All articles by Mike SullivanMarch 21, 2009
BOISE, Idaho — The first half prompted hope that a one-and-done NCAA tournament appearance could somehow be averted. Perhaps Cornell had drawn the coveted "Cinderella" card.
Then the second half began and it didn't take long for despair to set in.
Cornell's first-ever NCAA tourney victory will have to come another day in another season as the more-athletic Missouri Tigers rebounded from a sluggish first half and outclassed the Big Red in the second half to notch a 78-59 victory before 11,997 at Taco Bell Arena.
Missouri's slim four-point halftime lead grew to 11 early in the second half and the third-seeded Tigers steadily expanded their lead to close the door on Cornell's season.
"They make a great run to start the second half," said Big Red coach Steve Donahue, "and I thought our defense let up at that point."
Combined with an uncharacteristically poor shooting performance, 14th-seeded Cornell was powerless to get the lead back under single digits while seeing its season conclude with a 21-10 record.
Third-seeded Missouri (29-6), which received 23 points and 10 rebounds from forward Leo Lyons, advances to face Marquette in Sunday's second round.
Though Missouri's margin of victory looks impressive, the Tigers struggled to separate from Cornell in the first half. But in the eyes of Donahue, it was the failure to fully take advantage of the first 20 minutes that cost the Big Red a shot at the upset, and not the quick four-minute flurry the Tigers embarked on at the outset of the second half.
Junior forward Ryan Wittman, who scored a team-high 18 points, concurred with Donahue that the Big Red didn't get enough production out of their first-half opportunities after a half in which they shot 31.3 percent.
The shots didn't fall in the second half either as Cornell finished 35.9 percent from the field, nearly 12 percentage points lower than its season average.
Forward Alex Tyler (13 points) and center Jeff Foote (12 points) joined Wittman in double figures, but guard Louis Dale struggled mightily, hitting just 1 of 11 shots and scoring just 3 points.
The Big Red, shooting more than 41 percent from 3-point range, hit just 6 of 21 from deep (28.6) against the Tigers.
"I was disappointed in shots that I thought we could make," said Donahue, "and obviously a couple guys in particular just had bad days shooting."
Particularly impressive was that Cornell committed just nine turnovers — three in the first half, six in the second — against a Missouri defense known for wreaking havoc on opponents. It was the first time all season that a team playing the Tigers kept their turnover count in single digits.
However, Missouri coach Mike Anderson thought Cornell's concentration on avoiding mistakes helped his team more than it benefited the Big Red.
"To me, that played into our hands because they're more concerned about taking care of the ball than they are maybe trying to score or get into what they want to do," Anderson said. "They had like nine turnovers for the game but I thought our pressure defense was very, very effective."
Informed of Anderson's comments, Donahue said: "I'll respectfully disagree. I think the pressure helped us get open shots."
Certainly, both coaches agree that Missouri did more things right. But rest assured Anderson was concerned at halftime to be up by just 29-25.
The Big Red actually was leading 23-22 after Wittman's layup with 4:29 left before Missouri rolled off seven straight points.
An even more costlier sequence occurred shortly after Cornell scored the game's first five points. The Big Red would miss 10 of their next 11 shots as Missouri recovered to take a 13-8 lead.
But there wasn't an upset to be had and the Ivy League champions fly back home to Ithaca on Saturday to commiserate over the substandard showing.
"It's disappointing in the fact that we know we could have played better, we could have hit more shots and things might have turned out differently," Wittman said. "Any time your season ends like this, it's always difficult. Especially having four seniors — it was their last game.
"It's always difficult when your season ends like this, but we don't want to take anything away from what we accomplished earlier in the year."
Said Tyler: "A game like this, where we felt like we could have won if we played better, it's definitely disappointing, but none of our guys gave up."
Friday's Box Score MISSOURI 78, CORNELL 59
CORNELL (21-10) Foote 5-11 2-5 12, Wroblewski 3-8 0-0 7, Wittman 7-17 0-0 18, Dale 1-11 1-1 3, Tyler 5-9 3-4 13, Reeves 2-4 0-0 5, Battle 0-0 0-0 0, Mullen 0-0 0-0 0, Gore 0-1 0-0 0, Wire 0-0 0-0 0, Jaques 0-0 0-0 0, Wilkins 0-0 0-0 0, Kreefer 0-2 1-2 1, Reynolds 0-0 0-0 0, Hill 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-64 7-12 59.
