John Griffin tallied a career-high 27 points and Bucknell turned the tables on the nation’s No. 1 3-point shooting team in an 88-75 victory over preseason Ivy League favorite Cornell on Wednesday night. Justin Castleberry celebrated his 21st birthday by equaling his career high with 18 points, and Josh Linthicum had a personal-best 12 points for the Bison, who set a Sojka Pavilion scoring record with their highest point total in the last 85 games.
Cornell, which was coming off an 18-day layoff, fell to 4-3 on the season, while the Bison improved to 4-5. USC transfer Collin Robinson scored 21 points for the Big Red, while St. Bonaventure transfer Jeff Foote, playing his first game in a Cornell uniform, had 10 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The Big Red entered the game shooting 48.0 percent from 3-point distance, the highest average in Division I basketball, but it was the Bison making 11 of 21 (.524) from the arc, while the Big Red made only 2 of 17 threes in the second half and 6 of 24 overall (.250).
Eight of Bucknell’s treys came in the first half, when it sprinted to a quick 12-2 lead en route to a 47-30 halftime cushion. The Bison trailed only once all night at 2-0, and after scoring 12 straight points they took control.
The second half was a foul-fest, with a total of 40 whistles coming after only 12 fouls were called in the first half. The two teams combined for eight first-half free throws and 50 in the second half.
Despite the staggered pace in the second half, Bucknell never let Cornell get closer than 11 points. That came after a Robinson jumper with 1:49 left that brought the Big Red within 80-69, but back-to-back breakaway layups by Stephen Tyree and Castleberry restored a 15-point cushion, and the Bison sealed the win by making 4 of 6 free throws in the final 1:07.
Bucknell’s offense was at its best in the first half, when it logged 15 assists on 19 field goals with only five turnovers. Bucknell’s first seven field goals of the night came from seven different players, including all five buckets in the early 12-0 run. Castleberry’s jumper at the 6:08 mark gave the Bison a 31-23 lead, and at that point they had 16 of their points in the paint. Their last five field goals of the half were all 3-pointers, however. Griffin hit three of them, including back-to-back treys that restored a double-digit lead at 37-25.
After Castleberry and Ryan Wittman traded 3-pointers, Griffin launched an improbable 35-footer at the end of the shot clock that hit nothing but net, making it 44-30 with 44 seconds left in the half. Jason Vegotsky then beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer that bounced high off the back rim and dropped in. Bucknell made 8 of 15 3-point attempts in its highest-scoring half of the season.
Bucknell opened the second period with a 9-5 run and took its widest lead of the night at 21 points (56-35) on Patrick Behan’s transition bank shot 5:40 into the half. Robinson’s jumper ended the run, then Cornell shot nothing but free throws over the next five minutes, making 10 of 14.
The Bison made enough timely buckets and some free throws of their own to keep a scrambling Cornell side at bay. Linthcum’s dunk off a nice feed from G.W. Boon stopped an 8-2 Big Red run, and with nine minutes left Todd O’Brien scored on a reverse layup to push the lead back to 19 at 64-45. Vegotsky and Griffin hit big 3-pointers later in the half. The latter shot by Griffin came at the 6:46 mark and was the last of Bucknell’s 11 treys. The Bison then went to the line 16 times in the final 5:22, making 12.
Bucknell outrebounded an opponent for the first time this season, earning a 36-31 edge on the glass. Overall, the Bison shot 54.7 percent from the field compared to only 38.6 percent for Cornell. The Big Red finished eight points below their season scoring average of 83.0 points per game, a figure that ranked 19th in the nation.
Bucknell won its fifth straight over Cornell and took a 22-21 series lead. The Bison have won 10 of 11 against the Big Red at home since the current annual series resumed in 1987-88. The Bison have also won seven straight against the Ivy League.
Vegotsky was playing in just his second game of the season after missing the first seven with a foot injury. He did not attempt a shot in 10 minutes in his first game back on Sunday at Wake Forest, but against Cornell he made 3 of 4 shots, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range, and scored nine points.
Griffin produced his fourth career 20-point game, all coming this season. His previous career high was 22 at Villanova on Nov. 18. He made 7 of 12 shots from the field, 4 of 7 from the 3-point arc and 9 of 10 from the foul line.
Linthicum had never scored more than six points in a game until hitting for 11 against Wake Forest on Sunday. He surpassed that total again with a 5-for-5 shooting performance. Combined with the freshman O’Brien, Bucknell’s center tandem produced 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
Tyree grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, his second double-figure rebounding effort of the season and the first since opening night, when he had 13 against Albany. Tyree also had three assists and three steals to go with six points.
For Cornell, Louis Dale added 17 points, thanks mostly to a 12-for-12 showing from the foul line, and Wittman finished with 16 points. Wittman came in shooting 20-for-33 from 3-point range and ranked fourth nationally in 3-point percentage (.606), but he made only 3 of 9 against the Bison.
Cornell was 25-for-31 from the foul line, while Bucknell was 19 of 27.
Bucknell’s 88 points were its most since Feb. 4, 2005, when it won 89-69 at Lafayette. It was the most in a home game since a 98-86 double-overtime win over George Mason in Davis Gym on Jan. 23. The previous Sojka Pavilion scoring record was 87 points by Bucknell against Navy in 2003-04 and against Yale in 2005-06.
Bucknell is back in action on Saturday at Drexel. The 6 p.m. contest will be televised on CN8.