Cornell 91 Davidson 88 OT postgame

A game for the ages against Davidson? A shot for the ages? Too bad that the game-winner, Ryan Wittman's 30-foot three-pointer launched with a second and a half left in OT and the score tied at 88, wasn't in the title game tomorrow night, or against Penn or Princeton or Harvard late in the season and an NCAA bid on the line, or back when Davidson had Stephan Curry, or in the first round of the NCAAs at the buzzer, or against an NCAA-bound Bill Bradley Princeton team 45 years ago. Any one of those would have made it a shot for all times in the Cornell Top Ten Basketball Moments. Instead, it bailed us out of a hole we dug ourselves into in the first round of the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival Sunday afternoon against a 3-7 Davidson team. Still, it was pretty freakin' amazing, especially for the Cornell bloc seated behind the other net and if you sat to the right of the net were in a direct line - Wittman to path of ball to basket - you see the ball arc true from the moment it left his hands; we just couldn't tell from that angle if Wittman had the distance right. And Lordy he did, all net and no rim.

Twelve noon is not a great time for basketball unless you're watching on TV. The snow crippled attendance. I would guess 2,000 to 2,500 people for the first game. (Does anyone think I'm being generous? I don't believe TV viewers got to see many wide crowd shots since why would MSG Network show up a poor turnout in the world's most famous arena?) Cornell opened up a quick and commanding lead and since you can't I think woof if you keep your thoughts to yourself (tree falling / forest?), when Cornell got up by 12 or 13 a bunch of times and then up by 16 [edit: 17 at one point], it wasn't hard to start wondering how tough of a game it would be against St. John's, since they were almost certainly going to take down Hofstra (which happened but only on account of an 18-1 closing run for a 72-60 win). The only thing Davidson could do well was go back door, repeatedly, in the first half.

We were up by 16 just before the half, 44-28, then allowed Davidson's Brendan McKillop to take a loooong, unguarded shot, swish, and it was down to a 13-point halftime lead. Hey, no problem. But then: In the second, Wittman had a streak of missed three-point attempts and in the late-going center Jeff Foote (from where I sat) appeared to arc a close shot right to left overtop the basket for a bad miss, and near the end missed what looked like a two-footer. Meanwhile Davidson got hot and finally caught Cornell with 9 minutes to play and it was close the rest of the way. Cornell was ahead by 4 (?) or so with 2 minutes to play, Davidson caught up and went up 75-73 with 12 or 15 seconds left, then Cornell center Jeff Foote easily dominated a missed Davidson free throw (as they say, you can't coach height) and tossed an outlet pass to Louis Dale -- OMG! - Foote tossed it past Dale and out of bounds. So we've gone from ahead by a huge amount to tied to behind to in the final minute to down by 2 with 10 seconds left our possession, to Davidson getting the ball back. We fouled Davidson, it looks grimmer, they choke and miss both free throws, Foote rebounds again, outlets to Dale, who dribbles a serpentine path through the Davidson D to lay it in just before the buzzer. The scoreboard lit up, Davidson 77, Cornell 73, and if you lost track of the lead changes the CORNELL 73 DAVIDSON 77 0:00.0 was a crusher, but the scorer hit the wrong button and it was of course tied at the end of regulation, 75-all. (It's possible I've swapped what happened in the last minute of regulation and the last minute of OT but I'm pretty sure the final score was right, 91-88 Cornell.)

It was a relief to have survived that far, and Cornell opened OT with both a three- and two-pointer by Louis Dale, but Davidson worked its way back. And I don’t think any Big Red fan at this point believed that any Cornell lead was secure. Cornell got up by 4 with about :30 left. Davidson came back to within 1, 88-87, Dale was fouled and missed both shots (he's like an 85% FT shooter), then Dale fouls Davidson, which hits the first to tie at 88, Davidson misses the second, Foote rebounds, outlets to (?) Jon Jaques, who finds Wittman, who shakes off a defender, moves right, and launches the 30-footer that sets off a One Shining Moment Cornell charge onto the court. Boy, did that feel good. Probably even better if you were part of the mob of players. Big crowd, little crowd, you played a game to remember in Madison Square Garden, and won.

