Cornell Men Clinch Second Straight Title
(Photo: Cornell Athletic Communications) |
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| Cornell University 2008-09 |
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For
the second straight year, the Cornell men's basketball team became the first
team to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament with an outright Ivy League
title, earning a dominant 83-58 win over pernnial Ivy contender Penn on Friday
evening at Newman Arena. The Big Red's win, coupled with Princeton's 58-44 loss
at Columbia, gave the preseason Ivy League favorite its second consecutive
Ancient Eight title. Cornell improves to 20-9 (10-3 Ivy), while the Quakers
slipped to 9-17 (5-7 Ivy).
The win gives Cornell its fourth NCAA tournament bid and overall conference
title in the program's history. It also extended its school-record home win
streak to 20 games, the third-longest active stretch in the country. Among the
other highlights was the program's third 20-win season all-time (first-ever
stretch of consecutive 20-win seasons) and its second consecutive 10-win Ancient
Eight campaign, a first since the 1964-65 to 1966-67 seasons.
Junior
Ryan
Wittman (6'6''-F), a favorite for Ivy League Player of the Year, had a
statement game with 25 points, three rebounds and two blocked shots while
hitting 6-of-10 from 3-point range. He was one of four players to reach double
figures in scoring, joining
Louis
Dale (13),
Chris
Wroblewski (12) and
Alex
Tyler (11). The Big Red shot 76 percent in the second half (19-of-25) to end
the game at 58 percent, and held the Quakers to 38 percent shooting overall on
the defensive end.
Jeff
Foote (7'0''-C) added eight points, nine rebounds, five assists and zero
turnovers in 25 minutes.
Along the way, Cornell broke last season's team record for 3-pointers in a
season with its nine makes on the night, giving the squad 231, surpassing the
228 it hit in the 2007-08 season. The Big Red also became the first-ever Ivy
League program to win consecutive league titles other than Penn or Princeton in
the history of the conference.
Penn got 16 points from
Rob
Belcore (6'6''-G), while both
Brennan Votel (6'7''-F-86) and
Zack
Rosen (6'1''-G) added 10.
Harrison Gaines (6'0''-G-89) had a solid all-around effort with eight
points, seven rebounds and six assists and
Kevin
Egee (6'3''-G-86) chipped in seven points.
The Quakers came to play early, and Penn's hot shooting allowed it to get out of
the gates quickly, forcing a Cornell timeout just 2:08 into the game when the
visitors got out to a 7-2 advantage. The Quakers held the advantage much of the
first half, wit hthe Big Red evening the game at 12-12 on a jumper by Dale, only
to see Penn go back up with a quick 8-0 run fueled by 3-pointers by Belcore and
Rosen. The game would be tied up at 20-20 as Cornell went on an 8-0 spurt of its
own as Dale hit three driving layups during the spurt, including a floater in
the lane. Cornell took its first lead of the game with 3:31 ledt when Foote
scored on a putback to make it 28-26, and a Wroblewski 3-pointer off a broken
play pushed the lead to five. Three late points by Tyler, including a layup on a
play drawn up for the last possession sent the home team into the break up
34-28.
Both Dale (11 points) and Wittman (10 points) were in double figures by the
break, while Foote had eight rebounds and Tyler five as Cornell held a 20-16
edge on the backboards. Cornell had just three turnovers at the break to help
the team overcome 43 percent shooting from the floor. Rosen had seven points and
three rebounds, but the Ivy League's leader in assists and assist:turnover ratio
was held without a helper while committing a pair of turnovers.
The Big Red opened the second half with a well-designed play that saw Dale hit
Wittman for a wide-open 3-pointer just 10 seconds in. Wittman then hit a tough
pull-up jumper, followed by a layup underneath by Tyler on a great interior pass
by Foote to make it 41-30. A Foote dunk on a pass from senior
Jason
Battle (6'4''-G/F) three minutes later pushed the Cornell lead back to nine
after the Quakers had cut it to six.
While Cornell was starting to open its lead, Columbia had taken an eight-point
lead with eight minutes to play against Princeton, and the buzz started building
in the student section across from the benches. With the energy building,
Cornell took control at the 11-minute mark. With a 49-41 lead after a pair of
Gaines free throws, the Big Red went on a 21-5 run over the next six minutes to
blow open the contest. Wittman hit three backbreaking treys during the spree to
extend the lead to 24 and never looked back. Head coach
Steve
Donahue sent his seniors in to play together with a little more than two
minutes to play and pulled them out to a standing ovation a minute later. The
crowd again went bonkers when junior
Andre
Wilkins (6'5''-F) hit a 12-foot jumper to cap the scoring with 30 seconds to
play. The ball went out of play as the clock expired and the student section
spilled out onto the court. With the entire capacity crowd on the floor,
Cornell's players took turns cutting down the nets on its home floor for the
second straight year.
Courtesy of Cornell Athletic Communications
| All-Ivy League 1st Team
2008-09 |
Barnett |
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Mullery |
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Dale |
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Wittman |
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Lin |
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All-Ivy League 1st Team
Matt
Mullery (6'8''-F-87) of Brown
Louis
Dale of Cornell
Ryan
Wittman of Cornell
Alex
Barnett (6'6''-F-86) of Dartmouth
Jeremy Lin (6'2''-G) of Harvard
All-Ivy League 2nd Team
Jason
Miller (6'8''-F) of Columbia
Jeff
Foote of Cornell
Drew
Housman (6'0''-G) of Harvard
Ross
Morin (6'7''-F-86) of Yale
Travis
Pinick (6'7''-G/F-86) of Yale
All-Ivy League Honorable Mention
Peter
Sullivan (6'5''-F-89) of Brown
Tyler
Bernardini (6'6''-G-88) of Penn
Pawel
Buczak (6'9''-C) of Princeton
Doug
Davis (5'11''-G-89) of Princeton
Alex
Zampier (6'3''-G) of Yale
Ivy League Player of the Year:
Alex
Barnett of Dartmouth
Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year:
Jeff
Foote of Cornell
Ivy League Rookie of the Year:
Chris
Wroblewski of Cornell
Donahue
