Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
5-11
Cornell
6-8
Bison Men's Hoops Turns up Defense on Cornell, Prevails 63-55
1/20/2004 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2004
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Freshman Donald Brown registered his first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Bucknell held Cornell to 28.8 percent shooting in a 63-55 non-league victory Tuesday night at Sojka Pavilion.
The Bison, who won their second straight contest to improve to 5-11 on the season, held Cornell (6-8) 20 points below its season scoring average but had to sweat it out down the stretch as the Big Red whittled a 13-point deficit down to two with two minutes remaining.
Rookie Chris McNaughton tallied 13 points and nine rebounds for the Bison, who received 40 of their 63 points and 22 of their 42 rebounds from their four-man freshman class.
Cody Toppert led Cornell with 16 points, 14 coming in the second half, including several big buckets down the stretch to spur the Big Red's comeback.
Davorin Skornik contributed six points in a 13-4 Bucknell run that gave the Bison a 46-33 lead with 10:28 to play. Bucknell still led by 13 at 49-36 after Brown's put-back of a missed free throw with 8:53 left, but Cornell stunned the Bison with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to slice the margin to three.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Toppert and David Lisle made it 49-46 at the 6:30 mark.
Just under two minutes later Charles Lee rebounded McNaughton's missed front end of a one-and-one, got fouled and sunk two free thows to make it 53-48. After Ka'Ron Barnes missed two straight shots under the basket, Abe Badmus made a driving layup at the four-minute mark to push the lead back to seven at 55-48.
Still, Cornell was not done, as Lenny Collins made two free throws, Toppert stole the inbounds pass and then after a timeout drained a 3-pointer to make it 57-55 with 2:04 remaining. But Badmus answered with another clutch shot in traffic and Cornell missed its final four shots. McNaughton and Brown iced it with four free throws in the final 30 seconds.
Cornell led only once all night, that coming at 7-6 on Toppert's 17-footer. Brown scored six of Bucknell's next eight points to help stretch the lead to 25-19 at the half.
The Big Red came into the game averaging 75 points per game but made only 7 of 30 shots in the first half and 17 of 59 in the game. Bucknell, which set school and Patriot League records by shooting 71.7 percent against Navy this past Saturday, shot only 34.5 percent in the first half but heated up to 60.9 percent over the final 20 minutes.
The Bison dominated inside, outscoring Cornell 38-12 in the paint while controlling the boards 42-35. Brown and McNaughton set career rebounding highs with 10 and nine, respectively, while Badmus had a career-high nine points. Bucknell's bench outscored Cornell's 26-5.
Brown came into the game with 15 straight made field goals but missed his first attempt of the night. Still, he finished 7-for-10 from the field and is now 22-for-25 over the last three games.
Barnes, the Ivy League's leading scorer at 21.1 points per game, was held to 14 on 4 of 18 shooting. Collins broke Cornell and Sojka Pavilion records with eight steals.
Bucknell returns to action on Friday at Army, while Cornell visits Columbia on Saturday.