All the Cornell heros had imperfect games. Ryan Wittman got 29 points mostly on threes but he missed a bunch in a row in the second half. Louis Dale saved our bacon at the end of regulation but he missed those crucial free throws late in OT and then committed a foul. Jeff Foote had lots of rebounds and some dominating close-in shots but he tossed the ball out of bounds with us down by two late late late in regulation and missed a couple gimmes where the distance down to the net was probaby greater than the horizontal distance away from the net.

Where thousands of Cornellians mobbed MSG for the BU hockey game, this was a much smaller contingent, and there was but one post game celebration - alums, the team, the athletic staff - at Lugos just across from the Garden that numbered in the dozens. (Very nice place.) For a lot of us bridge and tunnel people living outside Manhattan, it was a slog to get in, and $54 seemed a lot to pay for tickets, but Lordy, this was a game to have seen in person. It was nice that Cornell had cheerleaders but not, I don't believe, Davidson. Would've been nice if Cornell brought a pep band. I'm curious how many Cornellians will come back on a work night Monday. We will be handily outnumbered by the local St. John’s contingent, plus one assumes the sentiment among the unaffiliated would favor the hard working local lads over the allegedly elite, upstate rich college boys.

Forgive me this thought for those who watch sports through colorblind eyes, but -- just an observation -- late in the game there were out on the floor 10 white guys and just one visible tattoo, that on the right shoulder of Davidson's #23 Steve Rossiter. Kind of retro.

billhoward
A game for the ages against Davidson? A shot for the ages? Too bad that the game-winner, Ryan Wittman's 30-foot three-pointer launched with a second and a half left in OT and the score tied at 88, wasn't in the title game tomorrow night, or against Penn or Princeton or Harvard late in the season and an NCAA bid on the line, or back when Davidson had Stephan Curry, or in the first round of the NCAAs at the buzzer, or against an NCAA-bound Bill Bradley Princeton team 45 years ago.

From Cornell's Men's Basketball History:

Cornell Men's Basetball History
1964-65
With a Barton Hall record 9,000 fans in attendance Blaine Aston launched a 17 foot jumper with just 3 seconds left to overcome 40 points from Bill Bradley as the Big Red beat Princeton 70-69. It would be the Tigers last defeat until they lost to Michigan in the Final Four. Cornell was led by first team all-Ivy performers Robert DeLuca and Stephen Cram with 18 points a piece.

Why do we need another one from Wittman over Bradley and the tigers? Let's save Wittman's heroics for the other, worthy fantasy causes you mention. Who knows what the rest of the season will bring. (Besides, do you really think it would be possible to swipe all those Daily Princetonians again? )

As a Sun alum, I would love if such a prank - replace the Daily Orange or Princetonian with a spoof issue - were to happen. That too would be been there, done that follow-on. Now to have the same effect, you'd need to (in a friendly fashion) hack their website. Hmmm ...

At the Davidson game, I sat next to an alum who was at the 1965 upset of Princeton. Yes, this was MSG, but there were no 9,000 people seeing it firsthand. Still, it was one of those moments you might see just two or three times a season. Last year, the come from behind ECAC semifinal game (over Princeton) had that same "doesn't matter what the ticket cost, this was awesome."

(Apologies for this digression to younger alums, which is anyone Class of '90 or younger (half of all Cornell grads are since then). Talking about something in the 1960s-1970s for you is like old alums telling me about Cornell teams of the Fifth Down era: Hard to believe anyone could be that old. Or wear shorts that short.)

Game got a shout-out on ESPN tonight, no recap really just showed the final 7 seconds

nr53
Game got a shout-out on ESPN tonight, no recap really just showed the final 7 seconds

Got the video clip of it? Would love to see it (again).

HeafDog

nr53
Game got a shout-out on ESPN tonight, no recap really just showed the final 7 seconds

Got the video clip of it? Would love to see it (again).

Sadly no. I didn't record it at the time and can't find it anywhere online now.

It was also #3 on the top 10 plays on Sportscenter this morning.