MOUNT VERNON, Iowa - The Coe College men's basketball team erased a 15-point first-half deficit against Cornell on Wednesday evening and stormed back for a 63-56 victory over the Rams, completing the season sweep. Cornell and Coe played a tight first five minutes in the opening half but the hosts outscored Coe 24-8 to take a 15-point lead with 6:19 left in the first. The Kohawks slowly chipped away at the lead before the end of the half, pulling within seven points of the lead before the break. Coe then dominated the second 20 minutes, outscoring Cornell 36-22 en route to the come-from-behind victory. The Kohawks got 11 second-half points from
TJ Schnurr, who recorded his first double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 boards, six of which came on the offensive glass.
Cael Schmitt continued to lead the offense for Coe, scoring a team-high 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting.
Bennett Sherry also turned in a solid performance from the bench, racking up seven points, eight boards and one block in 20 minutes of action. The win, which snaps a three-game losing streak for Coe, moves it to 5-5 overall while Cornell drops to 3-7 on the season.
GAME FACTS:
COE 63 - CORNELL 56
- Cornell opened the scoring in the first half but a 3 from Schmitt and a layup from Tyson Gage gave Coe a 5-2 lead less than two minutes in. The hosts responded with a strong run during the next 3:21, outscoring Coe 12-4 to grab a five-point lead. Coe slowed the spurt with back-to-back buckets from Schnurr and John Steffen but Cornell continued to click, scoring the game's next 12 points.
- The Rams then extended their advantage to 15 around the 6-minute mark, hitting a 3 to cap off a stretch that featured a trio of long-distance jumpers. Coe slowly began to chip away at the lead over the next few minutes, putting some defensive stops together while outscoring Cornell 12-6. The Kohawks scored the final two points of the half to cut the deficit to seven, getting a pull-up jumper from Schmitt in the final few seconds of the period.
- Schnurr started the second half with a layup and was quickly followed by a 3 from Schmitt who pulled Coe to within four. Cornell had the answers early in the period, responding to every Coe basket in the first few minutes. The Kohawks then began to gain momentum, using a 9-2 run across a four-minute stretch, to flip the script and gain a 47-45 lead.
- The game went then scoreless for nearly two minutes before Cornell regained a one-point lead with 9:36 to play. Coe's defense continued to click over the next few minutes, holding the Rams to just 1-of-4 from the floor while regaining a three-point lead at 53-50. The hosts answered again with four unanswered points across the next 30 seconds but Schnurr converted back-to-back layups and was backed up by a jumper from Schmitt with 59 seconds to play.
- Cornell had an answer on the other end, cutting the deficit to just three with a jumper. The Rams then decided to let Coe play out the possession rather than fouling and it proved to be the wrong decision as Schmitt hit a pull-up jumper as the shot-clock expired, restoring Coe's two-possession lead with 13 seconds to play.
Up next: The Kohawks return to action on Tuesday, December 20 for their final game before the holiday break, taking on Millikin in Decatur at 7:30 PM.
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