Photo Credit: Grady Congleton
FINAL SCORE: Cornell 67, Vermont 59 | Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Five players reached double figures to lead Cornell to a 67-59 win over the Vermont men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon as part of the Legends Classic at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Catamount senior Marqus Blakely (Metuchen, N.J.) led all scorers with 21 points to go with seven rebounds, as Vermont falls to 2-4 on the year.

Vermont led by as many as 12 in the first half, but Cornell (4-2) took its first lead of the game early in the second, used a 15-3 run to open a two-point game and make it 59-45 with 8:36 remaining.

“I thought we played a lot harder today and played a very good team, but we got down in the second half, missed some free throws and were trying to play catch-up,” said Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan. “We missed a lot of open shots and couldn’t get back into the game. I was much happier with our effort today, but we just have to try and keep getting better. I want to give Cornell a lot of credit, they did a really good job especially after being down early.”

Vermont’s offense set the tone early in the game, as the Cats jumped out to an 11-3 lead. Blakely scored six of the 11, while UVM hit five of its first six shots from the floor. The Catamounts led by as many as 12 in the first half, 28-16 behind a balanced attack that saw seven different players score in the first 7:54 of play.

Cornell closed out the half on a 14-4 run to cut Vermont’s lead to 32-30 heading into intermission. The Big Red slowed the Catamount offense midway through the frame by switching to a zone defense after Vermont controlled the paint to start the contest.

Vermont shot 52 percent in the first 20 minutes of play, as Blakely led all scorers with 12 on 5-for-5 shooting.

Cornell took its first lead of the day on a jumper by Ryan Wittman, 2:28 into the second half, as Vermont’s offense came out of the gates a little slow. The Cats trailed 44-42 after a pair of free throws from Blakely, but the Big Red opened the game up by scoring 15 of the next 18. The Catamounts recorded only two field goals in the first 11:39 coming out of the locker room.

A three from senior Maurice Joseph (Montreal, Quebec) cut the Cornell lead to eight at 67-59 with 2:21 remaining, but that would be the last points for either team in the game.

Blakely finished 7-for-8 from the floor and added three steals, three assists and two blocks for the Cats. Junior Joey Accaoui (Lincoln, R.I.) was the only other Vermont player to reach double figures with 10 off the bench on 4-for-8 shooting.

Wittman, Jeff Foote and Louis Dale each scored 12 apiece for Cornell, while Chris Wroblewski and Geoff Reeves each added 11. The Big Red held Vermont to shoot only 35 percent in the second half and held a 21-12 rebounding edge after halftime.

Vermont wraps up the Legends Classic on Sunday when it faces Toledo at noon in Philadelphia, Pa. The game can be heard live on 96.7 DOT-FM, The Zone 960 AM and WSTJ-1320 AM (Randolph), and on the internet at www.UVMathletics.com with the audio stream provided by SportsJuice.com.


NOTES: Saturday was the 11th career meeting between the two teams, as Vermont still holds a 6-5 edge in the all-time series that started during the 1900-01 season … Joseph was held under double figures in scoring for the first time this season … Cornell has made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament and was picked to win the Ivy League again this season.