By Brian Delaney
The Ithaca Journal
March 1, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Cornell men's basketball team had three chances to take the lead over Harvard in the final minute of Saturday night's contest, but shots from Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale failed to find the bottom of the net and the Big Red fell, 71-70, in front of a raucous crowd at Lavietes Pavilion.
Wittman, who scored a game-high 24 points in the loss, had two great looks in the final minute. First, he missed a medium-range jumper with about a minute left. Then, with less than five seconds left, Wittman missed a shot in the lane, but was able to corral the loose ball in the corner near his team's bench and call timeout before falling out of bounds.
"We tried to get a screen for Ryan and get him open," Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. "I thought he did a great job of attacking the rim, it just didn't go."
That set up the final play. The inbounds pass went to Dale after Wittman was double teamed by the Crimson, and Dale curled toward the hoop and down the left lane. His shot was blocked by Harvard's Keith Wright, who also corralled the loose ball as time expired.
"We talked about making it very difficult, nothing easy," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. "Our kids had a great stand at the end against a tremendous offensive team. I liked how we were able to dig in and make the plays necessary at the end to pull out the win."
Cornell (19-9, 9-3 Ivy) opened up a lead as large as nine points in the beginning part of the game, thanks to some hot shooting from Geoff Reeves (pair of 3-pointers). A Wittman drive to the hoop put the Big Red up 19-10 with 12 minutes left in the opening half.
But some uncharacteristically sloppy play by Cornell allowed the Crimson to get back into the game. Harvard (13-13, 5-7 Ivy) forced 11 turnovers in the first half, including five from Dale, to get back into the game, eventually taking a 27-26 lead with 3:25 left after back-to-back 3s from Peter Boehm and Jeremy Lin.
Cornell was able to bounce back to take a 33-30 lead at halftime after a put back from Jeff Foote (12 points, 6 rebounds).
"We didn't play one of our better games," Donahue said. "We didn't handle the ball well, which is something we usually do pretty well. Give Harvard credit; I thought they really played better defense than they've played all year. They did a very good job."
Harvard came out of the locker room on fire, riding seven points from Lin in the opening minutes, including a 3 from the top of the key, to take a 44-36 lead with 16:35 left.
Cornell started to claw back into the game, turning to the hot shooting of Wittman as Foote got into foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul with 13 minutes left and Big Red down seven. Over the next two minutes, Wittman hit three big shots, with the last being a 3-pointer a couple of feet behind the line to push Cornell to a 55-54 lead at the 11-minute mark.
"I thought we were struggling getting looks in general, for whatever reason," Donahue said. "Ryan's been really playing well lately. A couple of things can happen when you get Ryan the ball, he's a facilitator as well as a scorer. They may also overreact a little bit and we'd have somebody else wide open."
From there, the two teams went back and forth, with Harvard holding a lead as high as three points. Dale's shot in the lane tied the game at 64 with four minutes left.
The Crimson countered the Cornell charge and used Foote's foul trouble to their advantage, as Lin, Drew Housman and Oliver McNally all converted on drives to the hoop to push Harvard's advantage to 71-67 with 2:25 left. Wittman kept Cornell close, hitting a runner in the lane and one of two free throws to cut the deficit to a point, setting up the dramatic finish.
"They are a very good basketball team and a tough team," said Amaker. "For us to have this kind of win here at home, with the way we have been playing lately, to win this way, we are very proud of our kids."
Cornell hurt itself by missing seven of 16 free throws.
The Big Red failed to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title. With Princeton beating Yale 62-54 Saturday, Cornell's lead is 1 1/2 games heading into Friday's home game against Penn and Saturday's rematch with Princeton. Cornell can clinch the league's automatic NCAA tournament berth with a weekend sweep, a win over Penn coupled with a Princeton loss to Columbia on Friday, or just a win over Princeton on Saturday.
