DATE & TIME: Saturday, January 31st, 7:00 p.m. (et).
FACTS & STATS: Site: Newman Arena (4,473) -- Ithaca, New York. Television: None. Home Record: Yale 4-1, Cornell 8-0. Away Record: Yale 3-9, Cornell 2-5. Neutral Record: Yale 0-0, Cornell 3-1. Conference Record: Yale 2-1, Cornell 3-0. Series Record: Cornell leads, 104-100.
GAME NOTES: Ivy League foes will collide in Ithaca tonight, as the Cornell Big Red play host to the Yale Bulldogs. Yale led Columbia by nine points at intermission last night and appeared to be in position to move to 3-0 in Ivy play. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs only scored 15 points over the final 20 minutes en route to a 53-42 defeat. They are now 7-10 overall and carry a 3-9 record in true road games into tonight's clash. As for Cornell, it crushed Brown by a 90-58 final last night to remain unbeaten in league action. The Big Red extended their school-record home winning streak to 16 games, and they have won 18 in a row over Ivy League opponents. Cornell has won its last eight outings overall and figures to enter tonight's tilt with a wealth of confidence. The Big Red own a 104-100 edge in the all-time series with Yale, which includes an 85-65 triumph over the Bulldogs in the most recent meeting last season.
Heading into last night's clash with Columbia, Yale's Alex Zampier (14.3 ppg) and Ross Morin (14.1 ppg) owned very similar scoring averages. Clearly, those two players were counted on heavily to be productive against the Lions, and the fact that both finished with only four points was both surprising and disappointing. Garrett Fiddler led the way in the setback with a mere eight points, and the Bulldogs connected on a lowly 35.3 percent of their field goal attempts, including 1-of-12 from three-point range. They turned the ball over 20 times and posted a total of only four assists. All of the negatives overshadowed a strong defensive effort as Columbia shot just 38.6 percent from the field.
Ryan Wittman is considered the go-to guy at the offensive end for Cornell, and he carried an average of 19.6 ppg into last night's battle with Brown. Louis Dale (14.4 ppg) and Jeff Foote (12.2 ppg) both carried strong scoring averages into Friday's game as well, and the trio certainly got the job done against the Bears. Dale stole the show with a 9-of-11 effort from the floor, as he finished with 23 points in only 22 minutes of action. Wittman tallied 13 points, while Dale ripped down nine rebounds. The Big Red earned a 43-25 rebounding advantage, including 13-5 on the offensive boards, and they connected on 53.7 percent of their field goal attempts, including 11-of-22 from three-point range.
Considering that Yale lost to Columbia on the road by double figures last night, there is no reason to believe that the Bulldogs will be able to upset Cornell.
Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Cornell 81, Yale 66
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