For the first 30 minutes of Wednesday night’s game at Lehigh, the men’s basketball team (2-2) engaged in a tight, back-and-forth game against the Mountain Hawks (4-2). But beginning with just under 10 minutes remaining, Lehigh went on a 12-2 run to stretch out to a 66-49 win.
The Mountain Hawks’ Zlatko Savovic and Matt Logie led the attack, scoring a combined 33 points in the win. Several of Savovic’s 16 points came on shots taken just as the shot clock expired, including a number of shots that appeared near-impossible to make.
“They didn’t get many post touches, and that’s something we’re stressing,” said head coach Steve Donahue. “I think it’s very difficult for a team to rely on late in the shot clock situations. We didn’t do a good job late in the shot clock. I’ll give them credit, they made [their shots], but we didn’t have enough pressure on them at that point in the shot clock.”
With 10 minutes remaining in the game, the Red found itself down 42-40. However, Cornell then had loads of trouble getting shots to fall, shooting only 20-of-51 from the floor and 4-of-16 from 3-point range for the game.
“Certain guys should get shots in certain situations, and I think what happened was we got down a couple of baskets and some guys were open, but they’re not necessarily the guys we need to shoot the ball at that point,” Donahue analyzed.
Cornell was also outrebounded 40-28.
“We have to do a much better job rebounding on the defensive end,” said Donahue. “I saw a lot more improvement in some stretches last night than what we’ve done. The defense was a lot better than it was at Colgate. There were a lot of positives, but we’re just not ready to win that game at this point.”
Sophomore center Eric Taylor led the Red in points (15), rebounds (5), and assists (4). However, he was also charged with nine of the Red’s 12 turnovers on the game.
The Red’s stretch of four games in seven days continues tonight, as it travels to Syracuse to take on the Big East powerhouse Orangemen (2-1) in the Carrier Dome.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to go up there and play a very talented basketball team,” said Donahue. “If they play their best game, we’re going to have a very difficult time. We have to play our best game, that’s the only thing we can control.”
Syracuse has enjoyed tremendous production this season from freshman Carmelo Anthony, who is averaging 27.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game on the young season. Anthony, widely regarded as one of the top freshmen in the country, may declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft following this season.
“He’s going to be a millionaire in a couple of months, that’s how good he is,” said Donahue. “There’s not much you can do except make him earn his points, hopefully on the perimeter, he’s not getting in the gaps, he’s not finishing around the rim.”
“He’s really good,” added junior co-captain Ka’Ron Barnes. “He’s young, though, so hopefully we can throw a few things at him.”
Anthony’s classmate, Gerry McNamara ranks second on the team with 15.3 ppg. Junior Jeremy McNeil has 10 blocks on the season.
In last year’s game, Barnes led the Red with 15 points in the 76-58 loss in the dome. The Orangemen currently have a 26-game winning streak a
gainst the Red.
Cornell has not beaten Syracuse since the 1968-69 season, and has not won in Syracuse wince 1964. Syracuse leads the all-time series 80-31.
Archived article by Owen Bochner