Cornell's Ryan Wittman gets a shot off around Penn's Brennan Votel during the first half of their game Friday evening in Newman Arena.
Above, Andre Wilkins wears the net as he celebrates with Alex Tyler, foreground right, and the rest of the Cornell men's basketball team Friday after they clinched the Ivy League title with a win over Penn.Tonight's game Princeton (12-13, 7-5 Ivy) at Cornell (20-9, 10-3), 7 p.m. Radio: WPIE-AM (1160) Of note: Cornell captures its second straight league championship and NCAA Division I Championship Tournament berth. The Big Red will learn their tournament pairing on Sunday, March 15.
By Brian Delaney
The Ithaca Journal
March 7, 2009
ITHACA — The ideal title-clinching scenario played out just like Steve Donahue hoped Friday night, thanks in part to a lost contact lens and a brilliant second half offensive performance from his group of seasoned veterans.
To chants of "MVP, MVP," junior Ryan Wittman continued his torrid stretch of shooting with 25 points, and Cornell locked down defensively in the second half to capture its second straight Ivy League men's basketball championship and the very first NCAA tournament berth with an 83-58 victory over Penn on Friday.
The title-clinching victory would not have been possible without the help of Columbia, which rode a 14-0 run at the start of the second half to a 58-44 victory over Princeton in New York.
Donahue, which requested that Princeton-Columbia updates not be announced while his team was on the court, allowed himself a pained smile when that final outcome was at last unveiled with 12 seconds left at Newman Arena. The 4,093 in attendance, just short of a sellout, answered with an emphatic roar, and shortly thereafter the student body stormed for the second straight year.
"It's hard to top last year, but I honestly feel this is way more gratifying," said Donahue, Cornell's ninth-year coach.
Cornell shot 76 percent in the second half, knocking down 19 of 25 shots, including 5 of 7 from beyond the arc. At the forefront was Wittman, the 6-foot-6 sniper from Eden Prairie, Minn., who opened the second half with a 3-pointer and later drained a 25-foot bullet in transition midway through the second half that put Cornell up 54-41 — while simultaneously broke Penn's spirit.
"You can't really guard him when he can shoot from half court," said Louis Dale, who did his part with 13 points, four assists, two steals and one turnover. "He's great to have on our team."
"That," freshman Chris Wroblewski said, "is why he's the MVP."
That shot ignited a 9-2 run, leading to a final five minutes of heightened anticipation in which both benches emptied and Donahue subbed out his four seniors one at a time.
With the student body providing chants of "Princeton's losing," players figured out Friday was their night. Part of the reason Cornell's game ended well after Princeton's was due to a five-minute delay in the first half, when one of the officials lost a contact lens and received treatment from the Big Red training staff.
Cornell (20-9, 10-3 Ivy) brushed off the absence of starting guard Geoff Reeves, a late scratch from the lineup because of a sore back. Wroblewski started for Reeves, and played what Donahue said was the best game of his season. The 6-foot guard scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half, handed out four assists and grabbed five rebounds.
"Holy cow," Donahue said. "Obviously when you lose a starter like Geoff Reeves, Geoff has played a great week of practice. So especially against an athletic team like Penn, it's like ‘Man, we're going to need him.' He just tweaks his back and not only does Chris go in, I think it's his best game. The poise that he has shown all year was just epitomized in this game. This is what he's done all year."
The two teams traded mini-runs in the first half, Penn showing glimpses of the explosive offensive team many thought they would be this year, with Cornell hitting tough shots in response and turning hustle plays into points.
Wroblewski, Dale and Wittman were the catalysts. The trio combined for every point of an 8-0 run that tied the game at 20, the spurt capped by a Dale teardrop floater in the lane. They scored 29 of Cornell's 34 first-half points, with Dale and Wroblewski hitting nine of 12 shots from the floor.
Cornell's first lead came with 3:30 left in the half, when Jeff Foote overpowered Jack Eggleston for an offensive rebound and putback. Wroblewski followed with a 3-pointer — also a second-chance bucket — to ignite Cornell's surge into halftime. Foote, the Lockwood native and crowd favorite, finished with eight points, nine rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers.
A curling Alex Tyler (11 points) layup with 13 seconds left pushed the hosts in front, 34-28, at the break.
Penn's offensive efficiency over the opening 20 minutes surprised, if only because the Quakers were playing without leading scorer Tyler Bernardini. The 6-6 sophomore missed his second game in as many years at Newman Arena, this time for a concussion suffered Saturday against Brown.
Cornell now can play Princeton tonight worried only about its NCAA tournament seeding. Selection Sunday is on March 15.
Cornell's Jeff Foote celebrates with the crowd on the court after the men's basketball team's win over Penn to clinch the Ivy League championship and a berth in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.ITHACA - Cornell is going dancing again.
The race for a second straight Ivy League men's basketball championship came to an abrupt end Friday night, when Cornell's 83-58 victory over Penn coupled with Princeton's 58-44 loss at Columbia resulted in a Big Red celebration of the 4,093 people at jam-packed Newman Arena.
Until now, Cornell (20-9, 10-3 Ivy) had never won two straight Ivy basketball championships.
