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OLEAN, N.Y. -- Sophomore Nolan Cressler had 19 points and five rebounds, but St. Bonaventure shot 53 percent after halftime and connected on 10 3-pointers to outlast Cornell, 81-57, on Saturday afternoon at Bob Lanier Court at the Reilly Center. The Bonnies improved to 10-4, while the Big Red slipped to 0-13.

Cressler scored 15 of his points in the first half to keep the Big Red in the game and connected on 8-of-16 field goals overall. Junior Devin Cherry added 13 points and three assists in the loss, while freshman Darryl Smith had six points and five rebounds in his first collegiate start. Ned Tomic also had six points and five boards off the bench.

The Big Red shot 42 percent from the floor, but turned the ball over 14 times and were outscored 42-14 off the bench. The Bonnies had four double figure scorers, led by 20 points off the pine from Jordan Gathers. Matthew Wright added 16, Dion Wright had 14 and Charlon Kloof chipped in 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in the win.

Cressler did his best to keep the Big Red within arm's length with 15 points in the first half as Cornell went into the break trailing 38-28. St. Bonaventure nailed 6-of-13 from 3-point after averaging just over four makes per game for the entire season. Wright scored 13 and Gathers had 12 to pace the home team. Dwight Tarwater had two points and five rebounds as the visitors were able to scrape by the Bonnies on the backboards (19-15).

Tomic hit a spinning layup and after a St. Bonaventure turnover, Cherry went coast-to-coast with a great finish to force a Bonnies' timeout with 9:15 left as the visitors got back within 17-14 after trailing early by as many as eight early. The Bonnies answered with consecutive treys by Wright and Gathers to build it back up to nine, and except for a short run that got the Big Red back within five (23-18), St. Bonaventure methodically built its lead. Four straight free throws by Wright and six consecutive points by Gathers put the home team up 10 after 20 minutes.

The Big Red got back within eight early in the second half after consecutive baskets by Cressler and Cherry made it 40-32, but SBU went on a 10-0 run over a span of three minutes to push its lead to 18, and Cornell wasn't able to get closer than 16 the rest of the way. The lead ballooned to 28 points late in the contest as the team's went deep into their benches.

Cornell returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 11 when it plays host to Division III Oberlin at Newman Arena.