ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team closed the game on a 33-13 run to pull away from preseason Ivy League favorite Penn and capture an 88-69 victory on Friday evening at Newman Arena. The Big Red improved to 12-3 (2-0 Ivy) with its fifth consecutive victory overall while snapping a five game skid against the Quakers (8-8, 1-1 Ivy).

Penn led 56-55 with just under 12 minutes to play after a Clark Slajchert 3-pointer, but Greg Dolan answered with consecutive buckets in the lane to regain the lead. Dolan scored seven points in the span of two minutes, with his 3-pointer after a steal by Marcus Filien in the backcourt pushing the lead to 64-56 in what ultimately ended as a 13-0 run. The 12-point lead with 8:39 to play never dipped below double figures the rest of the way.

The Big Red forced 13 second half turnovers and 20 overall with 11 coming on steals, while speeding up the Quakers into shooting 1-of-9 from beyond the 3-point arc for the half (11 percent) and 4-of-19 for the game (21 percent). Penn shot just 38 percent after halftime after shooting 57 percent in the first 20 minutes.

Isaiah Gray tied his career high with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor and added two assists and two steals to lead four double figure scorers. Williams added 13 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals, Sean Hansen matched his 13 points and added three boards and Dolan posted 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Keller Boothby scored nine points, Guy Ragland Jr. had eight and Chris Manon netted seven as Cornell shot 51 percent overall and made 10-of-27 from beyond the arc. 

The Quakers got 21 points from Jordan Dingle and 15 from Slajchert, while Max Martz notched 13. Lucas Monroe posted a game-high seven assists and Max Lorca-Lloyd grabbed a team-best six boards in just five minutes of action.

The win gives Cornell its first 2-0 start in Ivy play since the 2009-10 season and extended its conference streak to four games dating back to last year.

 

Next Up

• The Big Red welcomes defending Ivy League regular season champion Princeton to Newman Arena on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 6 p.m.
• The Tigers won two of three meetings a season ago, the two losses coming by a combined six points.
• Cornell has won three of the past four meetings between the programs in Ithaca, and six of the last eight overall have been decided by five points or less, or in overtime.