The Ithaca Journal Previews Westbury at Cornell

Red wraps up nonconference schedule against Division III Old Westbury
Admission at Newman Arena is free for kids, $5 for adults

The Ithaca Journal

ITHACA — The Cornell men’s basketball team will have its final tuneup before jumping into Ivy League play when it hosts Division III SUNY Old Westbury. Game time Saturday at Newman Arena is 2 p.m.

The game will also serve as Kids’ Day at Newman Arena; all kids will be admitted free, while adult tickets will be $5. Activities will include a bounce house, face-painting, games and prizes, and there will be a meet-and-greet with the team after the game.

Cornell (7-9) will be looking to close out its nonconference slate with its eighth win, the most since the 2009-10 team won a record 16 out of the league en route to the Ivy League title and a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16. The Big Red has reached eight nonconference wins just four times since 1968.

The high-scoring Panthers (10-2, 5-0 Skyline Conference) are riding a six-game win streak, and won a pair of conference games earlier this week — against Mount Saint Vincent (82-79) on Monday and Purchase College (87-75) on Wednesday. Its losses this season came in the opener against Salisbury (Md.) University and in early December at New York University, ranked 21st in Division III.

The Big Red has won three of its last four, including last Sunday’s 68-60 victory at American University in Washington, D.C. All three of those wins came on the road, lifting CU’s road record to 3-5.

Defense keyed the win over the Eagles, as American shot 34 percent from the floor and 24 percent from 3-point range. Johnathan Gray led the Big Red with 19 points and five rebounds, while team scoring leader Shonn Miller added 15 points and seven boards.

Sophomore Miller, last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year, is the Red’s lone double-figure scorer at 10.5 ppg.; the 6-foot-7 forward also tops Cornell at 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals a game. Five other players are scoring between 7.0 and 8.8 points per game in CU coach Bill Courtney’s 10-man rotation, including a trio of seniors — 6-3 Gray (8.8 ppg.), 6-6 Errick Peck (7.7 ppg.) and 6-8 Eitan Chemerinski (7.4 ppg.).

The Panthers are shooting 48 percent from the field overall and 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc while averaging 83.6 points per game. Six-foot senior guard Kerel Mitchell (21.5 ppg.) and 6-6 junior swing man Tyrik Tucker (19.3 ppg., 8.2 rpg.) pace the team in scoring, followed by 6-1 senior guard Rashawn McCarthy (15.9 ppg.) and 6-3 sophomore forward Josh Hill (14.7 ppg.).

SUNY Old Westbury is led by 12th-year coach Bernard Tomlin, who has a 178-132 record at the western Long Island school and a 304-269 overall record in 21-plus seasons. Tomlin coached eight seasons at Stony Brook and one apiece at Adelphi and William Paterson.

NOTES: Cornell has played a non-Division I team in all but one of the last 20 seasons, and has gone 19-0 against lower-division opponents. Its average margin of victory in such games is more than 30 points. ... Big Red junior guard Dominick Scelfo is averaging 12.3 points over his last three games, raising his scoring to 4.6 ppg. ... In Cornell’s seven wins, it has scored 76.0 points per game on 47 percent shooting. In its nine losses, the numbers are 54.8 points on 35 percent shooting. ... Cornell’s Ivy League schedule begins next Saturday when the Columbia Lions (8-6) visit Newman Arena for a 3 p.m. tip-off. The game will be shown on the NBC Sports Network.