ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell's suffocating defense helped the Big Red snap a three-game skid with a 67-60 win over Canisius on Wednesday evening at Newman Arena. The Big Red improved to 3-4 on the season, while the Golden Griffins fell to 2-2.

The Big Red allowed just 33 percent shooting overall and 29 percent from the 3-point line, contested nearly every made shot and erased the memory of the last two contests -  last-minute losses to Penn State and Drexel - by closing out the Golden Griffins in the closing minutes. The win sends the Big Red into a short Thanksgiving break with momentum at the end of a stretch of eight games in 16 days.

Galal Cancer scored 18 points, grabbed a career-high eight rebounds and had four steals, Darryl Smith notched 13 points off the bench and Shonn Miller had 10 points, seven rebounds, two blocks, two assists and a steal in just 22 minutes of action to lead the Big Red. Miller had one of the most dominant four-minute stretches in recent memory to open the second half, propelling a halftime tie into a lead Canisius would never recover from. Cornell held a 40-35 rebounding edge and shot 50 percent from the floor after halftime to mitigate a season-high 23 turnovers. David Onuorah scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds, had two steals, a block and an assist in the win,

Jermaine Crumpton scored 15 points off the bench, while leading scorer Zach Lewis notched 14 points, but was held to 5-of-15 shooting and five turnovers by the Big Red defense. Jeremiah Williams rounded out three Canisius double figure scorers with 10 points.

The two teams ended a ragged first half deadlocked at 32-32. The teams combined for 21 turnovers, 21 fouls and at least a dozen floor burns in the first 20 minutes, and it was Cancer's driving layup at the horn that knotted the score at the break. Cancer ended the half with 10 points and tied his career-best with seven boards at the break. Cornell played a majority of the first half without Miller and Cherry, who each picked up two fouls in the first 10 minutes. In all, five Big Red players had two fouls at the break.

Miller took over the game with a first four minutes that needed to be seen to be believed. His effort to open the second half pushed a tie game to an eight-point lead for the home team.

The second half got kicked off by Miller chasing down a loose ball and finishing a thunderous alley-oop on one end, then finding a wide open Cancer for a 3-pointer for a 5-0 Big Red spurt to make it 37-32. Miller then picked up a steal at midcourt and went the rest of the way for another thunderous dunk. A Golden Griffin player reached in for the foul, and Miller's free throw made it 40-32 just 2:49 into the stanza. Miller came down and blocked a shot to complete the dominant three-minute span.

Canisius never was able to make a real run afterwards, getting within four points on three occasions. Each time the Big Red responded. Cornell made 6-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes to lock up the win, its first over the Golden Griffins since January of 1993.

Cornell hits the road on Saturday to play Binghamton on Saturday, Nov. 29 at 2 p.m. at the Events Center. The Big Red leads the all-time series 7-3.