ITHACA, N.Y. -- Senior Chris Manon (25) and freshman Jake Fiegen (14) each tallied career highs and the Cornell men's basketball team rallied from a 14-point first half deficit to top Dartmouth 89-80 on Saturday evening at Newman Arena. The Big Red remained unbeaten at home (9-0) with a season sweep of the Big Green to improve to 19-4 (8-1 Ivy). Dartmouth fell to 5-17 (1-8 Ivy) with the loss.

Manon connected on 9-of-16 from the floor and hit three 3-pointers while adding four steals, besting his previous career best of 23 points along the way. Fiegen, meanwhile, set a new standard for the second straight game with 14 points and four rebounds. Nazir Williams notched 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds and AK Okereke rounded out the four double figure scorers with 12. Cooper Noard had eight points and Guy Ragland Jr. posted a team-best eight rebounds. The Big Red gritted out the win after shooting 47 percent overall and making 12 3-pointers. Cornell had just seven assists opposite its 16 assists.

Dusan Neskovic had 23 points, while Jayden Williams added 13, Brandon Mitchell-Day scored 12 with seven boards and Jackson Munro scored 12 with nine rebounds and seven assists. The Big Green shot 49 percent from the floor and hit on 13-of-27 3-pointers after entering the day shooting under 30 percent from the arc.

The 14-point deficit overcome is the fifth-largest ever at Newman Arena by the Big Red and pushed the home team to its 19th win, tied for the fifth-most in school history. With its 10 consecutive triumph at home, Cornell is now 30-4 at Newman Arena over the past three seasons.



The Big Red win couldn't have been more different than the meeting between the teams 15 days earlier. In that one, Cornell grinded out a 56-53 victory in Hanover. This one was played at Cornell pace and was 50-47 - at halftime. For much of the first half, however, it was Dartmouth that seemed most comfortable with the flow of the game.

The Big Green made nine of its first 11 3-pointers and led 43-29 with 5:35 remaining before halftime, silencing the Newman Arena crowd - but only for a moment. The game was tied four minutes later, and a Williams 3-pointer with 45 seconds left actually lifted Cornell ahead at the break, 50-47.

Manon had 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting at the break as Cornell led despite Dartmouth shooting 56 percent overall and 69 percent from beyond the arc (9-of-13). The Big Red scored nine points off eight Big Green turnovers and coughed it up just three times.

A 5-0 spurt out of the locker room pushed the lead to eight less than two minutes in and the Big Red never surrendered the lead. The visitors got within a bucket on two occasions, but both times Okereke scored to make it a two-possession game. Manon had 12 points in the second half and Fiegen scored seven while making all three buckets as the Big Red bench held a 16-0 scoring advantage over the final 20 minutes. Cornell held a double figure advantage for nearly the entire final nine minutes and coasted to its ninth win in its past 10 contests.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red will look for a season split with Yale when the two teams meet on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• Yale won a wild 80-78 decision in New Haven, Conn. on a last-second three-point play to lead the Bulldogs past the Big Red in a battle between Ivy unbeatens on Feb. 10.
• The Bulldogs have won three straight in the series.