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Sunday, December 17, 2006
It would be easy to criticize Bucknell's defense after the way a bunch of Ivy League youngsters lit up the Bison in the first half of Saturday's 70-66 win at Cornell. It would be just as easy to point fingers at the impatient, jump-shooting offense the Bison played for the first 20-minutes of the game.
But after pulling off an impressive second half comeback, capped by a 12-0 end-of-the-game run that finally got them out of the hole they'd dug for themselves in the first half, Bucknell's glass was half-full as they rode the bus back to Lewisburg.
When Donald Brown tied the game with a little jumper in the key with 1:38 to play, thoughts of Cornell's hot first half shooting already were fading. When Jason Vegotsky hit a three-pointer with 42 seconds to go that put Bucknell on top for the first time since midway through the first half, the six treys the Big Red drilled in the first 20 minutes didn't seem to matter. When Abe Badmus stole the ball from Cornell freshman Louis Dale 32 seconds later to preserve the lead, the way Dale sliced and diced Bucknell's defense for 23 points seemed irrelevant. And when Donald Brown hit a free throw with 8 ticks on the clock to seal the come-from-behind win, the incredible 21-0 run Cornell put on the Bison in the opening stanza was reduced to an afterthought.
At the buzzer, all that mattered to the Bison was the final score and the team's fourth win in five games, a trend that has Bucknell seeing light at the end of the tunnel after an 0-4 start.
“We are a work in progress . . . We are still learning. We're still trying to get better at it,” said Bison coach Pat Flannery afterwards.
Without a doubt, there is still a lot of work to do. That was obvious the way the Bison played in the first half. Maybe it was a nasty case of finals lag. Or maybe it was a case of struggling to get into a game played in a glorified high school gym in front of a crowd so small the home team didn't even bother listing the attendance on the box score. Perhaps after thumping the Big Red by 44 points last season, the Bison simply thought they could mail this one in. Whatever the reason, Bucknell came out as laid back on defense as the hippies that staff the head shops that line Ithaca 's downtown Commons.
“The first half we were very lackadaisical on defense, giving players open shots,” admitted Bison forward Donald Brown, who finished with 14 points and 5 rebounds, both team-highs.
After using an early 9-0 run to take an 18-14 lead midway through the half, the Bison seemed to think they could run Cornell right out of its own sparse, cement-block, wooden-bleachers building. Quickly they learned the folly of trying to out-gun a team that shoots the ball as well as Cornell does. While Cornell was knocking down three-pointers left and right, Bucknell was a mirror image. In a span of 4:42, the Big Red drained four consecutive three-pointers. In that same span, the Bison went 0 for 4 at the arc.
“We started off well, and then as we got through that first timeout, it seemed were going to just outscore them,” said Flannery. “That is not is going to get it done for us, going up and down and shooting the basketball.”
It worked fine for Cornell though. The Big Red's impressive 21-0 Cornell put Bucknell in a 17-point hole with 5:45 to go in the half. Even though Bucknell managed narrow the margin to 13 when Jason Vegotsky tipped in a Patrick Behan miss at the buzzer, Cornell seemed in control.
“They went on that 21-0 run and it kind of stifled us. We were shocked,” Bucknell senior Donald Brown said.
Shocked might even be an understatement. The 17-point deficit was the largest Bucknell has faced all season. Cornell's 43-point first half was the most by anybody against Bucknell in a half this season and the most by a Bucknell opponent since Lehigh scored 44 in the second half of Bucknell's 81-70 win at Sojka on Feb. 22. That was also the last time anybody had hit six treys in one half against the Bison. Only Wake Forest and Saint Joseph's have shot the ball better in a half then Cornell's 14 for 24 (58.9 percent) effort prior to the intermission.
“We were 13 down and we could have been a lot more down,” Flannery said.
The second half was a different story. Bucknell opened the half with a 7-0 run and held Cornell without a field goal for the first 4:50 of the half. Even though the Big Red twice managed to push the lead back to 13, the tone was set, perhaps even as early as Cornell's first possession of the half, which ended with a turnover, one of three the Bison forced in the first 2:29 of the half.
“Anytime you disrupt a team's offense and make them turn the ball over, it gives the defense more energy. It's like the monster becomes bigger and bigger as they become smaller. The turnovers helped us a lot,” Brown said.
Cornell went on to cough up the ball nine times in the second half, none perhaps as costly as the one by Dale with 14 seconds to play and Bucknell up by three. Dale, a 5-11 freshman from Alabama, was all but unstoppable early, beating Bucknell defenders off the dribble time and time again. Dale hit five of the first six shots he took, including two treys. When he wasn't scoring from the field, he was doing it from the foul line, making 11 of 12 free throws. In the final nine minutes of the game, though, he was just 1 for 3 and did not get to the foul line.
Still, it seemed every time Bucknell got in position to take control of the game, Cornell managed to find an answer. Twice the Bison closed to within three points of Cornell, each time the Big Red answered. After the second time, when Cornell came up with three layups in a row to push the lead back to 8, even Flannery was skeptical of his team's chances to finish the comeback.
“When we came back the second time, I wasn't sure there was enough time,” Flannery said.
Turned out the 4:58 left on the clock after Dale's last bucket gave Cornell a 66-58 lead was just enough, thanks to a combination of a defense that didn't allow another point the rest of the way and an offense that didn't miss another shot. Bucknell went 4 for 4 from the field down the stretch. Cornell was 0 for 5.
