ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell freshman
Matt Morgan became the school's freshman scoring leader as part of a 27-part performance, but Harvard rallied from a 21-point second half deficit to stun the Big Red 76-74 on Saturday evening at Newman Arena. The Crimson improved to 11-5 (3-7 Ivy) with the win, while Cornell fell to 9-15 (2-8 Ivy).
Morgan scored 22 points in a head-turning first half and set the record with a game-tying 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining. Not to be denied, Harvard regained the lead as Tommy McCarthy hit a floater with 5.5 seconds remaining. With one last chance, Morgan had the ball knocked away momentarily by Corey Johnson and couldn't recover in time to get off a game-tying effort. McCarthy ended the evening with 21 points, eight assists and five rebounds to lead the charge.
Morgan was the lone Cornell player in double figures with his 27 points, surpassing Ryan Wittman's 436 points from the 2006-07 campaign to top the charts. He finished the contest with 439 points. Morgan hit 5-of-10 3-pointers and Cornell hit 11 as a team, including an 8-of-13 effort in the first half in building a 46-31 lead at the break.
The second half started out all Cornell as well, building the lead to as many as 21 points with 9:02 remaining after freshman
Joel Davis hit a 3-pointer. The Big Red would only hit one more field goal the rest of the way, as Morgan's long bomb with under a half-minute to play tied the contest at 74-74, setting up McCarthy's heroics.
After shooting 63 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes, Cornell was limited to 28 percent after the break, including just seven field goals.
Joel Davis had a career-high nine points,
JoJo Fallas and
Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof each had eight and
Robert Hatter had seven points, seven rebounds and six assists. The Big Red had 10 team steals, but committed 17 turnovers themselves.
Besides McCarthy, Agunwa Okolie had 16 points and seven rebounds, Zena Edosomwan had 13 points and a game-high 10 boards and Corey Johnson scored 10 to round out four double figure scorers.
Cornell dominated the first 20 minutes with an amazing energy, making its first six 3-pointers and seven of its first eight en route to a 27-10 lead after
Jordan Abdur-Ra'oof's 3-pointer with less than eight minutes into the contest. Morgan scored all 22 of his points in the first half during an electric 10-minute span that put the Crimson on their heels.
The final 10 minutes was all Harvard though, and the Crimson erased all of a 21-point deficit to take a late lead in just 6:49 as Harvard scored on its final 14 possessions of the game while the Big Red missed nine straight shots and had four turnovers before Morgan nearly was able to play hero with his deep 3-pointer to knot the game in the final 30 seconds.
NOTES TO KNOW•
Matt Morgan became the school's career freshman scoring leader with his 27-point performance, giving him 439 points to surpass Ryan Wittman '10 for first and, at the same time, move into the top 20 in single-season scoring for any Big Red player (19th).
• Morgan has posted 10 games this season with at least 20 points and six with least 25 points.
• With his blocked shot,
David Onuorah became the fifth player in school history to reach 40 blocked shots in a season twice.
• Cornell's 11 3-pointers give the team 206 on the season, surpassing 200 for the fourth time in six seasons under head coach
Bill Courtney.
• Freshman
Joel Davis scored a career-high nine points.
NEXT UP• The Big Red closes out its regular season road schedule when it visits Penn (Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.) and Princeton (Saturday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.).
• Both contests will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.
