CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Cornell men's basketball team nearly had its largest road comeback in school history, but Harvard's Noah Kirkwood wouldn't let it happen. The senior scored 31 points as the Crimson held on for a 77-72 overtime victory over the Big Red on Saturday evening at Lavietes Pavilion. 

With the victory, Harvard moved a half-game in front of Cornell for the coveted fourth spot in the Ivy League standings. The top four teams qualify for the conference tournament, an event hosted at the Crimson's home arena.

Cornell rallied from 19 points down in the second half (52-33) to take a brief lead, got a defensive stop to force the extra session and seemed to have all the momentum behind them. Kirkwood scored right away to begin overtime, then again to make it a two-possession game and Cornell never recovered.

Sophomore Chris Manon had 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals to lead four double figure scorers for Cornell. Sean Hansen had 13, including a number of big buckets after halftime, Dean Noll notched 11 and Sarju Patel scored 10. Cornell shot 48 percent from the field for the game and limited its turnovers. After committing nine in the first half, the Big Red made just four miscues over the final 25 minutes. 

Kirkwood added eight rebounds, four assists and two steals to his career-best 31 points, hitting 13-of-19 shots from the floor and 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Luka Sakota added 18 points and seven rebounds and Kale Catchings netted 10 points and seven boards in the win. Harvard connected on 65 percent from the field in taking a 43-26 lead at halftime and overcame 34 percent shooting the rest of the way.
 

FIRST HALF

• Harvard shot a scorching 65 percent from the floor, including 7-of-11 from 3-point range, and put the Big Red in a 43-26 hole at the break.
• Cornell was all out of sorts, making just 38 percent of its shots overall, 3-of-13 from 3-point range, and committed nine turnovers. 
• Kirkwood scored 17 on his own for the Crimson, hitting 7-of-10 shots and all three from beyond the arc while adding five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block while playing all 20 minutes.
• The Crimson led 22-18 with eight minutes left before halftime, but a 10-0 run highlighted by six points from Sakota, pushed Harvard's lead to 14.
 

SECOND HALF

• The second half run started innocently enough, and not until the Crimson pushed its lead to 19 (52-33) two minutes in.
• It was an 18 point game (58-40) with 11:39 left after Kirkwood hit a jumper right before the under-12 minute media timeout.
• Guy Ragland Jr. hit a 3-pointer, the first of two during a 21-1 run that saw the Big Red shockingly go up a basket with under four minutes left.
• Keller Boothby's 3-pointer with 4:38 tied the score, and Sean Hansen's tough basket a minute later gave Cornell a 61-59 lead.
• Harvard regained its edge with 45 seconds left when Kirkwood found a streaking Sam Silverstein for the go-ahead basket.
• Cornell answered with a Hansen basket with 36 ticks left, then got a defensive stop on the other end with the Big Red rebounding.
• Cornell called a timeout, but couldn't get a good look having to go the length of the court, and the teams headed to overtime tied 65-65.
 

OVERTIME

• Harvard got a bucket to start overtime, but Hansen quickly answered for the Big Red.
• A 7-0 Crimson run largely put the game to bed, with Evan Nelson's 3-pointer with 2:17 remaining pushing the edge to seven (74-67).
• Cornell got within four with a minute to play and had a possession to cut into the deficit further after Hansen blocked a shot, but the Big Red couldn't get a shot to go down.
• Luka Sakota's two free throws made it a six-point game and largely clinched the victory for the Crimson.
 

NEXT UP

• Cornell will honor its seniors before taking on first-place Yale on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red will honor Kobe Dickson, Dean Noll, Sarju Patel and Max Samberg in a pregame ceremony.
• Cornell will be attempting to snap a 16-game skid against the Bulldogs and pick up its first win over Yale since Feb. 15, 2013 (68-61 at Yale) and its in Ithaca in more than 10 years (85-84 in OT on Feb. 10, 2012).