ITHACA, N.Y. -- With 8:40 to play, Penn had a 21-point lead and was cruising to a win. The Quakers picked up the win, but it did anything but cruise to it.

The Big Red got within a possession in the final seconds, but the visitors escaped with a 73-68 victory on Saturday evening at Newman Arena. The Quakers (10-12, 7-2 Ivy) handed Cornell (12-7, 4-4 Ivy) its first home loss of the season thanks to a defense that stifled the Big Red most of the evening.

Coming off a career high 22 points on Friday against Princeton, Chris Manon had 20 points, four rebounds and three assists, while senior captain Dean Noll notched 19 points, four rebounds, three assists, four steals and three blocked shots. No other Big Red player had more than six points. Kobe Dickson grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and Guy Ragland Jr. had five off the bench. Cornell shot just 36 percent overall, including 30 percent in the first half, and made 6-of-29 3-pointers. 

Penn's Jordan Dingle scored 19 points and Max Martz netted 16. Andrew Laczkowski rounded out the double figure scorers with 10 along with five boards off the bench. Penn held a 45-40 edge on the glass and outscored the Big Red 29-15 from its reserves. Michael Moshkovitz ripped down a game-best 10 boards.

Penn led 52-31 with 8:40 to play when Jelani Williams scored on a putback, and the advantage was still 15 with 4:26 remaining when Cornell made its run. A 20-8 Big Red spurt, culminating in a driving layup by Manon with 14 ticks left got the hometown within three (69-66). Matz hit a pair of free throws on the other end seven seconds later and Cornell would never get a shot to tie.

FIRST HALF

• Neither team could create separation over the first 15 minutes, as neither team built a lead of more than a possession as defense ruled the day.
• The Quakers went up by five, but Cornell answered to get within 24-22 on a driving bucket by Manon with a minute to play before halftime. 
• The Quakers boosted the lead to seven (29-22) at the break, with Dingle hitting a step-back 3-pointer at the horn for his first bucket of the game after starting off 0-for-4.
• Penn held  the Big Red to 22 points on 30 percent shooting, including 4-of-18 from beyond the arc with Manon scoring eight and Sean Hansen scoring six for the home team.
• Martz led Penn with nine points while Moshkovitz grabbed seven rebounds and had three assists.
 

SECOND HALF

• The teams seemed to pick up where they left off in the first half - struggling to score a basket.
• By the end of the night, the free throw parade had the teams combine for 90 points in the final 20 minutes despite combining for just three 3-pointers.
• Penn methodically built the lead to double figures three minutes into the second half, then to 17 five minutes after that as Cornell went nearly five minutes without scoring.
• The 17-2 Penn run seemed to put the Big Red out of its misery, but Cornell found new life after bottoming out when trailing 48-27.
• Cornell chipped away slowly at first, getting within 14 with six minutes to play, then to single digits when Noll hit two free throws with 2:28 remaining.
• A three-point play by Noll with 1:11 left made it a six-point game, then his 3-pointer on the break cut the deficit to four (66-62) with 46 seconds left.
• The Big Red made it a on-possession game when Manon took it himself to the hole with 14 seconds remaining, but Martz hit two free throws, then Jelani Williams canned two more after a last-second Big Eed bucket to escape with the victory.
 

NEXT UP

• Cornell will face Columbia in a rescheduled midweek game on Wednesday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee, originally scheduled for Monday, Jan. 17, will be the first meeting of the year between the travel partners.
• The last time the two teams met for the first time so late in the year came during the 1952-53 season.
• The Lions lead the all-time series 131-103, though the teams have split the last eight meetings.