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ITHACA, NY – On a special night celebrating a special group of seniors, the Cornell men's basketball team clinched at least a share of its third consecutive Ivy League title with a 68-48 victory over Penn on Saturday night at Newman Arena. The victory avenged the Big Red's only league loss of the season, a 79-64 defeat in Philadelphia on Feb. 12. A sold-out Senior Day crowd watched Cornell improve to 25-4 (11-1 Ivy), while the Quakers slipped to 5-20 (4-7 Ivy).

Senior forward Ryan Wittman lead Cornell with 18 points, 15 coming in the second half when Cornell opened up a 13-point halftime lead and never allowed the Quakers to get closer than 11 points. He added a career-best six steals and had four assists in the win.  Classmate Louis Dale added 16 points and five assists, while senior Jeff Foote grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and scored four points with three blocked shots in the paint.



The Big Red shot 56 percent from the floor and connected on 10-of-23 shots from beyond the 3-point arc while limiting Penn to 40 percent shooting, including a 5-of-17 effort from deep. With the 10 3-pointers, the Big Red broke the single-season record for treys in a season with 272, besting the 266 by the 2001-02 Penn team. Cornell outrebounded the Quakers 29-23, including 17-10 in the second half. The Big Red forced 21 turnovers and had 13 steals and five more blocked shots in the win.

Cornell improved its win total to 25, matching the 2001-02 Quaker team (25-7) for the most wins by an Ivy League team this century and became the ninth Ivy squad to reach 25 wins since the official formation of the league.

Senior Andre Wilkins, who had four points and two steals in four minutes, set the tone early in his first career start in a Big Red uniform. He had steals on each of Penn's first two possessions and hit a pair of buckets in the first 3:12 as the home team built a 7-0 edge. The Quakers fought back to make it 7-5, but that was as close as it would get. Dale had 13 points in the first 7:49 as Cirbekk built a seven-point edge. When Wittman hit a jumper with 4:27 remaining in the half, the lead hit double figures and it wouldn't get any closer than 11 the rest of the way.

Leading 34-23 less than one minute into the second half, Cornell went on a 9-0 run to take a 20-point lead at 43-23 following a Wittman lay-up with 15:55 to play. Cornell's lead fluctuated between 15 to 22 points the rest of the way.

Penn was lead by Zack Rosen who shot 7-for-10 from the field en route to a game-high 23 points. The Ivy League's leading scorer was the only Quaker to hit double figures in the contest. Mike Howlett notched nine points and grabbed five rebounds, while Rob Belcore assisted on five baskets to go along with three points and two rebounds.

Other Cornell seniors also played a key role. Geoff Reeves had two assists, two rebounds and a steal without a turnover in 19 solid minutes, providing his typical outstanding defense. Alex Tyler, who ranks in the top 10 all-time at Cornell in blocked shots added another to his total, while Jon Jaques chipped in with nine points and three steals.

Cornell returns to action on Friday, March 5 when it plays at Brown at 7 p.m. A win would put Cornell into the NCAA tournament for the third time by guaranteeing an outright Ancient Eight crown.