 36 with 10:21 remaining. Cornell emptied the bench a minute later, and the reserves continued the defensive intensity against a physical Bulldog squad.

Cornell will hit the road for its first full Ivy League road weekend starting at Princeton on Friday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. in Jadwin Gymnasium.