The Pizzitola Center crowd could feel the momentum shifting Friday night.The men's basketball team had closed the first half on a 16-5 run to tie Cornell, the favorite to win the Ivy League. With Columbia beating Yale, another contender, the Bears looked as if they might emerge from the weekend as the league's team to beat.Instead, Cornell solidified its frontrunner status. The Big Red hit 3-pointers down the stretch while Brown missed layups, and the Ithaca, N.Y. team won, 75-64.Brown did rebound the next night to beat Columbia, 68-63, with help from exemplary play by two freshmen. The weekend split brings the Bears' record to 10-8 overall and 2-2 in league play.On Friday night, Brown got off to a quick start against Cornell, forcing seven turnovers in the first six minutes to grab an 11-4 lead. But Cornell then went on a 24-6 run, with forward Ryan Wittman, last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, hitting three 3-pointers in that stretch. Wittman would finish with a team-high 21 points, going 5-for-10 from beyond the arc."He's one of the top shooters in the nation," Cornell Head Coach Steve Donahue said. "You can't leave him open."But Brown began chipping away at the 11-point deficit before the first half ended, making several layups and a string of free throws.The crowd of 1,812, largely silent during the Cornell run, erupted after a spectacular play involving Brown's two leading scorers. With less than two minutes in the half, guard Damon Huffman '08 poked the ball from Cornell point guard Louis Dale. Huffman and Dale then both dove for the ball, and Huffman knocked it in the path of a streaking Mark McAndrew '08, who glided in for a layup. The score cut the deficit to two, and the teams ended the half tied at 33.But that would be the last time the Bears would be tied with Cornell. The Big Red scored the first seven points of the second half, starting with - what else? - a Wittman 3-pointer. The Bears pulled within two at the 14- and 13-minute marks, but Cornell opened its lead again despite the Bears' full-court pressure."I think we do a pretty good job when teams trap us," Donahue said. The players "have a pretty good sense as to how to play the game."It never felt as if Brown had a chance to win in the final 10 minutes of the game. The Bears trailed by six with 7:19 left, but two turnovers let Cornell extend the lead. After the game, Brown Head Coach Craig Robinson lamented his team's poor shooting."You just can't miss shots and lay-ups and free throws against what is considered the best team in the league," Robinson said. Brown shot just 33 percent from the floor, compared to Cornell's 50 percent. The Bears made 27 of 36 free throws, while the Big Red made all but one of 19.Huffman, who entered the game as the team's top scorer, went just 2-for-12 from the floor for four points. But Robinson said that wasn't Huffman's fault, since the Bears' inside players couldn't score to open up shots for Huffman.McAndrew finished with a game-high 22 points, and forward Peter Sullivan '11 added 13. Dale scored 15 points for Cornell, which routed Yale Saturday night to improve its record to 12-5 overall and 4-0 in Ivy play. The Bears' poor shooting didn't carry over to the next night, however. Against Columbia (8-11, 1-3 Ivy), Brown, which entered the weekend with league's second-best 3-point percentage, held a slim lead for most of the first half, with McAndrew and Sullivan both hitting a pair of 3-pointers. After McAndrew's second trey, Brown had a 21-14 lead at the 8:36 mark.But the Lions countered by feeding the ball to 6-foot-8 forward John Baumann in the post. Working Brown's post players, Baumann hit a slew of layups and short jumpers and ended the half with 16 points. At the half, Columbia led 35-34.But after the break, the Bears came out looking to stop Baumann on defense. They forced two turnovers from him in the first four minutes on the half, helping to go on an 11-0 run.The Bears held about a 10-point lead for most of the half, scoring lay-ups with excellent backdoor cuts. They were mostly successful at keeping the ball away from Baumann, who scored just seven second-half points.The Bears made the game closer than they liked at the end. With Brown leading by six with less than two minutes to play, Columbia began fouling to send Brown shooters to the free-throw line. After Adrian Williams '11 missed a free throw with 30 seconds left, the Lions converted a three-point play to make it 66-63.But Sullivan hit two free throws to give the game its final score of 68-63. After the game, Robinson praised Sullivan, who has started Brown's last seven games, and Williams."It doesn't surprise me that Peter and Adrian can play," Robinson said. "What surprises me is that they can play so soon."Sullivan had 19 points, and Williams had a career-high 12. McAndrew had a team-high 21 points. Both teams shot about 46 percent from the field, but Brown shot 12 more free throws than Columbia and made eight more than them. Robinson said that despite the split, he is happy with his team's 2-2 league record because the Bears had been playing teams picked to finish ahead of them. (Yale was picked to finish second, Columbia fourth and Brown fifth).The Bears might even get a boost this weekend, with the possible return of starting center Mark MacDonald '08, who missed both games this weekend. MacDonald was diagnosed with a concussion after colliding with Chris Skrelja '09 against Yale last Saturday and hadn't practiced all week. Before Saturday's game, the 6-foot-9 captain said he was feeling better and was hopeful he could begin practicing by Wednesday.The Bears will play again at the Pizzitola Center this upcoming weekend. Dartmouth visits on Friday, and Harvard on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.
