Toppert Triggers Cornell's Comeback Run

On Friday night, Cornell guard Cody Toppert not only scored the most points of anyone on the floor. He also recorded the biggest ones.

After a steal and a fast-break layup by freshman guard Jim Goffredo put Harvard up seven with just 14 seconds to play in the first half, it appeared the Crimson would salvage the momentum heading into the locker room, despite the fact that its once sizeable 14-point lead had shrunk by half.

But the Big Red raced up the floor and Toppert nailed a three with five seconds remaining to move Cornell to within four at halftime, 39-35.

Just over 2:30 into the second half, he struck again. With his team trailing 45-40, Toppert received the ball on the left wing and fired up a three. Harvard junior captain Jason Norman rushed out to put a hand in Toppert’s face, but fouled him in the process. The shot fell and so did the subsequent free throw—a four-point play that put Cornell into position to snatch the lead back from the Crimson.

“The rhythm of the second half for Cornell started because of that play,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “It was absolutely a huge bucket for them.”

The Big Red began to seize control of the game from that point forward, but couldn’t push its lead into double digits. With just under 7:30 remaining in the game, Toppert capitalized on a Goffredo turnover, pushed the ball up the floor and nailed a long three from the left wing, increasing the Cornell lead to 11. The trifecta ended whatever hopes Harvard had of sustaining the Big Red charge and staying in the contest.

“We didn’t have many answers for [Toppert],” Sullivan said.

Double Trouble

After the first half against Cornell, sophomore power forward Matt Stehle had five points and six rebounds, putting him on pace to capture his third double-double of the season.

By the time he fouled out with just 40.6 seconds left in the game, he had secured that double-double—and a whole lot more.

Stehle made an immediate impact for the Crimson after the intermission, scoring Harvard’s first six points of the second half while the Crimson pushed the lead to seven at 45-38. After the Big Red seized a one-point lead, Stehle answered once again, grabbing an offensive rebound off a miss by sophomore point guard Michael Beal and laying it back in while drawing a foul.

“It was good to see him be effective in the low post and see him being aggressive going for offensive rebounds,” Sullivan said. “It was really good for us to see Matt staying under the net, grabbing the offensive boards, putting them back up and drawing the contact.”

Cornell managed to open up a two-possession lead later in the half, but Stehle responded by hitting a jumper and a layup to bring the Crimson back within two each time.

Despite his 15 points and 10 boards in the second half—20 and 16 for the game, respectively—Stehle could not keep Harvard from falling off the frenetic pace that heavily favored the Big Red’s style of play.

Stehle followed up his stellar performance Friday night with an 11-point, eight-rebound outing on Saturday against Columbia, giving him a combined 31 points and 24 rebounds for the weekend.

Gone Foul

In what has become a season-long theme, Harvard found itself in foul trouble once again, committing 54 fouls on the weekend—the second-most fouls it has committed in consecutive games this season.

The effects of the foul problems were immediately evident after the departure of Beal late in the first half of each game.

With 4:31 left before halftime and Harvard leading by 12 over Cornell, Beal picked up his second foul, forcing him to take a seat. In Beal’s absence the Crimson quickly committed two turnovers and went without a field goal for 4:17 while seeing its 12-point lead dwindle to four.

“[When Beal came out], we not only lost our momentum, but we also lost our aggressiveness,” Sullivan said. “I think part of it is having a young team. But we’ve talked to the guys a lot about not getting discouraged and fighting their way through things.”

On Saturday night against Columbia, the situation was quite similar, as Beal left the game after picking up his second foul with just 3:20 remaining in the first half and the Crimson ahead by 12. By halftime, the Harvard lead had shrunk to just five as the Lions seized the momentum heading into the break.

Beal didn’t end up fouling out of either game, but the damage had already been done. The Big Red and the Lions survived their poor first-half play due to their ability to disrupt the fluid Crimson offense by forcing one of its integral components to the bench.

“Anytime your team is in foul trouble it makes you play a lot softer,” Beal said. “In the beginning of the [Cornell] game, we were doing really well because we were playing really aggressively…but when they got in the double bonus, we had to back off.”

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.