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Photo Gallery (Photos by Patrick Shanahan)
ITHACA, N.Y. -- For the second straight year, the Cornell men's basketball team became the first team to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament with an outright Ivy League title, earning a dominant 83-59 win over pernnial Ivy contender Penn on Friday evening at Newman Arena. The Big Red's win, coupled with Princeton's 58-44 loss at Columbia, gave the preseason Ivy League favorite its second consecutive Ancient Eight title. Cornell improves to 20-9 (10-3 Ivy), while the Quakers slipped to 9-17 (5-7 Ivy).
The win gives Cornell its fourth NCAA tournament big and overall conference title in the program's history. It also extended its school-record home win streak to 20 games, the third-longest active stretch in the country. Among the other highlights was the program's third 20-win season all-time (first-ever stretch of consecutive 20-win seasons) and its second consecutive 10-win Ancient Eight campaign, a first since the 1964-65 to 1966-67 seasons.
Junior
Ryan Wittman, a favorite for Ivy League Player of the Year, had a statement game with 25 points, three rebounds and two blocked shots while hitting 6-of-10 from 3-point range. He was one of four players to reach double figures in scoring, joining
Louis Dale (13),
Chris Wroblewski (12) and
Alex Tyler (11). The Big Red shot 76 percent in the second half (19-of-25) to end the game at 58 percent, and held the Quakers to 38 percent shooting overall on the defensive end.
Jeff Foote added eight points, nine rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers in 25 minutes.
Along the way, Cornell broke last season's team record for 3-pointers in a season with its nine makes on the night, giving the squad 231, surpassing the 228 it hit in the 2007-08 season. The Big Red also became the first-ever Ivy League program to win consecutive league titles other than Penn or Princeton in the history of the conference.
Penn got 16 points from Rob Belcore, while both Brennan Votel and Zack Rosen added 10. Harrison Gaines had a solid all-around effort with eight points, seven rebounds and six assists and Kevin Egee chipped in seven points.
The Quakers came to play early, and Penn's hot shooting allowed it to get out of the gates quickly, forcing a Cornell timeout just 2:08 into the game when the visitors got out to a 7-2 advantage. The Quakers held the advantage much of the first half, wit hthe Big Red evening the game at 12-12 on a jumper by Dale, only to see Penn go back up with a quick 8-0 run fueled by 3-pointers by Belcore and Rosen. The game would be tied up at 20-20 as Cornell went on an 8-0 spurt of its own as Dale hit three driving layups during the spurt, including a floater in the lane. Cornell took its first lead of the game with 3:31 ledt when Foote scored on a putback to make it 28-26, and a Wroblewski 3-pointer off a broken play pushed the lead to five. Three late points by Tyler, including a layup on a play drawn up for the last possession sent the home team into the break up 34-28.
Both Dale (11 points) and Wittman (10 points) were in double figures by the break, while Foote had eight rebounds and Tyler five as Cornell held a 20-16 edge on the backboards. Cornell had just three turnovers at the break to help the team overcome 43 percent shooting from the floor. Rosen had seven points and three rebounds, but the Ivy League's leader in assists and assist:turnover ratio was held without a helper while committing a pair of turnovers.
The Big Red opened the second half with a well-designed play that saw Dale hit Wittman for a wide-open 3-pointer just 10 seconds in. Wittman then hit a tough pull-up jumper, followed by a layup underneath by Tyler on a great interior pass by Foote to make it 41-30. A Foote dunk on a pass from senior Jason Battle three minutes later pushed the Cornell lead back to nine after the Quakers had cut it to six.
While Cornell was starting to open its lead, Columbia had taken an eight-point lead with eight minutes to play against Princeton, and the buzz started building in the student section across from the benches. With the energy building, Cornell took control at the 11-minute mark. With a 49-41 lead after a pair of Gaines free throws, the Big Red went on a 21-5 run over the next six minutes to blow open the contest. Wittman hit three backbreaking treys during the spree to extend the lead to 24 and never looked back. Head coach Steve Donahue sent his seniors in to play together with a little more than two minutes to play and pulled them out to a standing ovation a minute later. The crowd again went bonkers when junior Andre Wilkins hit a 12-foot jumper to cap the scoring with 30 seconds to play. The ball went out of play as the clock expired and the student section spilled out onto the court. With the entire capacity crowd on the floor, Cornell's players took turns cutting down the nets on its home floor for the second straight year.
Cornell will close its regular season tomorrow when it meets Princeton (12-13, 7-5 Ivy) tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena. Prior to the game, the Big Red will honor its five seniors, Jason Battle, Khaliq Gant, Adam Gore, Brian Kreefer and Conor Mullen.
