Gamecenter: Cornell 64, Harvard 65

1st 2nd Final
Cornell (11-9, 4-2 Ivy) 27 37 64
Harvard (10-10, 3-3 Ivy) 34 31 65
Lavietes Pavilion – Allston, MA Boxscore
 
Postgame audio
Cornell: Steve Donahue | Alex Tyler
Harvard: Frank Sullivan
 
Keys to the Game
Key sequence With Harvard leading by three, Louis Dale committed his fifth turnover of the game, leading to an emphatic breakaway dunk by Evan Harris that put the Crimson up five with 2:16 left. After Alex Tyler’s seventh basket on seven attempts, Steve Donahue went to a 1-3-1 trapping zone that rattled Harvard, resulting in turnovers on consecutive possessions for the home team. Meanwhile, an Andrew Naeve free throw had brought Cornell to within two, and Dale tied it up with a jumper in the lane with 55 seconds left. Jim Goffredo couldn’t connect with 33 ticks left, and Tyler controlled the board for the Big Red. At the other end, Dale got by Drew Housman and drew the foul from Goffredo with eight seconds left. The freshman missed the first, but sank the second to put Cornell in front by one and set up a dramatic finish.
Key sign it was over After encountering some difficulty getting the ball in, Harvard eventually got it in Housman’s hands. The sophomore brought the ball upcourt, went to his right at the top of the key, and located Harris on the baseline. Housman threaded a perfect bass to his classmate, who gathered, went up, and deposited the ball in the hoop to give the Crimson a one-point lead with 0.8 seconds on the clock. Following a timeout by Cornell to draw up a play and a subsequent timeout by the Crimson to see what the Big Red was setting up, the inbounds pass found Ryan Wittman between the circles. The freshman sharpshooter put up a moving 25-footer from beyond the elbow, but it glanced off the rim and the Crimson pulled out a thrilling victory.
Key performance Harris’s impact on the game went far beyond just hitting the game-winning shot. Despite playing through foul trouble that limited him to 30 minutes, the wiry sophomore led all scorers with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting. He also grabbed 10 boards and filled up the stat sheet with three assists, three steals, and two blocks.
Key statistic Cornell (74.4 percent) and Harvard (75.1 percent) entered the game as two of the better free throw shooting teams in the country. But the Big Red uncharacteristically struggled at the line, going just 5 of 11 (45.5 percent) as a team, while the Crimson shot an excellent 13 of 14 (92.9 percent). Cornell’s freshmen combined to hit just 2 of 7 free throws — including back-to-back misses in the second half by Wittman, who had been 40 of 42 (95.2 percent) at the line to that point in his college career.
Notes

– Dale led Cornell with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting, adding five assists and four rebounds, and three steals against his five turnovers.

– Wittman had a rare cold shooting night, going just 2-for-9 from beyond the arc and finishing 5-of-14 overall.

– Harvard shot just 2 of 12 (16.7 percent) from three, but outscored Cornell 42-32 in the paint.

– Tyler scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half, as Donahue got 23 second-half points from his reserves. The Cornell bench outscored its Harvard counterparts 25-10.

– The game featured 10 ties and 15 lead changes — with 10 of those lead changes coming in the final 20 minutes.

– Cornell returns home to host Brown (7-14, 2-4 Ivy) on Friday, February 7 at 7:00 pm ET, while Harvard will travel to face reeling Princeton (9-9, 0-4 Ivy) at 7:30 pm ET.

Jake Wilson

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Basketball U.

Jake Wilson wrote 754 posts

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