Jacksonville, FL (Sports Network) - Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale combined for 41 points and paced a menacing Cornell three-point attack as the Big Red earned the Ivy League’s first NCAA Tournament victory in 12 years with a 78-65 first-round win over the Temple Owls.
NCAA Tournament: Cornell Lives Up To Hype, Wins Easily Over Temple, 78-65
Dale posted 21 points, hitting 3-of-7 from three-point range, and Wittman scored 20 points after connecting on 4-of-6 from behind the arc. The 12th- seeded Big Red, this year’s Ivy League champions, hit 39.1 percent of their three-pointers as a team and shot 56.3 percent from the floor overall in winning for the first time in six all-time NCAA Tournament games.
Cornell (28-4) also become the first Ivy League school to claim victory in the tournament since Princeton’s first-round defeat of UNLV in 1998.
Jeff Foote added 16 points and seven rebounds, while Dale also finished with seven assists as the Big Red won their eighth straight game.
The fifth-seeded Owls, who were coming off their third straight A-10 championship, received 14 points each from Ryan Brooks and Juan Fernandez but saw their 10-game winning streak end. Temple (29-6) has not made it out of the tournament’s first round since 2001.
Lavoy Allen had 11 points, five rebounds and four assists for Temple, which lost by 13 points despite shooting 51.9 percent from the floor.
Cornell will next face the winner between fourth-seeded Wisconsin and 13th- seeded Wofford.
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