MISSOURI (29-6) Carroll 4-8 4-4 13, Taylor 3-6 1-2 8, Tiller 4-9 3-4 11, Lyons 9-15 5-5 23, Lawrence 1-7 0-0 2, Denmon 1-4 0-0 2, Anderson Jr. 0-0 0-0 0, Ramsey 2-2 0-0 4, Safford 0-0 0-0 0, English 3-5 4-4 13, Moore 1-1 0-0 2, Paul 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-59 17-19 78.
BOISE, Idaho — A disappointed Louis Dale managed a polite chuckle when asked if he checked to see if the baskets were locked before departing Taco Bell Arena Friday.
The junior guard certainly couldn't unlock the mystery to getting the ball to slide through the nets. He was just 1-for-11 from the field in Cornell's loss to Missouri, missing several shots that he normally makes.
"They played good defense," Dale said of the Tigers while standing near the team bus. "They were really challenging every shot and I couldn't get it going today. I'm disappointed for my team.
"As the point guard, I feel I've got to play a lot better. People have bad games and give credit to Missouri. They did a great job."
That makes two tough shooting performances in NCAA tournament games for Dale. He hit just 4 of 16 shots against Stanford in last season's tourney.
Dale fared better at his other primary duty: He didn't commit a single turnover in 30 minutes against Missouri's fast-paced pressure defense. Cornell's nine turnovers are the fewest all season against the Tigers.
"Yeah, we did a great job being poised and strong with the ball and making the right pass to break the pressure," Dale said. "We did a great job of limiting turnovers."
Milestones for Wittman
Junior forward Ryan Wittman made four 3-pointers to finish the season with 97 treys, second most in Ivy League history. Wittman fell one short of the mark held by Dartmouth's Jim Barton (1988-89).
Wittman also set a Cornell record for single-season points (572), surpassing Mike Davis (557 in 1977-78), and broke his own school mark for 3-pointers in a season.
Trouble with ranked foes
Cornell's loss to ninth-ranked Missouri was its 16th in a row against teams in the Associated Press Top 25 dating back to a victory over Cal during the 1992-93 season. The Big Red is 3-61 all-time against ranked AP teams.
The Big Red couldn't cage the elusive Lyons, and the 6-foot-9 forward combined impressive skill and touch with snarling athleticism while prowling the interior at will and helping end Cornell's season.
Lyons had a game-high 23 points and also corralled 10 rebounds, and was easily the biggest difference in Friday's 78-59 Missouri victory in an NCAA tournament first-round game.
"Leo had it going on," Missouri coach Mike Anderson said. "He had a double-double and we know he's capable of it and I thought he played very athletic."
Lyons connected on 9-of-15 shots and four of his rebounds came on the offensive end as Cornell struggled to box him out.
Simply put, the Big Red had severe matchup troubles while defending the third-team All-Big 12 performer.
"We had a little quickness advantage when it came to rebounding," Lyons said. "I just tried to stay close around the rim and get a lot of those loose balls because they were getting all of them in the first half.
"I came into the second half with the mindset of trying to get them."
Three of Lyons' four offensive rebounds came in the second half and two of them came after Cornell had pulled to within 12 points — Missouri's largest lead was 18 — at two separate junctures of the second half.
On both occasions, Lyons missed his initial shot but rebounded his own miss and scored on the follow-up attempts. The second one gave the Tigers a 64-50 lead with 5:06 to play
Among the most impressed people watching Lyons dominate inside Taco Bell Arena was Cornell head coach Steve Donahue.
"I just think he's as good as it gets in college basketball," Donahue said. "A senior like that, (he) plays at a great pace, very skilled yet tough. When he misses his shot he has the ability to chase it down. He does it against all competition. That's what makes him really good."
Lyons' roughest moment of the game occurred in the second minute when he got hit in the groin and limped over to the Missouri bench. He returned four minutes later and quickly made up for lost time.
"I came back with the right mindset," Lyons said. "It gave me a chance to sit on the bench and look at the game and try to catch the speed and try to see what our strengths were."
Junior forward Alex Tyler was among the Cornell players who struggled to halt the assault by Lyons, who entered the contest averaging 14.2 points and 6.0 rebounds.
"I think that he's a very talented player and he works really hard," Tyler said. "So he was working on not only getting position but once we played (defense) pretty well, he would throw up a shot and get his own rebound. He just kept going after it. So I think that's what gave us a little bit of a problem."
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