Danes defeat Cornell to Finish Nonconference Play
Albany, NY — The University at Albany Great Danes (9-6) opened up the New Year and closed their nonconference schedule Monday night with a 69-59 over the Cornell Big Red (3-11) in front of a crowd of 2,430 at SEFCU Arena.
Right from the beginning the hosts looked to use the height differential to their advantage (Cornell started four players 6’4″ or under), and for all 40 minutes the Danes pounded the paint, scoring 42 points- over 60% of their scoring on the evening- to propel the offense.
The two leading scorers for the Danes in sophomore guards Joe Cremo and David Nichols each produced- Nichols led the way with 16 and Cremo finished with 11 points and a team-high nine boards of his own.
But the problem throughout the season has been the lack of a third and fourth scorer.
And on this night Albany surely got both.
Travis Charles finished with 14, the second highest total for the redshirt junior this season in a season high 23 minutes, off seven of ten shooting, to go with his six rebounds. Dallas Ennema had nine points, including back-to-back threes midway through the first half, and six rebounds.
“We need some balance. We need one guy on the perimeter to help Joe and David. It doesn’t need to be the same guy all the time. There will be some nights when Joe and David are terrific, but we also have to allow them to have bad nights.”
Albany knew that coming in Cornell would play a lot of zone defense, a defense the Great Danes have struggled to score against this season. However, Albany countered with a gameplan they knew would work to give their inside players the opportunities to score.
“Coach told not just the guards but the bigs get to the open areas to look for the open shot,” Charles said. “We read what the defense gave us and executed it.”
Albany outrebounded Cornell 43-24, including 16-1 on the offensive side, and scored 17 points off their second chances.
Cornell wouldn’t back down from their 34-25 halftime deficit, coming all the way back to make it a two point game with 3:54 left. After that, Albany switched to a 1-3-1 zone, the first time they played that specific zone all season, and shut the Cornell offense down the remainder of the evening, as Albany finished the game on a 9-1 run (the single point coming with 23.5 seconds) highlighted by a Cremo three that ultimately put the finishing touches on the game with 2:13 left.
“We did what we needed to do to close out our nonconference season. We won the game and now we go back to 0-0. On to conference play.”
With the win, the Danes complete the nonconference part of their schedule at 9-6. Vermont, with their win over Harvard in Burlington on Monday night, is the only America East Conference team with more Division I nonleague wins (10).
Albany will begin their conference slate when they travel to Lowell, Massachusetts, to face the Riverhawks on Thursday at 7 PM. Brown said postgame that 6’7″ forward Jaraan Lands, who has only played three games in the Purple and Gold uniform after transferring from Eastern Arizona Community College this offseason and has missed the past 12 games with a hamstring injury, has been cleared for full contact practice starting Tuesday and is expected to be in uniform Thursday evening.
-Jason Palatsky(@518SportsJP)