For the second straight year, the Cornell Big Red gave the Syracuse Orange all they could handle but ultimately fell short again, this time, 72-53. The final score hides the fact that Cornell (1-4) was within three points with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
The Orange (3-1, 0-1 ACC) hopped out to a quick 10-3 lead, which later turned into a 16-9 lead just five minutes into the game. But the Big Red clawed right back and took a lead with 1:26 left in the first half with a Jimmy Boeheim layup. Brother Buddy responded with a nice mid-range jumper on the Orange’s next possession to take a 26-25 halftime lead.
Jimmy led his Cornell squad with 12 points and Buddy led his Syracuse squad with 10 points at the half.
The Orange jumped out to a quick seven-point lead to start the second half, but Jimmy Boeheim wasn’t too impressed. He set up Josh Warren for a nice layup, hit a layup himself, and drilled a tough three from the corner to rejuvenate the Big Red offense and get them back within two at the U16 media.
Syracuse pulled ahead to nine, but the Big Red chipped away again and cut the lead to three with 9:56 left. That’s when the Orange finally kicked it into high gear. Syracuse outscored Cornell 28-12 from there and that was about it.
Jimmy Boeheim led all scorers with 25 points, and his brother had 16 for Syracuse. Elijah Hughes led the winners with 22 points.
Perhaps, the bigger story for the Big Red is Jordan Jones and his 15 points off the bench that went quite unnoticed all night. He drilled three three-pointers and hit six of his seven free throws. He was a huge part of why Cornell stayed in the game.
The big problem was that Boeheim and Jones had no help. Josh Warren had six, but that was really it. All six of Warren’s points came in the second half, and he only took one shot all night. Thurston McCarty hit the opening shot of the game, but missed his other four shots. Terrance McBride was scoreless and got a few good looking three-point looks that he missed on.
Against a team with so much size, Cornell did an outstanding job getting rebounds, only being outrebounded by six (28-22) . Most matchups favored Syracuse by about four inches.
The defense was pretty solid, though a handful of times the Orange just missed open shots. Syracuse shot 47% from the floor. However, the Big Red shot just 35% and only made 14 field goals.
On offense, the Big Red were extremely patient and would often wait until there were just a few seconds left on the shot clock to shoot. They also converted on 19 of their 25 free throws.
Time to make a change
It’s time for Brian Earl to make a change in the starting lineup. Bryan Knapp hasn’t been producing, and Jordan Jones has had a few nice games off the bench.
Jones is primarily a shooter, but distributes the ball pretty well and is a pretty good defender. When Jones has been on the floor, the Big Red have played better, so why not start Jones?0
Now the Big Red go to the great state of Maryland for games against Coppin State and Navy. They play Coppin State on Saturday at 7 p.m. on the Coppin State website, while they play Navy on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Stadium.