ITHACA, NY (Jan. 7)--Ryan Wittman led three double-figure scorers for hot-shooting Cornell and the Big Red defeated visiting New Jersey Institute of Technology, 69-58, in men's basketball Sunday night.
Wittman, a 6-foot-6 freshman who has three Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors to his credit already, scored 14 of his points in the first half. Graham Dow added 15 points in the game and Louis Dale chipped in 14 points and a game-high 9 assists for the Big Red.
Cornell shot 51 percent from the field for the game, including 8-for-16 on three-point tries--4-for-8 in each half.
The Big Red, a 77 percent free throw shooting team for the season, shot well from the line Sunday night, making 17 of 21 tries, including 13-for-16 in the second half, which made it difficult for NJIT to make the runs needed to cut into the Cornell lead.
The Highlanders, who also shot well from the foul line (21-27 for the contest) got a game-high 20 points from senior Marc Milbourne Swan. He was 10-for-13 at the foul line and made five of his seven shots from the field. The 20 points were the most this season for the NIIT senior and two points shy of the team's season individual game high of 22, set by Clayton Barker against Maine on December 1.
In addition to Milbourne Swan, the Highlanders got 13 points and a team-leading 8 rebounds from Nesho Milosevic, while Barker picked up 12 points and 7 assists.
Cornell's 6-foot-10 senior center Andrew Naeve had a game-high 9 rebounds, leading the Big Red to a 32-21 advantage on the boards.
Both teams started slowly on offense and the score stood at 5-4 for Cornell until Dale hit a three-pointer with 12:14 left in the first half. The Big Red eventually pushed its advantage into double digits, 22-11, on Wittman's three-point basket with 6:37 left in the half.
Down, 28-19, after Wittman made a layup with 2:08 remaining, NJIT closed the first half with what would be its best spurt of the game, outscoring the home team, 7-2, the rest of the way, with the last points coming from Andrew Engel's three in the final seconds. It would be the Highlanders' only made three-pointer of the game.
Leading by four at the half, Cornell gained the upper hand by scoring the first six points of the second half on three-pointers by Jason Mitchell--his only bucket of the game--and Dow.
NJIT closed back to within five, 37-32, after Barker made a pair of free throws with 16:05 left, but the Highlanders could not get closer.
Cornell got the lead back to double figures and led by at least 10 after a spurt around the middle of the second half that saw Dale score seven straight points for his team on a layup, a three-point basket and two free throws, with the foul shots at the 9:20 mark staking the Big Red to a 52-39 lead.
Cornell's biggest lead came later, as Dow's layup that made it 65-50 with 3:09 remaining, but the Big Red led by at least 10 after Dale's two free throws.
NJIT will return to action on Wednesday at 7 pm, when it hosts Longwood in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. The game is the first of 12 contests this season against opponents, who, like NJIT, are NCAA Division I independent programs.
