Below, game recaps from Cornell's 78-66 win over St. Joseph's of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Above, a video clip from WBNG (CBS News Binghamton) and coverage of the post game press conference..
By Brian Delaney
Ithaca Journal
December 7, 2009
The rotation of influencing roles over the first nine games has changed so rapidly that it's difficult for opposing coaches, like Saint Joseph's Phil Martelli, to keep up. The scouting report typically starts with seniors Jeff Foote, Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale, but it has lengthened considerably from this time a year ago.
In Cornell's 78-66 victory Sunday over the Hawks, Cornell senior Jon Jaques scored a collegiate-best 15 points in his first start, 11 of which came in a snowballing 25-4 run to start the second half. Classmate Geoff Reeves added 13 points and keyed a backbreaking mini-run that answered the Hawks' comeback attempt for good.
"I love their mental balance. Forget their physical balance, like who do you shut down, Wittman or Dale? Foote?" Martelli said. "I would say to you, it's not just the balance in that this guy might get 12 and that guy may get 15. To me, it's the mental balance. Every guy knows what he's doing. Every guy on the floor has every offensive assignment cold. That's a tribute to coaching and a tribute to the makeup of the players."
Much like Cornell's other recent wins, there were a few head-scratching sequences mixed in. Poor shooting had been a culprit; defensive struggles and foul trouble, too. This time, it was foul trouble and miscues. Foote played just six minutes before picking up his second foul, and the Big Red committed an uncharacteristic 12 turnovers in a first half that ended in a 30-30 deadlock. Cornell never trailed, thanks in part to St. Joe's woeful 29 percent shooting.
And despite turning it over on the first possession of the second half, the flood gates opened quickly. Louis Dale and Chris Wroblewski ignited a 12-0 burst with back-to-back 3-pointers, which were soon followed by a Foote-to-Jaques layup and a Jaques 3-pointer.
Carl Jones' two treys gave St. Joe's a brief respite, but Cornell followed with an 11-0 spurt. Wittman drained a long 3 and, after Martelli picked up a technical, made two free throws for a 55-34 lead with 13:50 remaining.
"Usually we put five guys out there who can pass it, they all can shoot it, all can dribble so I think we are difficult to play that way," Donahue said. "I think when you do that, we can make runs like that."
Then Reeves made his presence felt.
The stealthy 6-foot-4 senior alertly stole the outlet pass, and 10 seconds later knocked down a 3. A steal in the open court and layup by Wittman then made it 64-49.
"I like to take chances," Reeves said. "It definitely got us going. Lots of times, a turnover like that will lead to a 3."
Said Donahue: "I thought that was a critical play, because they were kind of on a roll."
Wittman led all scorers with 17 points, while Chris Wroblewski added 15 points and six assists. Williamson's 14 points topped the Hawks (3-4), who have dropped four straight since a 3-0 start. Leading scorer Darrin Govens finished 1-for-7 from the field for 10 points. His only bucket came with 19 seconds left.
"They're a very confident group," Martelli said. "Very efficient and very, very confident."
Donahue's confidence in Jaques was evident Sunday. His point (15) and minute (23) totals were collegiate highs, and he banked a few more trust points with his coach.
"I thought I'd go out and play hard and take advantage of the opportunities I had," said Jaques, who benefited directly from double-teams on Foote. "I anticipated them not guarding me very much. It was a little awkward being open the whole game like that."
His play was the continuation of an interesting pattern since Tyler's injury. Like Adam Wire against Vermont, Mark Coury against Drexel and Errick Peck against Bucknell, Cornell's bench has been a carousel of production at the power forward.
CORNELL 78, SAINT JOSEPH'S 66
SAINT JOSEPH'S (3-4) Hilliard 3-6 3-5 9, Irwin 3-9 2-3 8, Prescott 1-3 0-0 2, Govens 1-7 7-8 10, Williamson 4-11 6-8 14, O'Brien 2-5 2-2 6, Bentley 2-5 0-0 6, Crosgile 1-2 0-0 3, Jones 3-6 1-2 8, Baptiste 0-1 0-0 0, Rogers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-55 21-28 66.
