CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Harvard shot 64 percent in the second half and 60 percent for the game to protect its home court with a 95-89 win over Cornell on Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion. The Crimson (12-8, 3-3 Ivy) handed the Big Red (14-5, 4-2 Ivy) its first conference road loss of the season.

Cornell led 69-68 with 8:26 left after an Isaiah Gray free throw, but an 11-2 Harvard run put the home team in the lead for good, and a miserable 4-of-18 shooting half from 3-point range after the break doomed the Big Red.

Nazir Williams led four Big Red players in double figures with 23 points, while Guy Ragland Jr. scored 18 with four rebounds and Greg Dolan chipped in 15 points, four assists and three steals. Chris Manon had 13 points, with Keller Boothby scoring nine and Sean Hansen dishing off six of the team's 20 assists. Cornell made 14 3-pointers, but only four in the second half.

Chris Ledlum had a game-high 24 points for the Crimson, who made 10-of-18 3-pointers (56 percent) after entering the contest under 30 percent as a team. Ledlum added eight rebounds in the win. Idan Tretout scored 17, Sam Silverstein had 16 with four rebounds and four assists, Justice Ajogbor posted 12 points and Luka Sakota had 10. The Crimson turned the ball over just 14 times against Cornell's pressure and had eight steals of its own.

First Half

• Harvard led 49-46 at halftime despite Cornell's 10 3-pointers and 16 points by Williams.
• The Crimson, who entered the game shooting under 30 percent from 3-point range, connected on 7-of-11 from beyond the arc (64 percent).
• The home team led nearly the entire way, going up by as many as six (31-25).
• Harvard made 7-of-8 shots midway through the first to take that lead.
• The Big Red hit 9-of-12 from beyond the arc, with Williams and Boothby combining to hit seven treys without a miss.
• A 9-2 Big Red run that featured three straight 3-pointers, the first two by Boothby, gave Cornell a 39-36 edge with five minutes to play before the break.
• The visitors still led 41-39 with 3:19 left, but Harvard closed the half on a 10-5 run to go into the break with the edge.
 

Second Half

• Harvard scored the first six points out of the locker room to make it a nine-point game just 1:39 into the second half.
• Cornell seemed to be chasing the Crimson the entire second half, but tied the contest with 11:32 remaining on a pair of Williams free throws, then earned a narrow 68-66 lead when Ragland found Marcus Filien underneath for a layup to go up 68-66.
• The Crimson immediately tied it up, and the Big Red found the lead for the last time when Gray hit the second of two free throws with 8:26 left.
• Harvard's 11-2 spurt took the wind out of Cornell's sails, put the home team back up by eight (79-71).
• Cornell made just one field goal over a span of 5:19 and never got within a single possession over the final seven minutes.
 

Next Up

• Cornell will play its first of two games against Brown in the next two weeks when the Bears visit Ithaca on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red leads the all-time series 82-55, with the teams splitting the last six meetings.
• A year ago, both teams won on the road with buzzer-beating endings, including Brown's 81-80 victory in Ithaca on Jaylan Gainey's last-second putback dunk.