Kentucky defeats Cornell after 30-6 run

By GREG LOGAN. SYRACUSE - The beginning was everything Cornell could have dreamed during the past week as it attempted to visualize beating Kentucky in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament East Regional Thursday night at the Carrier Dome.. It started with 7-foot center Jeff Foote trading baskets with Wildcats center DeMarcus Cousins before Cornell ran off the next eight points. Ryan Wittman hit a three-pointer followed by an 18-foot jumper by Louis Dale and then a three-pointer by Dale that sent the predominantly red-clad crowd into a spasm of ecstasy. Cornell was up 10-2.. Do you believe in miracles? Uh, no. At least not one of this magnitude. Not against a Kentucky team with 10 players 6-6 or taller and all of them athletic as all get out.. When reality bit, it bit hard. Kentucky outscored Cornell 30-6 the rest of the half and then polished off a 62-45 victory that put it in Saturday's East Regional final against West Virginia.. Cousins led Kentucky with 16 points. Eric Bledsoe scored 12, Patrick Patterson had nine points and 12 rebounds, and John Wall had eight points and eight assists. Dale topped Cornell with 17 points and Wittman had 10.. Cornell was the first Ivy League team to advance as far as the Sweet 16 since Penn made the Final Four in 1979. It was an unbelievable achievement, but in the immediate aftermath, it was hard for the Big Red to appreciate.. "It's tough to look at right now,'' Dale said. "After losing, you have a messed-up feeling in your stomach.''. After the Big Red's charmed first five minutes, Kentucky scored 12 straight points to take a 14-10 lead. Foote then dunked off an inbounds pass to make it a two-point game with 11:06 left in the first half, but that was about as good as it got for Cornell. From there, Kentucky finished the first half on an 18-4 run for a 32-16 lead.. During that span, the Big Red shot 2-for-8, including a goaltending call, and committed nine turnovers. The Wildcats' 18 points in the run included 14 on layups and dunks.. "That was a pretty big point in the game,'' Wittman said. "We weren't strong enough on the ball. The turnovers really hurt us.''. Temple and Wisconsin, the teams Cornell beat in the first two rounds, were good, but they couldn't match Kentucky's length and quickness. "We haven't played anyone with that length this season,'' Dale said. "It was a different look for us.''. It didn't take a Cornell math major to figure out how lopsided things were at halftime when Kentucky had huge advantages in points in the paint (24-6), points off turnovers (17-2), fast-break points (13-0) and bench points (8-0). Oh, yeah, the Big Red had one offensive rebound at halftime.. But in the second half, Cornell showed its spunk with a 13-2 surge, cutting Kentucky's lead to 40-34 when Dale hit a three-pointer with 5:39 left. "When it got down to six, I thought it was our game,'' Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. "That's usually the point where Ryan makes another shot.''. But not this night. Kentucky coach John Calipari told his team to pound it inside to Cousins, who had five points in a 9-3 burst to blunt the Big Red threat.. "We tried to go inside,'' Calipari said. "I was going to call timeout, but I didn't want to build [Cornell's] adrenaline. We finished trying to go at them.''. Cornell simply didn't have the physical tools to match Kentucky, but the Big Red had guts, and that's what will stick with Donahue.. "In the first 15 minutes of the second half, we outscored the most talented team in the country 18-8,'' he said. "The guys did an unbelievable job. When you're down that much against a team with that much talent and you grind it out, you're tremendously proud.''. That's a memory that should last a lifetime for Cornell's kids.greg.logan@newsday.com.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,March 25, 2010

Kentucky defeats Cornell after 30-6 run

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