CORNELL (7-2) Wittman 6-11 2-3 17, Jaques 6-13 2-2 15, Foote 3-4 1-2 7, Wroblewski 5-8 2-2 15, Dale 2-7 0-0 5, Peck 0-2 0-0 0, Groebe 0-0 0-0 0, Wilkins 0-0 0-0 0, Reeves 5-8 0-0 13, Asafo-Adjei 0-0 0-0 0, Wire 0-0 0-0 0, Reynolds 0-0 0-0 0, Coury 3-4 0-0 6, Chemerinski 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-57 7-9 78.
December 6, 2009
The men’s basketball team made the first move towards reestablishing its home win streak, soundly defeating Saint Joseph’s, 78-66, on Sunday at Newman Arena. Cornell has now won five games in a row and moves to 7-2 on the season. Senior forward Ryan Wittman led both teams with 17 points and was one of four Red players in double-figures, but the real story on the day was senior forward Jon Jaques, who, making his first collegiate start in place of injured fellow tri-captain Alex Tyler, notched a career-high 15 points, exceeding his previous personal best by eight.
The Red got out to a quick 8-2 start thanks largely to back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski and Wittman. Although Cornell never trailed in Sunday’s contest, the Hawks’ ability to capitalize on the home team’s turnovers went a long way to keeping the score close –– that is until senior guard Darrin Govens drained both of his free throw attempts to knot things up at 30 heading into halftime.However, Cornell would respond with a vengeance coming out of the locker room, exploding for a 25-4 run over the first six minutes of second-half play. Senior guard Louis Dale initiated the offensive surge with his first 3 of the game, and Wroblewski and Jacques promptly followed suit, contributing one trey each.
At 14:17, Jacques picked up his first steal of the game, and was intentionally fouled by junior forward Idris Hilliard en route to the hoop. He converted on both free throw attempts and added to his point total less than 10 seconds later with a layup on an assist by senior center Jeff Foote. After being held scoreless during the first 20 minutes of play, Foote managed to pick up seven points in the second frame, and finished with five rebounds, three assists and a block.
Following his teammates’ example, Wittman drained his third 3-pointer of the game to make it 53-34. The Hawks’ bench was then given a technical foul, sending Wittman to the line, who made both free throws to hand the Red its largest lead of the game at 21.
St. Joe’s would make a couple mini-runs in the second half, pulling to within 10 with 8:14 remaining, but nothing the Hawks summoned was enough to derail the Red from procuring a relatively routine 78-66 win.
Despite finding himself in foul trouble, Dale collected five boards and dished out six assists en route to a five-point night, also contributing a block and two steals. Wroblewski and Reeves were the third and fourth Red players in double-figures –– with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Both were 3-for-5 from long-distance range. Cornell received solid play from its bench, specifically in the form of senior forward Mark Coury, who registered six points, six rebounds, a block and a steal.
Cornell committed 19 turnovers, 12 of which came in the first half –– matching Saint Joseph’s total for the game. The Red held the Hawks to 36.4 percent shooting, and just 29.4 percent from beyond the arc. The home team, meanwhile, shot 52.6 percent overall and 45.8 percent from downtown.
Cornell will return to the court on Dec. 20 to take on Davidson in the first round of the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival.
Box Score
Press conference video (to come)
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell opened the second half on a 25-4 run and held off several Saint Joseph's charges after halftime to extend its win streak to five games, knocking off the Hawks 78-66 on Sunday afternoon at Newman Arena. The Big Red improved to 7-2, while Saint Joseph's fell to 3-4.
Senior Ryan Wittman led four Big Red players in double figures with 17 pointsm while Chris Wroblewski and Jon Jaques each had 15. Wroblewski added six assists and three rebounds. Jaques, in his first collegiate start, added two rebounds, and assist and a steal in 23 minutes. Also hitting for double figures was Geoff Reeves, who scored 13 points and had four rebounds. Jeff Foote had sebem points, rive rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes, while his backup, Mark Coury, had six points and six rebounds off the bench. Despite battling foul trouble, Louis Dale had five points, five rebounds and six assists. The bIg Red shot 53 percent from the floor, limited the Hawks to 36 percent shooting and held a 34-31 edge on the backboards. Only its 19 turnovers kept Saint Joseph's in the game.
Garrett Williamson had 14 points, three assists, three steals and two blocks to lead the Hawks, while leading scorer Darrin Govens was held to 10 points on 1-of-7 shooting from the floor. Idris Hilliard had nine points and both Bryant Iriwn and Carl Jones notched eight. The Hawks got to the free-throw line 28 times to just nine for the Big Red and made 10 steals.
