CRIMSON LIVE: Men's Basketball vs. Cornell

With 31 seconds remaining, Lin's three point seemingly sealed the game for the Crimson. The fans were going wild, Cornell looked despondent, and the team had all the momentum in the world. What happened? Cornell came out with will and determination, drove the ball straight down the Crimson's throats and Harvard simply couldn't respond. No adjustments by Amaker in the last 30 seconds, combined with extremely porous defense by the Crimson allowed Cornell to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

[:00] IT'S OVER. HARVARD BLOWS THE GAME. UNBELIEVABLE. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but this is a MONUMENTAL COLLAPSE on Harvard's part. TERRIBLE defense in the final minute for the Crimson have cost the Cambridge boys dearly tonight. A collective WTF? on the faces of the fans. I don't blame them.

[:05] Cornell MAKES THE BASKET. CORNELL TAKES THE LEAD. Harvard has ONE OPPORTUNITY REMAINING.

[:09] Another boneheaded play on Harvard's part. OFFENSIVE foul called on Housman. Nine seconds remaining, Cornell inbounding the ball.....

[:21] Turnover by Cornell, Lin cherry picking, gets the ball, but loses it out of bounds. Cornell drives down the court, and ANOTHER goaltending violation on Harris. Cornell cuts the lead to one. HARVARD 71, CORNELL 70.

[:31] Timeout called by Cornell. Lin's three was fantastic. Hands in his face, with the Crimson looking desperate for a basket. Let's see how Cornell responds. We've got the Dropkick Murphys playing at Lavietes. Welcome to Boston, Cornell.

[:31] JEREMY LIN WITH A CLUTCH THREE. The crowd is going wild! 31.6 ticks remaining folks and Harvard has a 5 point lead. Upset in the making here tonight in Cambridge?

[1:17] With ice in his veins, Housman coolly puts in both free throws. On the other hand, the refs are a bit trigger happy with their whistles. Dale draws another foul and cuts the lead back down to two. 1 MINUTE REMAINING. HARVARD 68, CORNELL 66.

[1:41] Jeremy Lin with an enormous offensive board. The Crimson need a basket on this possession. Unger with the shot....REJECTED, the loose ball picked up by Lin, who is recklessly fouled by Cornell. On the inbound, Cornell makes another boneheaded play and fouls Housman. Housman gets two from the charity stripe. Harvard 66, Cornell 64.

[1:58] Harvard has no answer for Louis Dale right now. Dale is running all over Housman and draws the foul. He makes both free throws to cut the lead down to two.

[2:49] Cornell's Louis Dale drives right in for the layup over Harris. McGeary responds immediately with a long 2-pointer to keep the Crimson lead at four. Harvard 66, Cornell 62.

[3:32] Housman draws the foul going in for a layup and makes both free throws to push the lead back up to six. Cornell responds right back with a quick jumper. Both teams seemed locked in with no changes being made during the past two timeouts. Harvard 64, Cornell 60.

[4:10] Cornell calls a timeout. The scoreline still favors the Crimson, but Amaker must be sensing a bit of fatigue on his players. He elects to keep the same lineup on the court. It looks like Housman will play out the rest of the half. We have Housman, Pusar, Unger, McGreary, and Harris on the court.

[5:10] Pusar gets the crowd back on its feet with a beautiful back door layup. On the other end, Harris bodies the 8-footer for the rebound. Harvard 62, Cornell 56.

[5:56] Cornell clawing its way back in the game. Following a Housman miss, the Big Red drive down back the court and force Harris into a goaltending call. A Crimson turnover leads to an and one situation for Cornell's Jeff Foote. He misses the free throw, but Cornell has successfully cut the lead down to four. Harvard 60, Cornell 54.

[7:34] With Cornell threatening to cut the lead, Harris responds with some nice post play. He backed his defender, faked to his right, then shimmied to the left for the easy finger roll. Harvard 60, Cornell 50.

[8:34] Evidently frustrated by his last free throw miss, Lin runs back down the court and rejects Cornell's Louis Dale emphatically. The crowd is LOVING the action right now.

