This was by no means a game to remember for the Big Red.
Cornell was dominated by the SMU Mustangs in an 81-53 defeat in Dallas Saturday.
Steven Julian
Foul trouble and poor rebounding doom Cornell at Toledo
Despite making their first five shots and pulling ahead to an 11-point lead just six minutes into the game, the Big Red faded late amid an 86-70 road loss to the Toledo Rockets.
Matt Morgan led the way for Cornell (5-6) with 24 points, connecting on two three-pointers and hitting all 10 of his free throws. Josh Warren had another solid night, finishing with 14 points on a 6-for-9 clip, while adding seven rebounds, six assists and two blocks. Jimmy Boeheim had eight points and two rebounds, and seven players for Cornell ranged between three and seven points on the night.
Cornell came out firing on all cylinders, hitting its first five shots, three from Morgan. The Big Red were up 13-5 at the first media timeout, and then up 19-8 minutes later. Then Toledo (11-2) went on a mega-run and took its first lead at 26-25 with 7:30 to go. Cornell found itself down 48-39 at the break but started the second half quickly thanks to a three from Morgan. Despite being in striking range for most of the second half, the Big Red just couldn’t string together enough stops to get closer than six down and finally ran out of steam with about seven minutes to go. Remember that the tilt with Toledo was Cornell’s third game in four days.
Cornell makes 16 three-pointers, fights off late rally in win over Longwood
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.
Niagara makes second-half comeback, stuns Cornell
In their first game back after their extended break, the Cornell Big Red took an eight-point lead at Niagara with seven minutes left, led by big man Josh Warren. But the Purple Eagles stormed back and stole the game from the Big Red with a second to go, winning 77-74.
Niagara guard Keleaf Tate hit a wide open fading three-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining when big man Dominic Robb saved the ball from going out of bounds, after Steven Julian swatted the original go-ahead three for one of his five blocks on the day. Niagara improved to 5-4 after previously coming off of wins against Pitt and New Hampshire, and Cornell fell to 4-5 with another game waiting for them in less than 24 hours.
Cornell fades late, falls in upset bid against Syracuse
The hoopla over Saturday’s Cornell-Syracuse tilt being the Battle of the Boeheims gave way to a good basketball game, with the Big Red clinging to a lead with six minutes to play.
But several bad shots and turnovers down the stretch along with a couple of tough shots falling for the lethal Tyus Battle-Frank Howard combo for Syracuse brought the Big Red down, resulting in a 63-55 Syracuse victory.
and because of that Syracuse was able to escape with a 63-55 victory. Cornell dropped back to 4-4 while Syracuse went to 5-2.
Cornell’s stellar defense makes up for poor offense in overtime win at Lafayette
It wasn’t much warmer in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa. than it was in Ithaca Wednesday, with teams from both towns
shooting percentages not much higher than the temperature, but it wouldn’t matter as Cornell was able to sneak by for a 63-58 victory in overtime. Cornell improved to 4-3, while Lafayette dropped to 2-4. Lafayette and Cornell each shot 36 percent and 37 percent respectively from the field.
Turnovers doom Cornell in upset bid against UConn
Sloppy ball-handling for Cornell led to 19 turnovers and a loss against the UConn Huskies on Tuesday by a score of 91-74. Cornell dropped to 3-3 with the loss, with UConn improving to 4-1.
UConn threw constant pressure and double teams at Matt Morgan whenever it could, but it wouldn’t matter as he was stellar again with 26 points, making 11 shots on just four misses. He drilled four long balls, only missing twice from there. He also had four rebounds and competed well defensively with a steal and two blocks, while altering several other shots. Josh Warren was the only other double digit scorer for the Big Red, posting 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting. Jack Gordon and Jimmy Boeheim had trouble shooting the ball but had four assists and three assists respectively, as they had several drives to the hoop then passing to a player like Jake Kuhn or Josh Warren who would be cutting to the hoop.
Hot shooting propels Cornell past previously unbeaten NJIT
After suffering cold shooting in their previous two games, the Cornell Big Red came out red hot Saturday, hitting 64 percent of their shots in a win at the previously unbeaten NJIT Highlanders. Cornell improved to 3-2 with the win, while NJIT dropped to 4-1. This win would put the two teams in a share for first in the Central New York Hoops Classic. Colgate could also clinch a first place share at 3-1 in the tournament with a win against Binghamton on Monday.
In no surprise, Matt Morgan led the Big Red with 34 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 6-of-10 from deep. He also had seven rebounds, two assists, and one block in the effort. Jimmy Boeheim had 15 points off of 7-for-11 shooting from the bench, also hauling down six rebounds with two of them being offensive rebounds. Cornell’s three-point specialist Jack Gordon came off of the bench with 10 points, while finally connecting on two three-point shots. Big man Josh Warren had a great game, with eight points on six assists, as he’s often the center of Brian Earl’s Princeton Offense. Steven Julian had his best game of the season, as he had four points off of perfect two for two shooting, eight rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.
Cornell’s shooting woes continue in loss to Delaware
Cornell could not fix its shooting woes from Sunday against Colgate and dropped Thursday’s home contest against the Delaware Blue Hens by a score of 73-56. Cornell fell to 2-2 with the loss, while the Blue Hens improved to 3-1.
Jimmy Boeheim and Matt Morgan both had stellar games, with Boeheim notching 23 points on 7-for-13 shooting off the bench, and Matt Morgan was able to recover from a poor game on Sunday with 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting. He also hauled in five boards and had four assists. The two pitched in a combined 44 points, shooting 16-for-26 (61.5 percent), while the rest of the team combined for just 12 points shooting on a woeful 6-for-31 (19.4 percent). The team shot 6-for-23 for three (26.1 percent), with Morgan and Boeheim connecting on three each. Five of the six threes came in the game’s last 6:12.
Cornell goes cold in loss to Colgate
A rough Sunday afternoon for the Matt Morgan-led Cornell Big Red found the Colgate Raiders pulling away in the second half, winning by a score of 73-57 in the Central New York Hoops Classic at Newman Arena. Cornell would fall to 2-1 with this being their first loss, and Colgate would improve to 2-1.
Matt Morgan would finish with 12 points while shooting 4-for-14 overall, including 1-for-9 from deep. However, he was able to haul in 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Cornell struggled mightily from both the three-point and free throw lines, shooting 4-for-28 (14.3 percent) and 7-for-17 (41.2 percent) from those areas respectively.