Box Score Box Score
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team closed out an undefeated season at Newman Arena, capturing its 13th win of the year at home and 21st consecutive overall with a 60-51 victory over Princeton on Saturday evening. After earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on Friday evening, the Big Red showed little signs of a letdown in improving to 21-9 overall (11-3 Ivy), while the Tigers head into Tuesday's season finale at Penn with a 12-14 mark (7-6 Ivy).
Ryan Wittman had a team-high 12 points to lead four double figure scorers. The junior added four assists and zero turnovers in 39 minutes against Princeton's slow-it-down, grind-it-out defense. Louis Dale added 11 points and four rebounds, while both Chris Wroblewski and Alex Tyler chipped in with 10 points apiece. Jeff Foote was a dominating presence in the paint, scoring six points, grabbing nine rebounds, dishing off three assists and blocking three shots without committing a turnover. Cornell shot 51 percent from the floor and limited the Tigers to 35 percent from the floor.
Cornell seniors Brian Kreefer (six points), Jason Battle (two rebounds, two steals), Conor Mullen (one rebound) and Adam Gore (five points, one assist) all got the starts on senior day, with Mullen heading out for the tip for the first time in his collegiate career. The quartet, along with fifth-year senior Khaliq Gant, were honored in a pregame ceremony. Then with the pageantry behind them, the Big Red grinded out yet another home victory.
Douglas Davis kept the Tigers in the game with 16 points, but shot just 5-of-14 from the floor. Patrick Saunders added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds in the loss, while senior Marcus Schroeder had nine points and four rebounds. Princeton, which entered the weekend with control of its own destiny in the Ivy League race, was swept out of the way with Friday night's loss, and Saturday's loss gauranteed Princeton a losing record overall.
The Big Red got out of the gates quickly in the rush of emotions with the seniors on the floor. Kreefer put the home team on the scoreboard on a terriffic find from Battle two minutes into the game triggering a 7-0 Big Red run. Gore hit a long 3-pointer, followed by a pull-up jumper by Dale just outside the lane to make it a 7-2 Big Red edge. Cornell would never again trail, but it would far from run away with the game.
The resilient Tigers knotted the game at 7-7 only to see Cornell pull ahead again with another 7-0 burst that included a conventional three-point play by Wittman, a basket by Wroblewski on a step-through jumper and a fine interior pass by the freshman inside for a layup. Cornell built its leasd to 10 at 24-14 on consecutive baskets by Tyler and Dale with three minutes left, then Dale connected again to make it 26-14 with 1:19 left in the half. The home team would allow a late 3-pointer by Davis, but got a defensive stand in the final seconds to enter halftime leading 26-17.
The nine-point halftime lead quickly became 15 (35-20) by opening the final 20 minutes with a 9-3 run and Cornell looked to finally be ready to pull away, but again the Tigers held its ground. Over a five-minute span in the slowed down game, Saunders hit a pair of treys and Davis hit another to get back within six (42-36) with 11:56 remaining. The Big Red answered with a mini-run of its own, getting baskets on three consecutive possessions with Tyler and Foote the benficiaries of great interior passing and Dale doing it himself for a three-point play to make the score 49-38 with under 10 minutes left.
While the lead would grow to 13, Princeton would once more cut it to six with under a minute left on free throws by Davis, but the Big Red made six of seven free throws down the stretch to earn the victory.
Cornell will now await its NCAA fate when Selection Sunday rolls around on Sunday, March 15 at 6 p.m. on CBS. The first round of the 2009 NCAA tournament will be played on Thursday, March 19 or Friday, March 20.
