ITHACA, N.Y. -- Senior Matt Morgan scored 25 of his 27 points in the second half as Cornell overcame a slow start to pull away for a 61-50 victory over Navy on Sunday afternoon at Newman Arena. The Big Red improved to 6-7, while the Midshipmen slipped to 3-8.

Morgan added eight rebounds, three assists and a steal in the win, hitting 11-of-12 free throws and the Big Red defense did the rest. Cornell limited Navy to 29 percent shooting overall and 22 percent from 3-point range (4-of-18) and outrebounded Navy 44-42 thanks in large part to senior Steven Julian. Julian grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds and added nine points, four blocks, two assists and a steal, bringing the energy that allowed Cornell to overcome a slow first half. 

George Kiernan led three double figure scorers for Navy, with Hasan Abdullah and Cam Davis each scoring 12 apiece. Kiernan added seven rebounds, while Luke Loehr had a team-best eight boards off the bench. The Midshipmen had 15 offensive rebounds, allowing the visitors to outscore the Big Red 12-4 in second chance points.

Navy took a three-point lead into halftime (24-21) despite shooting just 33 percent from the field, forcing Cornell into seven turnovers and limiting the Big Red to 0-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. A 7-0 run to end the half put the visitors up after the Big Red led much of the half. Morgan's double figure scoring streak, now at 64 consecutive games, seemed to be in jeopardy as the senior had just two points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first, but responded by scoring 25 of the team's 40 points after the break.

The second half began much the same as the first, with a lone Navy basket accounting for all the scoring in the first 3:47 before Morgan hit a pair a free throws to end the Midshipmen's run at nine unanswered points. Moments later Morgan hit the Big Red's first trey of the contest after 13 straight misses to cut Navy's lead to 28-26 with 15:32 to play.
 
A jumper from Terrance McBride tied the game at 28-28 and Cornell retook the lead on a trey from Jake Kuhn with 12:58 remaining in the contest. The teams traded baskets and traded leads before a 10-1 Big Red run over a span of 4:10 gave Cornell a 46-37 lead.
 
Navy battled back with within a basket (52-50) on a trey from Hasan Abdullanh at the 2:24 mark, but six consecutive points from Morgan, including an emphatic dunk with 1:11 to play, put the game out of reach and snapped Cornell's two-game skid and allowed the Big Red to begin a home win streak (two games). 

NOTES TO KNOW
• With his two 3-point field goals, Morgan moved into a fourth-place tie with Columbia's Maodo Lo in Ivy history (277).
• His three assists give him 238 for his career, good for 18th all-time at Cornell.
• It is the third consecutive game Morgan has made at least 10 free throws after doing so just once in the first 10 games of the season.
• It was Morgan's 51st career game with at least 20 points and his 10th in 13 contests this season.
• Julian's 15 rebounds were not only a career high, but also matched the 13th-most ever in a game by a Cornell player.
• Navy's .290 shooting is the lowest by a Division I opponent against the Big Red since holding Harvard to .254 (15-of-59) shooting during a 57-49 victory over the Crimson on Feb. 27, 2015.
• The Big Red's three 3-point field goal makes in a victory was the fewest by Cornell since also hitting three in a 68-60 victory over Princeton on Feb. 7, 2015.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red opens its 2019 portion of the schedule when it visits Wake Forest on Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m.
• It will be the third meeting (tied 1-1) between the two programs and the first in nearly 30 years (last meeting - Dec. 2, 1989).
• The contest will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.