ITHACA, N.Y. -- Albany had four double figure scorers and used a 45-28 rebounding advantage to hold off the Cornell men's basketball team 75-70 on Saturday evening at Newman Arena. The defending America East champion Great Danes improved to 11-4 on the season, while the Big Red slipped to 6-7.

Cornell trailed byas many as 14 points with just over six minutes to go after a Greig Stire dunk, but Cornell came storming back, getting within three points after Robert Hatter's 3-pointer with 48 seconds remaining. The Big Red forced a miss on the other end, but Albany, as they had all night, were able to grab the offensive rebound and were fouled. The two free throws proved to put the game out of reach for the home team despite two cracks beyond the arc in the final seconds.

Freshman Matt Morgan scored 19 points, including 14 in a span of just 5:06 in the first half, to go along with four steals, two assists and two blocked shots. Junior Robert Hatter had 18 points with six assists and five rebounds and classmate Darryl Smith chipped in 11 points. David Onuorah had six points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. As a team, Cornell committed just eight turnovers and had 10 steals and six blocked shots while hitting 10 3-pointers.

Ray Sanders scored 18 points with four rebounds and three assists, Joe Cremo notched 15 points, Peter Hooley had 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists and Stire had 11 points. The Great Danes dominated the glass, as Greg Rowley had nine to go along with four points and five assists, including the game-clinching offensive rebound and free throws. Six players had at least four boards in the win for the Great Danes, who limited Cornell to 38 percent shooting.

Big differences at the free-throw line (Albany 26-of-29, Cornell 12-of-20) also sealed the Big Red's fate against one of the nation's most consistent mid-major teams. The Great Danes will be looking for their fourth consecutive America East title and NCAA tournament appearance this spring, and already hold a 34-point win over 2015 Ivy League co-champion Yale among its early season results.

Cornell used its pressure defense to make the Great Danes uncomfortable throughout the night, forcing 17 turnovers and holding Albany without a field goal over the game's final 6:13. The rally came just a bit too late.

The game was back-and-forth throughout the first half with five ties and eight lead changes. Morgan drove most of the offense, scoring 16 of his 19 points in the first 20 minutes, including a stretch with 14 consecutive points for the Big Red, including three 3-pointers in a 1:19 span, two that regained leads for the Big Red. Albany fought through it, taking a halftime lead of 37-34 after ending on a 9-4 run that included five quick points by Cremo and a late basket by David Nichols that sent the game into the break.

The Great Danes spurted out of the locker room after an Onuorah free throw cut the Big Red deficit to two. An 8-0 run that covered little more than two minutes staked the visitors to a double-digit lead (45-35), and that margin held throughout the second half, though Cornell made a couple runs, including a frantic run late.

A 7-0 run cut a 10-point Albany lead to three (45-42), but Albany answered with five straight. That 14-point advantage (66-52) was nearly erased as the Big Red outscored Albany 18-7 before the Great Danes picked up the late offensive rebound that broke the Big Red's back. Hatter had nine points in that final 3:03, including a 3-pointer that made it a three-point game with under a minute to play.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Albany now leads the all-time series 4-2, snapping a two-game Big Red win streak in the series.
• With three blocked shots, junior David Onuorah is on the brink of becoming the sixth Cornellian to block 100 career shots (99, sixth place all-time).
• With a pair of 3-point makes, junior Robert Hatter now has 98 and needs two to bome the 19th player to hit 100 in a career.
• Hatter, the Ivy League's leading scorer entering the game, now has seven straight games with at least 14 points and has been in double figures in 12 of the team's 13 games.
• For the second consecutive game, freshman Matt Morgan had a career-high four steals and now has 14 in his last five contests.
• Morgan's two blocks were also a career high, and his five 3-pointers tied a career best.
• After turning it over at least 12 times in each of the first 11 contests this season, Cornell has been in single digits in its last two.
• The Big Red hit 10 3-pointers, the seventh time this season it has reached double figures.
• Cornell had 10 steals against Albany and is averaging 10.3 over its last six games.

TURNING POINT
• Trailing by just two points 30 seconds into the second half, Cornell watched Albany score eight unanswered to go up double figures.
• Greig Stire had a pair of buckets and both Ray sanders and Evan Singletary got layups on nice feeds while Cornell missed four consecutive shots.
• Cornell would only claw back within one possession in the final minute of the game and never get a shot to tie or take the lead.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red will hit the road for its final non-conference contest at Howard on Jan. 6, then opens Ivy play on the road against Columbia on Jan. 16.
• Cornell's seven-game Ivy home schedule begins with the return game against the Lions on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 4 p.m., the second game of a doubleheader with the women, who face Columbia at 1 p.m.