PHILADLEPHIA, Pa. -- Penn raced out to a 12-0 start and Cornell couldn't rally all the way back despite junior Robert Hatter's third 30-point game of the season as the Quakers topped the Big Red 79-67 on Friday evening at the Palestra. The home team improved to 11-13 (5-5 Ivy), while the Big Red slipped to 9-16 (2-9 Ivy).

Hatter scored 31 points, one off his career high, for his fourth career game of 30 or more points, and freshman Matt Morgan chipped in 14, but Penn's balance (five double figure scorers) and 26-of-31 effort from the free-throw line allowed Penn to complete the season sweep. Hatter hit 12-of-21 shots from the floor, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range, and added four rebounds, four assists and a steal.

The Big Red cut a 19-point first half deficit to five after a JoJo Fallas 3-pointer with 8:24 left, but Jack Silpe hit a 3-pointer for Penn on the ensuing possession late in the shot clock and Cornell never got back within six the rest of the way.

Darien Nelson-Henry had 16 points and 10 rebounds, reaching the 1,000-point mark along the way, while Sam Jones had 15 points and six rebounds. Both Darnell Foreman and Jackson Donahue each had 13 points and Silpe notched 12. Foreman added seven rebounds, five assists and three steals off the bench.

It was 12-0 3:34 in and never got much better for Cornell in the first half, as the Quakers lead ballooned to as many as 19 points (32-13) in final five minutes of the half. Only Hatter, who tallied 12 of the Big Red's 22 first half points, kept the visitors in the game. Cornell chipped away late to bring the deficit back to 10 with a 9-0 run over the final 4:52 of the half. A Morgan 3-pointer with a minute remaining was the Ivy League leading scorer's only points of the half and capped the first half scoring.

A three-point play by Sam Jones and a 3-pointer by Donahue made it a 16-point game two minutes into the second half, but Cornell would make several surges to steal the win. The lead hovered between six and 11 points for much of the next 13 minutes, getting as low as five when Troy Whiteside and Fallas hit consecutive treys to make it 59-54. Silpe hit a backbreaking 3-pointer on the next possession, and the lead got back to as made as 14 (73-59) after Donahue nailed a 3-pointer with three minutes left and that essentially ended any thoughts of a Cornell rally.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Junior Robert Hatter's 31-point game was his third 30-point game of the season and the fourth of his career. He's the first Cornell player to have three 30-point games in a season since Kent Bantum during the 1984-85 season.
• Hatter posted his seventh 20-point game of the year and the 14th of his career.
• With his 14 points, freshman Matt Morgan has 453 points - good for 16th on Cornell's single-season scoring list.
• Morgan's 453 points moved him within eight points of break the Ivy League freshman scoring record (Earl Hunt, Brown - 460 points in 1999-2000).

NEXT UP
• Cornell will face Ivy League leader Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at Jadwin Gymnasium.