Matt Morgan scored 17 points, with all five of his makes from three, and Terrance McBride’s 5-of-6 free-throw shooting down the stretch was enough to fight off a late rally from the Longwood Lancers and preserve a 70-64 win. Cornell evened their record out again at .500, improving to 5-5 while Longwood fell to 8-5.
Cornell shot a very impressive 16-of-32 from three, the third-most three pointers made in a game in school history. However, the Big Red hit just six two-pointers in the game, shooting a dismal 6-of-24.
Matt Morgan was 5-of-10 from three, while hitting a pair of free throws in the final seconds. He went 0-of-4 from two but notched seven assists, six rebounds and a steal. Jimmy Boeheim had 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three, including a clutch step back three with 2:23 to go, to get the lead back to seven points. He also had four rebounds. Steven Julian had six points and seven rebounds. Jake Kuhn had eight points on two three-pointers and a reverse layup, and Troy Whiteside and Terrance McBride each had seven points.
Cornell took the lead with 10:26 to go in the first half after a Matt Morgan trey, and held it for good. The Big Red held a 10-point lead at the half, and their lead grew to 18 points with 12:30 to go after a Jimmy Boeheim three pointer. After a Joel Davis layup with 7:31 to go, Cornell didn’t score for nearly five minutes, and Longwood then cut an 18-point deficit to just five. But then Jimmy Boeheim hit a clutch step-back three, followed by McBride cutting to the hoop for an easy layup off a Morgan pass, then proceeded to hit 5-of-6 shots from the line. It was all capped off by two free throws by Morgan and a breakaway slam for Julian.
It was a very sloppy and poorly officiated game. The teams combined for 41 turnovers and 39 fouls, as well as a technical foul early in the game by Julian. Morgan and Warren both ended up with four fouls.
Cornell was outrebounded, 40-35, and had just four steals compared to Longwood’s 11. Cornell did notch 19 assists, and Longwood only registered eight.
The Big Red held Longwood to 39 percent from the field, and 28 percent from three. Their three-point defense was much improved from Sunday’s loss at Niagara.
Jack Gordon appears to be out for extended time, as he is out with a arm/wrist injury. With that, Bryan Knapp will begin to see more time. In 19 minutes, he posted five points on perfect 2-of-2 shooting, with one of them a three ball.
The Big Red will next trek to Ohio to face the 10-1 Toledo Rockets. Toledo has played just three teams over .500 and won all three. Their loss came to 5-6 Wright State. Toledo currently comes in with a No. 67 KenPom ranking.
This is the second game of a home and home series. Last year, Cornell defeated Toledo 70-67 in a post-Thanksgiving matinee in Ithaca. Morgan had 24 points, and Stone Gettings had 21.
The game will be played on Wed., Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. This will be the Big Red’s third game in four days, each in different cities. The game will air live on ESPN+.