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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
Players Mentioned
Cornell Holds On Against Men's Hoops, 50-47 (with video)
February 27, 2010 | Men's Basketball
ITHACA, N.Y. -- For the second time in as many weeks, Princeton's men's basketball team forced Cornell to play at its pace, and yet the Tigers came up three points short.
Princeton never led in its 50-47 loss at Cornell Friday night, yet the Tigers never let the game get away.
It wasn't much of a consolation prize immediately after such a hard-fought defeat, but in a much more hostile environment, and against the two-time defending Ivy champions, Princeton didn't let this one unfold like it did six days ago against Brown.
“On the heels of Saturday, where I think we disappointed ourselves, it was a tremendous effort,” said Sydney Johnson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of men's basketball. “Our guys responded really well in terms of how much harder they needed to play, and I'm encouraged by that.”
Video: Sydney Johnson, Pawel Buczak and Dan Mavraides in the postgame interview.
The Cornell (24-4, 10-1 Ivy) win gives the Big Red a stranglehold on the Ivy League race, up two games in the loss column with only three to play.
Being so close to surprising the preseason favorite Big Red and yet coming up short may feel like a disappointment now, but the effort shows the Tigers (16-8, 7-3) are moving in the right direction.
“It's frustrating. It's definitely frustrating,” junior Dan Mavraides said. “This year you had to beat Cornell to win the Ivy League championship, and we came up short.”
Mavraides led the Tigers with 13 points on the night, and one of his plays on defense sums up the effort Princeton brought in front of a sellout crowd of 4,473 in Ithaca.
Down 42-39 with less than seven minutes left, Mavraides had Cornell's Chris Wroblewski well defended against his own basket. Wroblewski looked to have slipped past Mavraides' initial attempts to push the ball loose, and yet Mavraides kept at it, knocking the ball loose on his third attempt.
“From our standpoint, that's what we've been doing all year is playing tough defense and that's how we got to where we are today,” Mavraides said.
Mavraides hit the floor to secure the steal and called timeout, leading to a Davis bucket that made it a one-point game.
Cornell led by five with one minute left before Mavraides hit a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game with 55 seconds left. At the other end, Zach Finley grabbed a missed Wroblewski shot with 24 seconds to go, and the Tigers called timeout to set up a game-tying play.
“We talked a lot about wanting a three,” Johnson said. “I think all our guys are smart players, but we haven't executed perfectly down the stretch in those moments. It was a big play, but by no means do I think it decided the game.”
After being unable to get a good enough look at a three-point attempt, Mavraides cut to the basket for a layup. While the score made it a one-point game, it didn't leave Princeton much time to answer after the obligatory foul to send Cornell to the line.
Ryan Wittman, who finished with 12 points, hit both free throws and left 2.1 seconds on the clock for a last-gasp attempt.
Princeton was only able to throw the inbounds pass to mid-court, and with a deflection in between, time ran out on the Tigers.
Princeton was able to hold Cornell to a season-low 34.2 percent shooting, but Big Red center Jeff Foote did what he needed to do for his team to pull though. The 7-foot senior, who entered the game second in all of Division I in field goal percentage, hit 6 of 7 shots. Just as importantly, he belied his 56.5 free-throw shooting percentage to make 7 of 8 from the line.
Though the loss makes it unlikely that the Tigers will hoist an Ivy League championship trophy in 2010, perhaps Princeton will be able to hold on to something less tangible with its first 20-win campaign since 2004 still within reach.
“I don't think there's a guy out there who didn't play hard tonight for Princeton,” Johnson said.
Win or lose, that's really all any fan can ask.