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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Sophomore Galal Cancer's spinning shot in the lane with 10 seconds remaining helped Cornell overcome a 10-point second half deficit in a 71-69 victory at Penn on Saturday evening at the Palestra. Cornell improved to 10-11 (2-2 Ivy), while the Quakers dropped to 4-16 (1-2 Ivy).

Cancer pounded the ball on the left wing as the shot clock wound down, spun in the lane to split a pair of defenders and went off glass to put the visitors into the late lead.

It was the third straight game down to the wire for the Big Red at the Palestra and the second win in the final 10 seconds in head coach Bill Courtney's three seasons on the Big Red sidelines.

Cornell led by six with six minutes to play after trailing by double figures in the final 20 minutes, but this time Penn rallied back. The Quakers tied the game on a Dau Jok 3-pointer off an inbounds play with 3:34 left, then took the lead on a Miles Cartwright trey with 2:15 remaining. Cornell tied the game at 69-69 when Errick Peck hit a pair of shots from the charity stripe, and Cancer's game-winner came after Shonn Miller got a steal on the other end.

While Cancer's basket may have been the highlight, the most important play came on Penn's ensuing possession. Cartwright drove the lane and had his shot blocked by Miller, but not before Penn coach Jerome Allen called a timeout from the sidelines with 2.7 seconds left. Inbounding under its own basket, Cornell's defense put the lock down and drew a five seconds call, making sure it wouldn't allow the Quakers a potential shot to tie or win. Peck inbounded the ball into Cornell's backcourt and Penn, who had just five fouls, couldn't get the Big Red to the line to extend the game.

Peck didn't miss a shot all night, matching a school record by hitting all eight of his field goal attempts, including a 3-pointer, as part of a 20-point night. He was instrumental in a 12-0 second half run that featured four baskets by Peck and an assist on a fifth over a span of less than three minutes. Senior Johnathan Gray chipped in 11 points and Cancer ended the night with nine points, four assists, two rebounds and two steals. As a team, Cornell shot 51 percent from the field, including 54 percent after halftime.

Patrick Lucas-Perry scored a team-high 14 points for Penn, while both Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry each had 10. The Quakers assisted on 24 of the team's 28 baskets and hit 12-of-24 from 3-point range while shooting 50 percent overall from the floor.

Unlike Friday night, when Cornell jumped on Princeton early, the Big Red got off to a slow start, falling behind 8-3. The Quakers extended the lead to as many as eight, but Cornell wouldn't let the home team run away. Trailing 21-14, Cornell embarked on an 8-0 run to take the lead. Dominick Scelfo's 3-pointer gave the Big Red its first lead at 22-21 with 8:16 left in the half.

The teams traded the lead back and forth the rest of the half, including an alley-oop dunk from Miles Asafo-Adjei to Miller before Penn spurted out to a five-point lead on the strength of consecutive 3-pointers by Patrick Lucas-Perry. Cornell got two points back on a pull-up by Nolan Cressler on its final possession of the half and forced a miss on the other end to go into the break trailing 36-33.

Penn scored five points right off the bat in the second half to extend the lead to eight, and four minutes in moved the lead to 10. It held it in that area until Cornell went on a game-changing run after trailing 54-45 with 12 minutes left. It started with a Cressler 3-pointer from the left corner, and after a media timeout, the Errick Peck show began. Three straight Big Red possessions turned into Peck baskets in the lane, two coming on isolations where the senior spun to get open and scored off the glass. He then connected on two more basets to make it 11 points in less than four minutes.

All of a sudden a double figure deficit was a 62-56 Cornell lead. Peck would hit another jumper and two more free throws in the final four minutes as Cornell regained the lead, then gave it back.

Cornell will return home next weekend to face defending Ivy League champion Harvard on Friday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.