"As I said to the guys, this is obviously extremely disappointing," Donahue said. "This isn't supposed to be easy. I have a great deal of respect in our ability to bounce back and in our resiliency and toughness. I expect us to have a great week and come back and try to get it done at home."
Wittman, who scored a game-high 24 points in the loss, had two great looks in the final minute. First, he missed a medium-range jumper with about a minute left. Then, with less than five seconds left, Wittman missed a shot in the lane, but was able to corral the loose ball in the corner near his team's bench and call timeout before falling out of bounds.
"We tried to get a screen for Ryan and get him open," Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. "I thought he did a great job of attacking the rim, it just didn't go."
That set up the final play. The inbounds pass went to Dale after Wittman was double teamed by the Crimson, and Dale curled toward the hoop and down the left lane. His shot was blocked by Harvard's Keith Wright, who also corralled the loose ball as time expired.
"We talked about making it very difficult, nothing easy," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. "Our kids had a great stand at the end against a tremendous offensive team. I liked how we were able to dig in and make the plays necessary at the end to pull out the win."
Cornell (19-9, 9-3 Ivy) opened up a lead as large as nine points in the beginning part of the game, thanks to some hot shooting from Geoff Reeves (pair of 3-pointers). A Wittman drive to the hoop put the Big Red up 19-10 with 12 minutes left in the opening half.
But some uncharacteristically sloppy play by Cornell allowed the Crimson to get back into the game. Harvard (13-13, 5-7 Ivy) forced 11 turnovers in the first half, including five from Dale, to get back into the game, eventually taking a 27-26 lead with 3:25 left after back-to-back 3s from Peter Boehm and Jeremy Lin.
Cornell was able to bounce back to take a 33-30 lead at halftime after a put back from Jeff Foote (12 points, 6 rebounds).
"We didn't play one of our better games," Donahue said. "We didn't handle the ball well, which is something we usually do pretty well. Give Harvard credit; I thought they really played better defense than they've played all year. They did a very good job."
Harvard came out of the locker room on fire, riding seven points from Lin in the opening minutes, including a 3 from the top of the key, to take a 44-36 lead with 16:35 left.
Cornell started to claw back into the game, turning to the hot shooting of Wittman as Foote got into foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul with 13 minutes left and Big Red down seven. Over the next two minutes, Wittman hit three big shots, with the last being a 3-pointer a couple of feet behind the line to push Cornell to a 55-54 lead at the 11-minute mark.
"I thought we were struggling getting looks in general, for whatever reason," Donahue said. "Ryan's been really playing well lately. A couple of things can happen when you get Ryan the ball, he's a facilitator as well as a scorer. They may also overreact a little bit and we'd have somebody else wide open."
From there, the two teams went back and forth, with Harvard holding a lead as high as three points. Dale's shot in the lane tied the game at 64 with four minutes left.
The Crimson countered the Cornell charge and used Foote's foul trouble to their advantage, as Lin, Drew Housman and Oliver McNally all converted on drives to the hoop to push Harvard's advantage to 71-67 with 2:25 left. Wittman kept Cornell close, hitting a runner in the lane and one of two free throws to cut the deficit to a point, setting up the dramatic finish.
"They are a very good basketball team and a tough team," said Amaker. "For us to have this kind of win here at home, with the way we have been playing lately, to win this way, we are very proud of our kids."
Cornell hurt itself by missing seven of 16 free throws.
The Big Red failed to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title. With Princeton beating Yale 62-54 Saturday, Cornell's lead is 1 1/2 games heading into Friday's home game against Penn and Saturday's rematch with Princeton. Cornell can clinch the league's automatic NCAA tournament berth with a weekend sweep, a win over Penn coupled with a Princeton loss to Columbia on Friday, or just a win over Princeton on Saturday.
"As I said to the guys, this is obviously extremely disappointing," Donahue said. "This isn't supposed to be easy. I have a great deal of respect in our ability to bounce back and in our resiliency and toughness. I expect us to have a great week and come back and try to get it done at home."
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