But 25 points from Ryan Wittman, 76 percent shooting in the second half and a little help from Cornell's travel partner four hours East, changed all that.
"I was shocked," Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. "I thought they would have leaked (the Princeton score) out to me, but obviously I was the last guy in the building to know."
Friday's two outcomes wiped out what might have been a winner-take-all showdown tonight against Princeton.
Instead, Cornell can relax, honor its departing senior class and start preparing for the NCAA Division I Championship Tournament. Selection Sunday is March 15.
Fans cheer an early Cornell field goal during the first half of their 83-58 win over Penn on Friday night. That distinction was signed, sealed and delivered Friday night after Cornell's 83-58 rout of Penn at Newman Arena and Columbia's 58-44 victory over Princeton in New York.
"I just think about where we were when we recruited those guys," Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. "It really started everything with that group. They were willing, for the first group, to live together, to live in a house. And every class since then has gone on and jumped into that house and really brought us together as a group. That group could have easily been disappointed with a lot of the ways that their careers have gone on the court. But no, none of that."
The heart and soul of the senior class actually arrived at Cornell a year earlier than the other four. But a career-ending back injury to Khaliq Gant in a January 2006 practice changed the program forever.
Temporarily paralyzed, Gant battled through a lengthy rehabilitation to regain the use of his legs, will graduate this spring and has accepted a job with the makers of E.J. Gallo wine. He will relocate to the New York/Long Island area in August.
A 10-foot banner reading "KHALIQ HERO FOR ALL TIME" paid tribute to the 6-foot-3 guard.
"It's definitely been a good progress that are team has shown, our program has shown," Gant said. "Just this year we had to get used to being a target every game."
When on campus, Gant attends nearly every practice, occasionally riding a bike on the sidelines, shooting free throws or layups and just generally staying close to the action.
"It's a family," he said. "I would never leave a family. High comraderie; all those guys are my best friends."
Adam Gore, Brian Kreefer, Conor Mullen and Jason Battle will also be honored tonight, their collective willingness to set aside ego an oft-overlooked characteristic of Cornell's back-to-back championship teams.
"It's why teams are good," Donahue said. "Because kids buy into that."
Kreefer, Battle and Gore played meaningful minutes Friday night, while Mullen entered late and played one minute. Each in his turn received a standing ovation by the 4,093 in attendance.
They'll be formally acknowledged tonight.
"We mean a lot to each other," Gore said. "You spend the majority of your time here in college right here in this gym, putting a lot of hard work into everything. The friendships will last a lifetime."
(not including Friday's games)
Coach: Sydney Johnson (2nd year)
Record: 12-12, 7-4 Ivy League
Last time out: Sophomore Dan Mavraides scored 16 points, and Doug Davis pitched in 12 off the bench as Princeton earned a pivotal win over Yale, 62-54, on Feb. 28 at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Last time vs. Cornell: The Tigers stunned the league, ending Cornell's 19-game Ivy win streak with a 61-41 victory at Jadwin. Cornell missed 15 of 17 3-pointers and shot a miserable 31.8 percent from the field. Pawel Buczak's 15 points keyed the winners.
"I don't think we can duplicate that, and here's why," Johnson said. "I think most things that we tried to do, worked. And that's very rare in basketball, especially at this level, when you're dealing with kids at 21, 22. They're not pros, not quite as sure of their game, as good as they are. ... Even in college the best players get rattled."
Key players: Davis (5-11, 155, Fr., G), Mavraides (6-3, 200, Soph., G), Marcus Schroeder (6-3, 180, Jr., G), Buczak (6-9, 230, Jr., C), Kareem Maddox (6-8, 225, Soph., F), Zach Finley (6-9, 235, Jr., C).
Statistically: Princeton ranks first in the Ivy League in field goal percentage defense (.394) and 3-point percentage defense (.286). Cornell ranks first in the league in both offensive categories (.473, .410, respectively). ... Davis is the Tigers' leading scorer at 12.4 points per game, followed by Mavraides (10.5) and Buczak (7.5 ppg). ... Mavraides is deadly beyond the three-point arc at 44.8 percent on the season.
"Dan Mavraides and Pawel Buczak are two guys whose individual improvement has allowed us to be a balanced team," Johnson said. "They spent their summers and early fall just trying to get better; it's really helped us."
Outlook: The Tigers have three games left, with this weekend's swing through Columbia and Cornell and the season finale at Penn on Tuesday. With three wins, the Tigers could conclude an improbable Ivy League championship run.
A year ago, Princeton finished 6-23 with a 3-11 mark in the league. Great defense and the implementation of new, young players have helped begin a turnaround, although Sydney Johnson isn't singing about his program just yet.
"We have a long way to go here. ... There's pretty lofty tradition here, but you've got to make your own tradition too," he said. "That's all a frame of mind. I think that we've had some winning moments here this season, and we're trying to build on that momentum."
If Princeton won Friday night, it sets up a de facto championship game tonight. If Cornell wins, it's all over. If a tie for first place results, a two or possibly three-team playoff would ensue at Columbia later this week.
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