Cornell pictures.
Some supplemental snapshots from today's game courtesy Robert Solomon.
Cornell 50 Princeton 47.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
Postgame audio - Pawel Buczak & Dan Mavraides:
In a game where both Cornell and Princeton had to work exceptionally hard to find open looks and uncontested shots, the Big Red fended off the Tigers all night and most importantly when it mattered most - at the final buzzer.
"Cornell's a good team," said Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson. "I think we showed what we're made of, especially on the heels of Saturday, where we disappointed ourselves [versus Brown]. Tremendous effort, I think that was pretty evident."
"Our guys responded pretty well in terms of how much harder they needed to play," Johnson added. "I was encouraged by that."
But for the second time in as many meetings, the Big Red grinded out a three point victory over Princeton, a win earned at the free throw line, where the home team shot 22-25 and 15-17 in the second half.
Cornell, who never trailed, made a season low 35.1% of their attempts from the field.
Even 7'0" Big Red center Jeff Foote, a 59.4% free throw shooter entering Friday, was a confident 7-8 from the stripe and finished with a game-high 19 points on 6-7 shooting.
"He's a 50% foul shooter and he made his free throws," Johnson said of Foote's performance. "All credit to him. That's his Achilles' heel and he made them. Jeff Foote made his free throws. God bless him."
Stout perimeter defense hounded potential 2009-10 Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Wittman into 3-11 shooting and a 0-5 game behind the arc, but a pair of Wittman free throws with two seconds left after Dan Mavraides’ scooping drive cut the Cornell lead to a single point with just over four ticks on the clock provided the night’s final margin.
Mavraides, who was unable to get a tying three attempt from just inside midcourt up to the rim, had 13 points and a game best seven rebounds for Princeton. The Tigers outrebounded Cornell 31-25 and snatched 12 offensive boards.
Kareem Maddox added an acrobatic 11 off the bench for Princeton and Pawel Buczak had 10, including two large second half three point shots.
Friday News:
Today's Game: Princeton (16-7 / 7-2) vs. Cornell (23-4 / 9-1)
Location: Newman Arena - Ithaca, NY
Time: 7:00 pm ET
Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB
TV: N/A
Internet: goprincetontigers.com
Series History: Princeton leads 134-77.
Last meeting: Cornell 48 Princeton 45 - 2/13/10.
| Princeton | Cornell | |
| 7-3 | Home Record | 9-1 |
| 9-4 | Away Record | 11-3 |
| 0-0 | Neutral Record | 3-0 |
| 161 | RPI | 48 |
| 151 | Sagarin | 52 |
| 128 | Pomeroy | 67 |
| 59.4 | Points / Game | 75.7 |
| 52.7 | Points Allowed / Game | 64.0 |
| .435 | FG% | .475 |
| .733 | FT% | .722 |
| .373 | 3PT FG% | .421 |
| 29.9 | Rebounds / Game | 35.0 |
| 8.6 | Off. Rebounds / Game | 11.2 |
| +0.7 | Rebounding Margin | +3.7 |
| 11.9 | Assists / Game | 16.4 |
| 13.5 | Turnovers / Game | 12.5 |
| 3.2 | Blocks / Game | 3.9 |
| Davis: 12.8 | Points | Wittman: 17.6 |
| Mavraides: 4.6 | Rebounds | Foote: 8.4 |
| Schroeder: 3.0 | Assists | Dale: 4.8 |
| Schroeder: 1.8 | Steals | Dale: 1.5 |
| Maddox: 0.8 | Blocks | Foote: 1.9 |
| Finley: .592 | FG% (Min: 10 FGM) | Foote: .616 |
| Schroeder: .895 | FT% (Min: 10 FTM) | Wroblewski: .900 |
| Saunders: .511 | 3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM) | Groebe: .575 |
Penn vs. Columbia - 7:00 pm ET
Yale vs. Dartmouth - 7:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Harvard - 7:00 pm ET
The Daily Princetonian, the Trentonian, WPRB Sports, the Cornell Daily Sun and the Ithaca Journal preview tonight's action.
The Princeton team bus beat the worst of the storm to Ithaca and arrived yesterday afternoon. Despite ~18" of snow on the ground (and some more falling outside my hotel window), tonight's game will most likely take place as scheduled.
Brian Delaney of the Ithaca Journal scouts Princeton.
The Columbia Spectator looks at the Lions' games versus the Quakers and the Tigers.
Northwestern (18-10) set a school record for wins in a regular season, defeating Iowa 74-57.
Denver (16-12) let a 42-21 second half lead get away in a flurry of turnovers, falling at South Florida 54-52. Tim Williams' wild runner with six seconds left won the game for the Jaguars.
A depleted UCLA squad had enough to beat Oregon State (12-15) by a 65-56 final. The Beavers were never able to deliver a knockout punch.
Georgetown's Greg Monroe was named to the Naismith Trophy midseason team.
Several clips of Tiger recruit Tom Noonan can be found in this highlight package from Penn Charter's loss to Haverford.
