Rourke, Cornell Down M. Basketball

The Harvard frontcourt has been hailed as the best in the Ivy League, but it was the Cornell big men who dominated the interior on Saturday night.

Carried by a career-high 27 points from forward Ryan Rourke, Cornell (11-12, 6-4 Ivy) came from behind to beat Harvard 67-63 at Lavietes Pavilion, preventing the Crimson (10-13, 5-5) from sweeping its first weekend series since 2002.

“This is really the first time an inside player got significant numbers against us,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “All credit to [Rourke] for rising to the occasion.”

Rourke, who transferred from Mesa (Ariz.) Community College prior to the season, poured in 20 second-half points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor and went 6-of-6 from the line to sink Harvard. Hitting an assortment of layups and mid-range jumpers, the 6’8 junior helped turn around a 26-22 halftime deficit. His jump shot with 9:53 to play put Cornell ahead 42-40, a lead the Big Red would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

“I really wanted to come out aggressive tonight,” Rourke said. “I knew I needed to step it up in order for our team to get the W.”

Harvard trailed by only 58-55 with 1:09 remaining after a three from senior guard Kevin Rogus, who scored a team-high 23 points. But with the Crimson desperately needing a stop on the ensuing possession, Rourke silenced a boisterous Harvard crowd with a crucial jumper, and then hit four free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal the victory.

“We needed a tougher game from our four and our five men,” captain Jason Norman said. “Rourke really killed us, and so did [center Eric] Taylor.”

Taylor had 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, and teamed with Rourke to help Cornell outscore Harvard in the paint, 32-14. Porous interior defense was part of a collective Crimson lapse that allowed Cornell to shoot 70 percent and score 45 points after halftime, as Harvard appeared to be fatigued down the stretch.

“Credit to Cornell for really seeing that we were tired in the second half,” Sullivan said. “That really became problematic for us...you’ve got to get something out of your defense.”

Trailing from the outset, Harvard used a 17-3 run to take its largest lead, 26-18, with 3:23 left in the first half. Cornell then reeled off a 10-2 stretch spanning intermission, which included three inside buckets, tying the game at 28 with 16:54 to play.

“They got to the basket hard,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think our defense was tough near the lane, and around the rim.”

Harvard hung around by collecting 15 offensive rebounds and capitalizing on 18 Big Red turnovers, but despite taking 19 more shots than Cornell, the Crimson could not slow down any aspect of its offense. From the point where the game was tied at 40, the Big Red hit seven of its next eight shots to take a commanding 56-47 lead with 3:22 left.

“They shot 70 percent in the second half...you can’t really win a game like that,” Norman said. “When a team shoots 70 percent, that’s lights out.”

Besides Rourke and Taylor, Cornell got a boost from the offense of point guard Jason Canady. Fresh off a career high 20-point effort on Friday night versus Dartmouth, Canady recorded 15 more Saturday night on 6-of-11 shooting, consistently breaking down Harvard off the dribble and getting into the lane. The Crimson was not prepared for the ability of Canady, as the freshman only played one minute in the two teams’ previous meeting in Ithaca.

“The advantage we had this weekend is that Harvard [didn’t] know how good he is,” Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. “They [didn’t] know if he [could] shoot...he was unscouted.”

For the Crimson, Kevin Rogus was the bright spot on offense, shooting 8-of-15, including four second-half threes. But while Rogus was able to shake free of the defense for the first time in several games, the normally solid duo of junior center Brian Cusworth and junior forward Matt Stehle was held in check.

Cusworth had 10 points and four boards, and Stehle scored 10 on 3-of-12 shooting, while collecting a game-high 11 rebounds. Harvard was held to 35 percent from the field on the night by Cornell’s combination of man-to-man and 1-3-1 zone defenses.

“Cornell guarded us real well,” Sullivan said. “They went to the zone at very timely points...the 1-3-1 definitely bothered us.”

Harvard was able to hold Cornell’s two leading scorers, forward Lenny Collins and guard Cody Toppert, to a combined 13 points. By focusing on stopping that duo, however, it left the interior open for Rourke.

“Our experience with Cornell has been Toppert and Collins, and doing a good job on the perimeter,” Sullivan said. “That opened up things around the basket.”

Harvard’s loss prevented it from gaining a game on Penn, as the Ivy-leading Quakers dropped their first league game to Yale. With the defeat, the Crimson falls into a tie with Dartmouth for fourth place.

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.