ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell scored 63 first-half points and buried 15 3-pointers to help it to its most lopsided victory in the 121-year series with Penn, topping the Quakers 90-62 on Friday evening at Newman Arena. The Big Red moved into a tie for second place in the Ivy League standings at 7-5 (15-10 overall), while Penn slipped to 7-18 (3-9 Ivy).

Everywhere you looked, the Big Red offense was there. The Big Red hit eight 3-pointers in the first eight minutes, ended the first half by making 15-of-22 (68 percent) and was completely in control throughout. It led by as many as 43 points midway through the second half and didn't need to play any of its starters more than 19 minutes. It ended the night with 17 treys, tied for the sixth-most in a game in school history, and held a 21-0 advantage in fastbreak points.

Junior Cooper Noard scored 19 points in just 16 minutes, Jake Fiegen netted 16 in 15 minutes and Nazir Williams chipped in 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Adam Hinton scored nine points off the bench, AK Okereke had seven points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals, and Guy Ragland Jr. netted six points with four rebounds and four assists. The box score showed what everyone in Newman Arena saw - that everyone contributed. Chris Cain had six points and four boards off the bench, while freshman Gioacchino Panzini had three rebounds and blocked three Penn 3-point attempts. Ryan Kiachian had four points and four of the Big Red's 23 assists.

Penn was led by 19 points from Sam Brown and 17 points and 12 rebounds from Nick Spinoso, but much of the damage came in the second half with the game well in hand for the home team. The Quakers shot just 34 percent overall, hit on 5-of-27 3-pointers (19 percent) and coughed the ball up 19 times.

The 28-point margin of victory is Cornell's largest in the series that dates back to 1904, surpassing a 51-24 victory over the Quakers on Jan. 11, 1941 in the old EIBL days.
 

Fiegen hit a 3-pointer on the first possession on a great find from Ragland Jr., and the rest of the half the Big Red seemed comfortable at every turn. The Quakers kept it close early, but when Adam Hinton became the fifth different Cornell player to connect on a 3-pointer four minutes in to make it 15-8, Cornell was on its way. Penn cut the deficit to 17-13 with 13:08 on the clock, but Noard hit two 3-pointers sandwiched around a driving layup by Okereke to trigger an 11-0 run. From 35-19, Cornell outscored the Quakers 28-8 over the final 7:30 of the half to go into the break with a 63-27 advantage. Seventeen of the final 19 points of the half were scored by the home team.

When the dust cleared, Cornell was shooting 65 percent overall and an incredible 68 percent from 3-point range (15-of-22) while assisting on 18 baskets and getting 18 points from its bench. Penn was shooting 33 percent, including 2-of-12 from beyond the arc, and had turned the ball over 11 times.

The game was never in doubt in the second half, and Cornell sat its starters for good with 12:45 remaining and the Big Red up 81-38, its biggest lead of the night. The Big Red reserves missed 11 shots in a row at one point and Cornell missed its first 10 3-pointers, but that couldn't dampen the mood as the home team's lead never dipped below 26. 

UP NEXT
• Two teams jockeying for postseason positioning will collide when Cornell and Princeton meet on Saturday, March 2 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The contest will be televised on ESPNU.
• Cornell will be playing for its first season sweep of the Tigers since the 2019-20 campaign after claiming an 85-76 victory over Princeton on Jan. 25 at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• Princeton leads the all-time series 154-86, though the teams have split the past 10 meetings.