[9:21] It's safe to say Amaker is winning the coaching battle right now. Cornell switches back to zone. Doesn't matter however, as Harvard is still creating ways to get open looks. Lin fouled from 3-point range, goes to the line and nails 2 of 3. Harvard 58, Cornell 47.

[9:53] Meanwhile, Cornell can't buy a basket, or much of anything on offense. ANOTHER turnover for Cornell. Jeff Foote, the 8 footer for Cornell gets destroyed by Evan Harris on both sides of the court. Harris stuffs a layup down his throat and draws a foul, misses the free throw. Harvard 56, Cornell 45.

[11:11] McGreary nails a THREE for the Crimson. Harvard is on fire from long distance. Harvard 54, Cornell 45.

[12:39] Travel called on Cornell. The wheels are starting to come off for the Ithaca men.

[12:55] Cornell getting antsy now. Another foul called on Cornell, sixth of the night. Jeremy Lin at the line, makes one of two to push the lead to eight.

[13:40] Housman with another HUGE basket from downtown. The Crimson extend their lead to seven. Harvard 50, Cornell, 43. Housman is shooting 100% from the floor in the second.

[14:05] Cornell's fans start a, Harvard Sucks chant. The Crimson Crazies respond with a "You Suck" chant. Clever, kids. Let me remind you these are two Ivy League schools.

[14:43] Freshman Kyle Fitzgerald comes off the bench and immediately contributes for the Crimson with a nice drive and reverse layup. Harvard 45, Cornell 39.

[15:29] Cornell has switched to man defense. The new look defense immediately forces a Housman turnover. Good tactical switch by Steve Donahue, Cornell's head coach. Amaker calls a timeout. Let's see if Amaker can match Donahue strategically tonight.

[15:44] Cornell calls a timeout. Harvard came out like bats out of hell to start the second. Let's see if they can continue the momentum. Cornell has had no answers on defense in the second.

[16:05] Staunch defense, followed by good ball movement from the crimson. Unger steps up and KNOCKS DOWN the three pointer. The fans are starting to get into it. Harvard has built a five point lead and forces ANOTHER turnover by Cornell (That's 11 for the night).

[16:43] Jeremy Lin nails a jumper to give Harvard its first lead of the night, 40-38.

[17:41] Housman hits his first three of the night, tying the game at 36 all. Amaker must've said something right at the half. Harvard is playing with far more poise at the onset of the second half.

[20:00] Second half underway. Cornell seemed a bit lethargic towards the end of the first. Let's see if the Crimson can capitalize.

Halftime Recap:

- Cornell's Alex Tyler leads all scorers with 10 points. He also added 5 boards and an assist. As a whole, Cornell is shooting at 50% from the floor, but its nine turnovers have allowed the Crimson to stay in the game.

- For Harvard, Drew Housman leads the squad with 8 points. Jeremy Lin and Evan Harris have two steals apiece. Although the Crimson is shooting at a perfect rate from the charity stripe, the 39% rate must improve for Amaker's men to pull off the upset tonight.

- It probably helps that #13 is two inches taller than anyone on the court. Minor details.

- #13 running down the court, REJECTS the black team. And then runs back down and nails the JUMPER. Draft him now! Heck, put a Crimson jersey on him tonight!

- We've got a Newton elementary school game breaking out here. #13 on the white squad is an absolute stud. Too bad the rest of his team can't make a basket. Classic case of LBJS (LeBron James Syndrome)

[0:00] At the buzzer, Housman's last second shot gets rejected. Cornell leads 34-29.

[0:30.5] Update on Women's Hoops. Cornell up on Harvard, 39-28. Not a good night so far the Crimson women.

[1:32] HUGE three pointer by Pusar to cut the lead down to one. (Cornell 30, Harvard 29). Back the other way, Cornell's Jeff Foote (Approx. 8 ft. tall) gets fouled. ICE cold on the line, nails both free throws.

[2:54] Harvard trying to claw into Cornell's lead, Jeremy Lin unfortunately called with the traveling violation. Cornell's Alex Tyler is dominating the game so far.

We're here live at the Lavietes Pavilion for an Ivy League showdown between the Crimson and the Cornell Big Red. Harvard is coming off of a treacherous five game road trip (All losses), and is facing a Cornell squad who are slowly becoming the presumptive favorite to win the League.