The Big Red uncharacteristically struggled with turnovers in the first 20 minutes, giving up the ball 12 times, but were able to maintain the lead for much of the half due to its solid 6-of-13 effort from 3-point range.
The hot shooting continued into the second half, as the Big Red hit consecutive treys from Dale and Wroblewski to get the lead back early in the second 20 minutes. Run was extended to 12-0 before the Hawks hit a free throw to stem the tide, but six consecutive points by Jaques, including a pair of free throws after an intentional foul was called on Saint Joseph's, helped extend the run to 25-4 over the first 6:10 of the half.
Saint Joseph's got back within 10 and had the ball twice with an opportunity to cut to within single digits, but Reeves stole an outlet pass and nailed a trey to push the cornell lead back to 62-49, and it only got back to within 12 when Govens hit his only shot of the night with 19 seconds left to cap the scoring.
Cornell will attempt to extend its win streak to six games when it meets Davidson in the first round of the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival on Sunday, Dec. 20 at noon. Cornell will meet either St. John's or Hofstra the following day in the championship/consolation game.
Dec. 6, 2009
ITHACA, N.Y. - Senior Garrett Williamson scored 14 points and classmate Darrin Govens added 10 but it wasn't enough as the Saint Joseph's men's basketball team lost its fourth straight game on Sunday, falling 78-66 at Cornell's Newman Arena.
Cornell had five players in double figures, led by Ryan Wittman's 17 points.
Cornell (7-2) led throughout the first half, but Saint Joseph's (3-4) never trailed by more than seven despite shooting just 29 percent from the field. The Big Red took a 30-23 lead with 2:13 to go in the frame, but the Hawks drew even at the break with a 7-0 run keyed by four points from sophomore Todd O'Brien.
The second half was more of the same for SJU as the Hawks ended up shooting just 36 percent from the floor for the contest. The Big Red, however, opened the period with a 12-0 run to build a 42-30 lead. A free throw from freshman Carl Jones stopped the run four minutes in, but Cornell would build the lead back up to 48-34.
A bucket by Williamson with 8:13 to go cut the deficit to 59-49, but Cornell scored seven of the next eight points, including five from Jeff Reeves, to go up 66-50. Jeff Foote then took over for the Big Red, scoring Cornell's next six points as CU took a 72-58 lead.
Cornell shot 60 percent from the floor in the second half and made five of 11 three-point attempts. For the game, the Big Red shot 11-of-24 from long range while the Hawks went 5-for-17.
"In the first half we had a real good mental and physical effort defensively," said Saint Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli. "In the second half there were breakdowns - missed assignments, slow reactions - and that's one of the things with my team that I've seen now over seven games."
"We have a tough time right now stopping the boulder coming at you. We're not able yet to do that. That's going to take every guy stepping up and giving it more of a mental approach."
The Hawks return to action Wednesday night as the rival Villanova Wildcats visit The Palestra in this season's renewal of the "Holy War." Tip-off is slated for 9:00 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
Cornell pummels slumping St. Joe's
ITHACA, N.Y. - Ryan Wittman scored 17 points yesterday to lead four players in double figures as Cornell beat St. Joseph's, 78-66, at Newman Arena.
Garrett Williamson scored 14 points and Darrin Govens added 10 to lead the Hawks (3-4), who lost their fourth straight.
Cornell (7-2) led throughout the first half, but St. Joseph's (3-4) never trailed by more than seven despite shooting just 29 percent from the field. The Big Red took a 30-23 lead with 2 minutes, 13 seconds to go in the half, but the Hawks drew even at the break with a 7-0 run keyed by four points from sophomore Todd O'Brien.
The Big Red opened the second half with a 12-0 run to build a 42-30 lead.
Chris Wroblewski and Jon Jaques scored 15 points each for the Big Red, who have won five straight and are off to their best start since going 8-1 in the 1967-68 season. Geoff Reeves scored 13.
"In the first half we had a real good mental and physical effort defensively," said Hawks coach Phil Martelli. "In the second half there were breakdowns - missed assignments, slow reactions - and that's one of the things with my team that I've seen now over seven games.
"We have a tough time right now stopping the boulder coming at you. We're not able yet to do that. That's going to take every guy stepping up and giving it more of a mental approach."
The Hawks will play Villanova Wednesday night at 9 p.m. at the Palestra.
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