Gamecenter: Princeton 35, Cornell 55

Posted on by Jake Wilson in Cornell, Gamecenter, Ivy League, Princeton
1st 2nd Final
Princeton (9-6, 0-2 Ivy) 16 19 35
Cornell (8-8, 1-1 Ivy) 27 28 55
Newman Arena – Ithaca, NY Boxscore
 
Keys to the Game
Key sequence Princeton scored the first nine points of the game and led 14-9 midway through the first half, when the Tigers suddenly went ice-cold. What would eventually become an 18-0 Cornell run started innocently enough with a pair of Graham Dow free throws. Louis Dale got a layup, then the freshman point guard gave the Big Red the lead with a three-pointer on the next possession. A three by Conor Mullen and free throws by Andrew Naeve and Mullen pushed the margin to nine, and when Ryan Wittman hit a jumper, Cornell had a double-digit lead. Dale would cap off the spurt with the layup that put the hosts up 27-14, at which point Justin Conway finally broke the long Princeton scoring drought with a layup at the 2:13 mark.
Key sign it was over Princeton had closed to within seven with 15:27 left in the contest, but then proceeded to go silent offensively again. Cornell reeled off a 14-2 run to push its lead back to 19 at the 10:23 mark. The Tiger defense then was able to hold the Big Red to just two points over the next seven minutes, but the Princeton offense was stuck in neutral and only could muster four points over that span. When Dale fed Jason Battle for a layup with 3:19 left, Cornell’s 19-point lead was absolutely insurmountable.
Key performance Wittman was the game’s high scorer with 17 points for the Big Red on 6-of-9 shooting, including 3 of 5 from three. The freshman finished with three rebounds, an assist, and no turnovers in 36 minutes.
Key statistic The Tigers have lived and died offensively by the three all season, and they died a painful death on Saturday. Lincoln Gunn connected on the team’s first attempt from long range on the night, and things went south after that. At the end of the night, Princeton shot just 3 of 23 (13.0 percent) from outside the arc, while Cornell was a very efficient 6 of 12 (50.0 percent) from three-point range.
Notes

– Zach Finley got the start and was the only Tiger to enjoy a good night offensively. The freshman big man was responsible for over one-third of his team’s scoring output with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

– Dale had an otherwise excellent evening (14 points, nine assists, six rebounds) overshadowed somewhat by a glaring eight turnovers.

– Both teams were perfect from the line, with Cornell hitting all nine attempts and Princeton coverting all four of its attempts.

– Limited to just five scoreless minutes by a stress fracture in his left foot, Kyle Koncz missed both of his three-point attempts on the night.

– The Big Red committed 18 turnovers on the night, and the Tigers turned those mistakes into 19 points. Princeton was much better at taking care of the ball with 10 turnovers, resulting in 11 Cornell points.

– Princeton now heads into its exam break before returning to action on Monday, January 29 at Seton Hall (10-5). Cornell opens its travel partner series at Columbia (10-6, 1-1 Ivy) on Saturday, January 20 at 2:00 pm ET.

Jake Wilson

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Basketball U.

Jake Wilson wrote 754 posts

Post navigation

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: 

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>