Brian Earl

Inside Ivy Hoops – Feb. 14, 2019

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In the latest episode of Inside Ivy Hoops, Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by Cornell coach Brian Earl and IHO writer Richard Kent.

Mike and Richard reflect on last weekend’s Ivy matchups, including another home sweep of the Ps for Yale and career scoring highs for Bryce Aiken, Miye Oni and Matt Morgan on the same night on the men’s side and several pivotal thrillers on the women’s side, while also looking ahead to another full slate of league games this weekend:

Cornell coach Brian Earl analyzes his team’s road sweep last weekend and defensive improvements throughout the season, Matt Morgan’s impact, whether Ivy back-to-back weekends are worth changing, where the Ivy League Tournaments should be held:

Mike takes note of how much the Ivy men’s side has gotten stronger this season relative to the 2017-18 campaign:

Morgan moves to second all-time in Ivy scoring history as Cornell comes back to stun Harvard

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Saturday’s contest between Harvard and Cornell was the exact opposite of Friday’s games for both teams, in the sense that offense would come at a premium.

After the Crimson dropped 98 points Friday in triple overtime, they were held to just 61 points on Saturday as Cornell stormed back to erase a 15-point second-half deficit to win the game, 67-61. Despite struggling to get shots all game, Matt Morgan had 15 points, good enough to move into second-place in conference history in career points (2,162), a night after meeting Jim Barton, the man he just surpassed.

 

Cornell moved up to 12-10 (4-2 Ivy) and Harvard dropped to 11-8 (4-2). Cornell has already met last season’s win total, with eight games remaining on the schedule.

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Foul trouble and poor rebounding doom Cornell at Toledo

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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.

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Princeton pulls away past George Washington, 73-52

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On the most consequential night of the still young Ivy League season, the Tigers did their part by extending their modest winning streak to three games.  Although their effort will be overshadowed by Cornell’s near-miss at Syracuse in the Boeheim Bowl and Yale’s big win at Miami, the Tigers’ play against the A10’s George Washington deserves some recognition.

Princeton won, 73-52, but the final score is a misleading indicator of the proceedings. The outcome was very much in doubt after 12 minutes of play in the second half. While Princeton held single-digit leads through much of the game, the Colonials “hung around,” as we say, appearing poised to make a run at any time.

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Cornell fades late, falls in upset bid against Syracuse

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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.

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Cornell’s stellar defense makes up for poor offense in overtime win at Lafayette

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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.

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Hot shooting propels Cornell past previously unbeaten NJIT

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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.

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Cornell’s shooting woes continue in loss to Delaware

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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.

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