ITHACA, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team was able to overcome a red-hot Cornell team in the second half on Friday night and gained a 69-66 at the Big Red's Newman Arena. It was the Quakers' fifth-straight win and improved them to 12-12 overall, 5-6 in Ivy League play. Cornell fell to 7-19 overall, 3-8 in Ivy play.

Penn moved alone into fourth place, a game ahead of Columbia which lost at home to League leader Princeton, 64-45. The Quakers can officially eliminate the Lions tomorrow by winning in New York City and completing a season sweep. Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown are all 3-8 and are all two games behind Penn with three to play. On the other side, Penn is one game behind third-place Yale in the loss column.

*Freshman Ryan Betley continued his hot play of late, scoring 13 first-half points and finishing with 21.  He also had five steals, a season/career high, as well as five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.

*Freshman AJ Brodeur had 13 points, all in the second half, including the Quakers bucket in the final minute that gave them a 65-63 lead they would not relinquish.

*Sophomore Jackson Donahue hit three three-pointers, including the only one Penn had in the entire second half, and finished with 11 points.

*Junior Darnell Foreman had six points and seven assists.

*Penn played the game without sophomore Max Rothschild, who sat out due to Ivy League concussion protocol. He is expected to dress and play tomorrow night at Columbia.

*Senior Matt Howard was forced to sit the second half due to a collision during the first half. His status for Saturday night is undetermined at this time.

Cornell opened the scoring on Friday night, ending Penn's streak of not trailing at just under 109 minutes, but the Quakers scored the next seven points to jump out in front. At 7-6, Penn went on a 7-0 run and extended it to 10-2, which gave the Red and Blue a 17-8 advantage. Cornell got back within two points, at 19-17, but Penn again reeled off seven-straight points and held an advantage near double digits the rest of the half.

Cornell's Matt Morgan opened the second-half scoring with a three-pointer, but Penn scored the game's next seven points (all from Betley and AJ Brodeur) to make the score 43-31 and force a Big Red timeout.

Penn's lead was still 11, at 51-40, before Morgan drained a pair of long treys and Robert Hatter followed with his own triple. That forced a Penn timeout, but Morgan scored four more to make the run 13-0 and gave the Red and 53-51 lead. Jackson Donahue finally broke the streak, taking a nice backdoor pass from Devon Goodman and laying it in to tie things up as the game reached the final 10 minutes of regulation.

Cornell jumped out in front by four, thanks primarily to a Wil Bathurst triple, and then the teams traded points for several minutes. Down 63-59, Penn made its decisive move. Donahue knocked down a trey -- the Quakers' only make from beyond the arc in the half – and then Tyler Hamilton came up with a steal at one end, was fouled at the other end, and made one of two to tie things up at 63-63 with 1:20 left.

Penn forced a shot clock violation, Betley blocking Hatter's last-second shot in the lane, and then the Quakers quickly worked the ball in to Brodeur who smoothly hit a baby hook to put the Red and Blue in front 65-63. Stone Gettings then missed a contested shot at the other end and Betley rebounded it and was fouled. He made both, making it a two-possession game.

Bathurst hit a three-pointer with 5.0 seconds left to make it a one-point game, then fouled Foreman on the inbounds with 4.2 left. Foreman made both, getting the score to 69-66. Cornell had a nice play to get Morgan an open look from about 28 feet out, but the shot was off and the Quakers could finally breathe.

Penn concludes this four-game road trip with Columbia tomorrow night; the Quakers and Lions will tip off in New York City at 7 p.m.