Game 25 — Cornell: The good, bad and ugly

This was a tough one for the team to swallow. They definitely didn't want to lose the series to Cornell this year, and I know they wanted to give a great crowd the win. Nonetheless, here's my take:

The good: Miles Cartwright turning on beast-mode in the second half. Lots of players contributed to erasing a 15-point deficit (gee, that sounds familiar), but none took control more than the freshman. From re-finding his shot, to driving the lane, he was excellent, scoring a game-high 23 points with four assists and three steals in 38 minutes. Mizzo put on a clinic in body control, power and finesse going to the rim. That kind of play will make for, at the very least, an entertaining three years to come.

The bad: Jerome Allen's timeout call with 36 seconds remaining. Cartwright had just given Penn a one point lead and the Quakers weren't giving Cornell any chances on offense. The shot clock ticked down to just 1 second before the ball went out of bounds off Penn. Allen's 30 second timeout might have given him a chance to set up some defense, but it also gave Cornell's coaching staff enough time to regroup before one successful inbounds play, a baseline pass to Mark Coury who hit the jumper to give Cornell the lead, which the Big Red would hold onto for the win.

The Ugly: The fact that Penn's seniors will have to return for their final home game — senior night — looking for a last win at the Palestra over spring break, when the student body will not be here to see it.