TOWSON, Md. -- Becoming the sixth Ivy League men's basketball player to reach 2,000 career points. An arena scoring record. A single-game school and arena record for 3-pointers made in a game. A career scoring high. Breaking a 60-year-old school career record for free throws made.
It was quite a night for Cornell senior guard
Matt Morgan, and he and his teammates capped off an 8-8 non-conference season with an 86-74 win over Towson on Wednesday evening at SECU Arena. The Tigers fell to 5-12 with the loss.
Morgan scored 38 points, including matching a Cornell record with nine treys, and added six points and four rebounds to lead three double figure scorers. His 3-pointer 2:09 into the second half pushed him past the 2,000 point mark, and his final made free throw with 70 seconds remaining moved him within five points of
Ryan Wittman's school record of 2,028. He also matched a career scoring best on his way to making 13-of-19 shots overall and 9-of-14 from beyond the arc.
Morgan was joined in double figures by
Josh Warren (18) and
Jimmy Boeheim (14). Warren added five assists, four rebounds and three blocked shots.
Steven Julian had a game-high 11 rebounds and added five points, two blocks and a steal as Cornell outrebounded Towson 39-37. The Tigers entered the game a one of the nation's leaders in rebounding margin at +6.8 per game.
The visitors shot 58 percent in the second half and 53 percent for the night and shot 13-of-30 from beyond the arc. Cornell was credited with 20 assists on its 31 made field goals.
Towson had five players in double figures with Tobias Howard leading the way with 15 points and seven assists. Brian Fobbs had 12 points, but shot just 5-of-20 from the floor, while Nakye Sanders (11), Jordan McNeil (11) and Allen Bertrand (10) also reached double figures. The Tigers led by as many as eight in the first half before a big Cornell run put the Tigers down by as many as 22 after halftime.
A 14-2 run to end the first half, with all the points coming from Morgan (nine) and Boeheim (five) allowed the Big Red to go into the break wit ha 40-33 lead. Morgan had 14 points, three assists and two rebounds in just 12 minutes in the first half, while Warren netted nine with three boards and three helpers. Julian chipped in four points, four rebounds, a block and an assist while playing stellar defense. Cornell dominated the glass in the first half against a Towson team that entered the game outrebounding opponents by 6.8 per game (19-15), outscoring the Tigers 8-0 in second chance points.
The second half was more of the same, with Cornell opening the half on a 19-4 run (extending the overall run to 33-6) over the first 5:38. Morgan scored 11 of his points during the run that put Towson behind by 22 (59-37). Only a late run in the final seconds got the home team within 11, but Cornell salted away the contest to head into league play with a .500 record and four true road wins.
NOTES TO KNOW
• Morgan extended his streak of consecutive double figure games to 67.
• He set single-game SECU Arena records for points (38) and 3-pointers made (nine).
• Morgan's free throw with 14:58 left in the half broke a tie with Louis Jordan '58 for the school's career free throw record, turning over a 60-year-old mark.
• He moved into second place on the Ivy League's career 3-point field goal list, surpassing Harvard's Laurent Rivard and now has 291 - but still 86 behind record holder
Ryan Wittman '10.
• Morgan's nine 3-pointers ties a single-game Cornell record shared with Alex Compton at Yale in 1996 and
Ryan Wittman at Syracuse in 2008.
• The Big Red will enter Ivy League play with three wins in its last four games since the holiday break.
•
Steven Julian had his third double figure rebounding game of the season and the seventh of his career.
• After making 22 3-pointers combined in its previous four games, Cornell has hit 24 in its last two.
NEXT UP
• Ivy League play begins on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. when Columbia visits Newman Arena.
• The Lions lead the all-time series 129-101, though the Big Red leads 18-14 over the last 16 seasons.
• The teams split the season series last winter, with Cornell earning an 82-81 win Ithaca on Jan. 27, 2018.
