Box Score Box Score
RICHMOND, Va. -- For a long stretch during Thursday night's 86-80 victory over defending Southern Conference champion Wofford, people watching the game must have felt the Cornell men's basketball team couldn't miss. They were very nearly right. Cornell made 18 straight shots, hit 15 3-pointers (on 71 percent shooting) and made 64 percent of its shots overall to snap an eight-game skid and improve to 3-9 overall. Wofford, who has played one of the toughest schedules in the country, dropped the third-place game at the Richmond Marriott Holidays on the Hardwood Tournament to fall to 5-8.
The Big Red made the final seven shots of the first half and the first 11 of the second, including eight from beyond the arc. With 10 minutes left in the game, the Big Red was shooting 82 percent from the floor (27-of-33) and 80 percent from 3-point range (12-of-15). Though Cornell cooled off some late, its .638 from the floor as a team ranks sixth in a single game, while its .714 from 3-point range is the second-best in school history.The team's 15 3-pointers is tied for the third-most in a game in Cornell history.
Leading the way for the Big Red was the backcourt of juniors Chris Wroblewski and Drew Ferry, who combined to make 11-of-12 from beyond the arc. Wroblewski scored 21 points and had a career-high 12 assists with jusut one turnover while adding five rebounds. He made all four of his 3-pointers. Wroblewski's 12 assists ranks second in a single game at Cornell. Ferry drilled a career-high 25 points, making his first seven 3-pointers and ending the game 7-of-8 from deep. Sophomore Errick Peck scored 16 with three boards and Aaron Osgood notched 12 points.
Wofford, whose losses include games at Minnesota, Clemson, Georgetown, Xavier, South Carolina and VCU, shot 56 percent from the field and 47 percent from beyond the arc in the defeat. Reigning conference player of the year Noah Dahlman had 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting, while Cameron Rundles notched 20 points and both Tim Johnson and Jamar Diggs had 10 apiece. Johnson added a game-high 11 rebounds, nearly gathering half of his team's boards (23 team rebounds).
The first half was a shootout, as Cornell shot 73 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes and the Terriers hit on 65 percent as the Big Red went into the break up 40-38. A shakeup in the starting lineup brought increased energy despite falling behind early, as a pair of players (Josh Figini and Manny Sahota) who didn't enter Wednesday's loss to New Hampshire) opening the game earned their first career starts. Also in the lineup was Miles Asafo-Adjei and Peter McMillan, who combined to play 11 minutes the previous day, along with Peck.
Cornell got the first basket of the game on a driving layup by Peck, but the Terriers ran off 11 straight points over the next three minutes. After making its first six shots Wofford finally missed five and a half minutes in and Cornell started to answer.
Wroblewski's first field goal of the game cut it to 20-17, and his 3-pointer a minute later tied the game with just over eight minutes to play in the half. His searching dribble on the next possession found Wire for a trey to make it 23-20. A loose ball on the next play ended up in the hands of Ferry and the junior canned a 3-pointer to make it 26-20 with 7:08 left to extend the run to 21-5.
The first half went back and forth until the Terriers went up 38-37 when Kevin Giltner shot-faked and went right to evade a defender, then calmly drained a trey with 44 seconds to play. Cornel lcalmly ran the offense and waited for the final shot. Much like the Boston University game, Wroblewski dribbled the final 10 seconds off the clock from the top of the key and pulled up for an NBA-range 3-pointer, which he nailed to send Cornell into the break leading by two.
After sitting the first 10 minutes, Wroblewski had eight points and seven assists the rest of the half, including knocking down both of his 3-pointers. In all, 12 different players earned first half playing time. Ferry connected on all three of his 3-pointers for a team-best nine points, while Osgood joined Wroblewski with eight points. Cameron Rundles scored 11 first half points to lead all players, while Giltner had nine and Dahlman scored eight.
The second half began with consecutive treys by Ferry and Wroblewski to extend the lead to 46-40 a minute into the second half. Cornell continued to hit the 3-pointers, as Ferry and Peck drained deep shts to make the Big Red 12-of-15 for the game from beyond the arc with 15 minutes left in the second half. When Ferry hit his sixth trey without a miss a minute later the game went to 59-48 Big Red. Ferry made his seventh without a miss with 13:27 left to make it 64-50.
Ferry hit a driving layup to push the lead to 66-50, and after a Big Red steal, Wofford's Tim Johnson hammered Wroblewski on the break to draw an intentional foul. The junior hit the first of two free throws to make the lead 17. A running jumper in the lane by Peck was the 18th consecutive make as he restored a 17-point lead to the Big Red with 11:34 left. At the 10:11 mark, Wroblewski missed an off-balance jumper and Osgood's foolw was blocked for Cornell's first misses of the second half. Methodically, Wofford, a 26-win team a season ago that returned seven of its top eight scorers, worked its way back into the game. Eight straight points by Wofford cut the deficit to nine with 8:45 remaining.
The lead bounced between 8-10 points until a tip-in by Dahlman with five minutes left got Wofford to within six at 75-69, but a basket by Osgood on a great feed from Wroblewski, followed by two free-throws by the junior, extended it back to 10. A 3-pointer by Rundles cut the lead back to six (80-74) with 1:42 left, and eventually got back to four in large part thanks to poor free-throw shoting down the stretch, While Cornell was red-hot from the floor, the team made just 11-of-21 from the charity stripe (52 percent) in a statistical oddity, but made the final four with two from Peck and two more by Ferry in the final 24 seconds to seal the win.
The Big Red return to action to open the New Year when it plays host to Buffalo on Monday, Jan. 3 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena in Bartels Hall.
