The attention has been building. Cornell stuns Alabama to start the season, then Jeremy Lin torches UConn and Boston College back-to-back, then the Big Red takes down St. John’s to win the MSG Holiday Festival.
But none of those came close to the noise the Ivy League almost made last night.
Cornell held a 49-41 lead over No. 1 Kansas with 17:22 to go in the game and a 64-63 advantage with just 49 seconds left, but ultimately fell a shot short, falling 71-66 to the Jayhawks in Lawrence last night.
The Big Red’s suspect defense looked anything but in the defeat, holding Kansas to its second least efficient offensive performance of the year, including its worst shooting performance and second worst offensive rebounding performance of the season. Reserve forward Mark Coury looked incredibly comfortable on the defensive end against a BCS opponent, grabbing five boards on that end and recording a team-best 96 defensive rating.
Senior center Jeff Foote played Player of the Year candidate Cole Aldrich to a virtual draw, aside from his five turnovers on the offensive end. But turnovers were a key issue, as Foote’s five, combined with 10 from point guards Chris Wroblewski and Louis Dale, led to Cornell giving the ball up on 24 percent of its possessions.
The rampant turnovers undid a solid shooting performance (52 percent EFG) and doomed the Big Red to its least efficient offensive performance of the season. That end result was unsurprising, however, as Kansas entered the contest as the second best defensive team in the country allowing roughly 81 points per 100 possessions.
Dale’s four turnovers were the only blemish on a fine return to action for the senior point guard. He dished out five assists and scored 10 points on 56 percent EFG shooting in just 19 minutes, as he was somewhat limited by foul trouble after picking up his third with over 14 minutes left in the contest.
Wittman led all Cornell scorers with 24 points on 56 percent EFG shooting, but couldn’t connect on a heavily guarded, double-pump three that would have tied the game with under 10 seconds left. For the senior forward, it was just another monster performance against a BCS opponent and a possible preview of what could be expected from him in the Big Dance.
Despite the loss, the strength of schedule boost vaulted Cornell back past Harvard in the RPI, as the two teams now sit at Nos. 25 and 26 in the rankings, respectively.
WELCOME TO THE WIN COLUMN
The last Ivy team notched its first win last night as Penn topped UMBC 82-71 in Baltimore. It took an insane offensive performance from the Quakers, who posted their best or second-best performances in EFG percentage, turnover rate, offensive rebounding percentage and free throw rate, en route to an eye popping 136 offensive rating.
But Penn needed every bit of that tremendous offensive effort, as its defense once again left much to be desired. The Quakers allowed the 313th worst offensive team in the country to post a 118 offensive rating, UMBC’s best of the season, keeping Penn as one of the three worst defensive teams in the nation.
Zack Rosen scored 28 points but played all 40 minutes, as Penn ran just seven players on the floor and got just 27 minutes from its bench. That could be a concern in the back-to-back Ivy weekends, as fatigue can become a factor on Saturday nights.
IN OTHER ACTION
Princeton destroyed Marist 77-58 to close out its brutal three game in five day road swing at 2-1. Forward Patrick Saunders went 5-for-5 from three and 8-for-8 overall with 21 points in the win…Army wrapped up a perfect season against the Ivy League with a 59-51 home win over Brown. The Bears lost Matt Mullery to a sprained ankle in the contest, but freshman Tucker Halpern had 13 points in his absence to keep Brown close…Columbia briefly held a second-half lead, but a 10-0 Lafayette run put distance between the two teams, as the Leopards beat the Lions 91-74 in Easton, PA. Guard Noruwa Agho continued his strong non-conference play with 26 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the field.