“We got an early (Christmas present) getting out of here today,” said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery afterwards. “I actually feel awful for (Cornell coach Steve Donahue), but I'm not going to give it back.
Postgame audio |
| Notebook | | |
But after pulling off an impressive second half comeback, capped by a 12-0 end-of-the-game run that finally got them out of the hole they'd dug for themselves in the first half, Bucknell's glass was half-full as they rode the bus back to Lewisburg.
When Donald Brown tied the game with a little jumper in the key with 1:38 to play, thoughts of Cornell's hot first half shooting already were fading. When Jason Vegotsky hit a three-pointer with 42 seconds to go that put Bucknell on top for the first time since midway through the first half, the six treys the Big Red drilled in the first 20 minutes didn't seem to matter. When Abe Badmus stole the ball from Cornell freshman Louis Dale 32 seconds later to preserve the lead, the way Dale sliced and diced Bucknell's defense for 23 points seemed irrelevant. And when Donald Brown hit a free throw with 8 ticks on the clock to seal the come-from-behind win, the incredible 21-0 run Cornell put on the Bison in the opening stanza was reduced to an afterthought.
At the buzzer, all that mattered to the Bison was the final score and the team's fourth win in five games, a trend that has Bucknell seeing light at the end of the tunnel after an 0-4 start.
“We are a work in progress . . . We are still learning. We're still trying to get better at it,” said Bison coach Pat Flannery afterwards.
Without a doubt, there is still a lot of work to do. That was obvious the way the Bison played in the first half. Maybe it was a nasty case of finals lag. Or maybe it was a case of struggling to get into a game played in a glorified high school gym in front of a crowd so small the home team didn't even bother listing the attendance on the box score. Perhaps after thumping the Big Red by 44 points last season, the Bison simply thought they could mail this one in. Whatever the reason, Bucknell came out as laid back on defense as the hippies that staff the head shops that line Ithaca 's downtown Commons.
“The first half we were very lackadaisical on defense, giving players open shots,” admitted Bison forward Donald Brown, who finished with 14 points and 5 rebounds, both team-highs.
After using an early 9-0 run to take an 18-14 lead midway through the half, the Bison seemed to think they could run Cornell right out of its own sparse, cement-block, wooden-bleachers building. Quickly they learned the folly of trying to out-gun a team that shoots the ball as well as Cornell does. While Cornell was knocking down three-pointers left and right, Bucknell was a mirror image. In a span of 4:42, the Big Red drained four consecutive three-pointers. In that same span, the Bison went 0 for 4 at the arc.
“We started off well, and then as we got through that first timeout, it seemed were going to just outscore them,” said Flannery. “That is not is going to get it done for us, going up and down and shooting the basketball.”
It worked fine for Cornell though. The Big Red's impressive 21-0 Cornell put Bucknell in a 17-point hole with 5:45 to go in the half. Even though Bucknell managed narrow the margin to 13 when Jason Vegotsky tipped in a Patrick Behan miss at the buzzer, Cornell seemed in control.
“They went on that 21-0 run and it kind of stifled us. We were shocked,” Bucknell senior Donald Brown said.
Shocked might even be an understatement. The 17-point deficit was the largest Bucknell has faced all season. Cornell's 43-point first half was the most by anybody against Bucknell in a half this season and the most by a Bucknell opponent since Lehigh scored 44 in the second half of Bucknell's 81-70 win at Sojka on Feb. 22. That was also the last time anybody had hit six treys in one half against the Bison. Only Wake Forest and Saint Joseph's have shot the ball better in a half then Cornell's 14 for 24 (58.9 percent) effort prior to the intermission.
“We were 13 down and we could have been a lot more down,” Flannery said.
The second half was a different story. Bucknell opened the half with a 7-0 run and held Cornell without a field goal for the first 4:50 of the half. Even though the Big Red twice managed to push the lead back to 13, the tone was set, perhaps even as early as Cornell's first possession of the half, which ended with a turnover, one of three the Bison forced in the first 2:29 of the half.
“Anytime you disrupt a team's offense and make them turn the ball over, it gives the defense more energy. It's like the monster becomes bigger and bigger as they become smaller. The turnovers helped us a lot,” Brown said.
Cornell went on to cough up the ball nine times in the second half, none perhaps as costly as the one by Dale with 14 seconds to play and Bucknell up by three. Dale, a 5-11 freshman from Alabama, was all but unstoppable early, beating Bucknell defenders off the dribble time and time again. Dale hit five of the first six shots he took, including two treys. When he wasn't scoring from the field, he was doing it from the foul line, making 11 of 12 free throws. In the final nine minutes of the game, though, he was just 1 for 3 and did not get to the foul line.
Still, it seemed every time Bucknell got in position to take control of the game, Cornell managed to find an answer. Twice the Bison closed to within three points of Cornell, each time the Big Red answered. After the second time, when Cornell came up with three layups in a row to push the lead back to 8, even Flannery was skeptical of his team's chances to finish the comeback.
“When we came back the second time, I wasn't sure there was enough time,” Flannery said.
Turned out the 4:58 left on the clock after Dale's last bucket gave Cornell a 66-58 lead was just enough, thanks to a combination of a defense that didn't allow another point the rest of the way and an offense that didn't miss another shot. Bucknell went 4 for 4 from the field down the stretch. Cornell was 0 for 5.
“We got an early (Christmas present) getting out of here today,” said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery afterwards. “I actually feel awful for (Cornell coach Steve Donahue), but I'm not going to give it back.
Postgame audio |
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