Cornell may be considered an underdog in this year’s NCAA Tournament, but anyone watching its two games this weekend would have no idea.
The No. 12 seed Big Red turned in two dominating performances this weekend in Jacksonville, Fla., knocking out No. 5 Temple, 78-65, on Friday and No. 4 Wisconsin, 87-69, yesterday.
It became the first Ivy League team to advance to the Sweet 16 since 1979, when Penn made it all the way to the Final Four.
On Thursday, Cornell will face Kentucky — the top seed in the East — in Syracuse, N.Y., as the lowest seeded team remaining in the NCAA Tournament.
In each of their tournament wins, sharpshooting helped the Big Red build up an early lead. The reigning Ivy champs hit eight of ten shots to open the Temple contest and buried their first five attempts against Wisconsin. And after opening up a big lead in each game, Cornell never looked back.
The Big Red shot an impressive 53.1 percent from the field against Temple, but were able to shoot at an even better clip against Wisconsin. They hit 33 of 54 from the field yesterday, including a blistering 53.3 percent from three-point range.
Seniors Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman led the way offensively, scoring 21 and 20 respectively against the Owls, and 26 and 24 to top the Badgers. Senior center Jeff Foote tacked on 28 points and 14 rebounds altogether on the weekend.
The victory against Temple marked coach Steve Donahue’s first win over Fran Dunphy, who was head coach while Donahue served as an assistant with the Quakers. It dropped Dunphy’s NCAA tournament record to 1-12 and was the first tournament victory for an Ivy League team since 1998, when fifth-seeded Princeton beat UNLV.
The Big Red have now won nine straight, last losing to Penn Feb. 12 at the Palestra. The last time Penn topped a team that then went to the Sweet Sixteen was during the 1998-99 season when the Ivy League champion Quakers beat a Temple team that would go on to the Elite Eight.
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