The championship game of the 2009 Holiday Festival pits the two favorites, St. John's Red Storm and the Cornell Big Red. It was almost not to be; both games required strong late-game efforts for the teams to advance. St. John's fought off a determined and scrappy Hofstra team - one that had not been to the NCAA Tournament for much of the decade but nonetheless has won many games against lower-level competition - with relentless and tenacious late-game defense.
Meanwhile, Cornell coasted for a while, went cold, and the crafty Davidson Wildcats slinked in with clutch shooting and excellent ball movement. Missed free throws allowed Cornell to take the game into overtime. Davidson still couldn't be shaken until a 30 foot jump shot from Ryan Wittman at the buzzer brought the Cornell players onto the court and made the Cornell fans' hearts start beating in the proper rhythms once more. A fantastic finish to a fantastic game.
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