San Diego will go as far as Chris Young goes, says a Bleacher Report writer. The mlb.com web site has a short video forecast about Young's return from injury.
Princeton remains in fifth place in the latest Schuylkill 16.
Coach Sydney Johnson - 2/25/10.
With both about to depart for Ithaca, Tigers head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met early on Thursday morning at Jadwin Gym for their weekly one-on-one interview. This Q&A is 12:00+ in length.
Johnson and Solomon break down Princeton's impressive win over Yale, talk about who the team's best on-ball defender could be, discuss what went wrong defensively in the Tigers' loss to Brown and update Zach Finley's injury status. The pair also preview this weekend's trip to Cornell and Columbia.
Thursday News:
Iowa vs. Northwestern - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN
Denver vs. South Alabama - 8:00 pm ET
Oregon State vs. UCLA - 11:00 pm ET - FSN
Northwestern hosts Iowa. The Wildcats' bubble may have burst, but the future looks bright.
South Alabama welcomes Denver.
Oregon State travels to UCLA. Talking about the postseason, Beavers coach Craig Robinson says Pete Carril turned down multiple NIT bids when he was at Princeton. Anyone know how true this is?
Richmond is an underdog no more.
Princeton assistant Tony Newsom was in Tennessee to watch a senior post player who was subsequently named a finalist for the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association's Division II-A Mr. Basketball.
Taken with 50,435,333,253,672,119,000,000 grains of salt: Blogging The Bracket projects Princeton will participate in this year's CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Wednesday News:
Austin Freeman scored 24 of his 29 points in the second half as Georgetown rallied past Louisville, 70-60. The Hoyas began the second half on a 24-3 run.
There's an espn.com commentary on John Thompson III following in his father's footsteps.
The Brown Daily Herald reviews the Bears' victory over Princeton.
Princeton band on ESPNU.
All shots of the Princeton band from Friday's ESPNU broadcast. Teases some of the atmosphere at Jadwin Gym as the Tigers beat Yale by a comfortable margin.
Tuesday News:
Georgetown vs. Louisville - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN2
Essex vs. Mercer - 7:30 pm ET - Region XIX Playoffs
Hitting 20 or more points in back-to-back games for the first time earned Dan Mavraides a spot on the Honor Roll of the Ivy Weekly Men's Basketball Report.
Georgetown has an important game at Louisville tonight.
Richmond moves up to 23rd in the new Associated Press Top 25. The Spiders are 24th in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches Top 25.
Mercer's Uros Kovacevic was named Second Team DI & II Men's Basketball All-Region XIX and is on the First Team DI & DI Men's Basketball All-Garden State Athletic Conference, joined by teammate Paco Boussougou.
Recruiting Spotlight: Ben Hazel.
A package on Princeton recruit Ben Hazel.
You can read our profile of Hazel here, which includes extensive quotes from Good Counsel head coach Blair Mills. Exclusive, detailed articles on all five members of the 2010 Princeton recruiting class can be found here.
Five Games, Nine Days.
After the Brown game, I received the following question from reader Jim W.:
I'd be interested to know the Tigers' record in the second weekend of the five game weeks they play relative to their records in other weeks. I believe that years ago they used to play one or both of the Penn games on a Saturday instead of wedging the games into a Tuesday and wonder if that would make sense again, particularly with all the conference tournaments extending the season.
Excellent inquiry.
How have the Tigers faired in Ivy play running "The Gauntlet" of Friday-Saturday-Tuesday-Friday-Saturday?
Here are 31 years of answers, thanks in part to the good folks at the Princeton Athletic Department...
Five 1980s Princeton films.
An unexpected find this morning - five short clips from the late 1980s documenting five different successful Princeton basketball plays. I've tried to add details where I could figure them out, but if you can contribute additional notes, please share in the comments!
Given the existence of the three point line and Joe Scott (#4) on the floor for the Tigers, I believe the above Alan Williams (#24) to Dave Orlandini (#21) layup comes from a 93-77 win over defending Ivy champion Brown on January 30th, 1987.
That is John Thompson III wearing #22. Also on the floor - Mike Harnum (#30).
Scott scored 23 and Williams added 21 for Princeton, who shot 8-11 from three.
Monday News:
Kareem Maddox is the subject of a piece in the Ventura County Star.
The Daily Princetonian and the Yale Daily News report on this weekend's games.
Northwestern (17-10) cut a 14 point Wisconsin second half lead down to one in the final two minutes, but the Wildcats were unable to topple the Badgers.
SportsProf was at Jadwin Gym on Saturday night and shares his observations.
Former Tiger Luke Owings attended Cornell's victory at Harvard and writes about what makes the Big Red so good.
Princeton recruit Ben Hazel scored 16 points in Good Cousel's overtime loss to Gonzaga. Hazel also had 18 points on 11-13 free throw shooting earlier in the week as the Falcons defeated Carroll, 57-49.
