PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team used an 8-0 run about midway through the second half on Friday night, breaking a tie game and pulling away from Cornell at The Palestra, 79-65.
 
Penn improved to 2-0 in Ivy play and is now 5-10 overall. Cornell fell to 9-4 overall and is 1-1 in the league.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn shot 50.9 percent from the field, its second-best performance this season (surpassed only by a 55.7 percentage against Lafayette on November 16).
 
*Penn had 43 rebounds on Friday night, most since grabbing 45 against the Leopards.
 
*For the second straight game, Penn shot a season-low number of three-pointers (18) but shot a season-high number of foul shots (23).
 
*Penn improved to 5-0 when leading at halftime.
 
*Cornell's 29 points in the second half were an opponent low this season.

*Three Penn players flirted with double-doubles on Friday night: juniors Lucas Monroe (10 points/9 rebounds) and Michael Moshkovitz (13 points/8 rebounds) and senior Jelani Williams (9 points/7 rebounds).
 
*Sophomore Clark Slajchert led Penn in scoring with 19 points, his fifth double-figure scoring game this season but his first since he dropped 25 on Arkansas on November 28.
 
*Sophomore Jordan Dingle scored 17 points in less than 14 minutes of action due to foul trouble, 14 of them coming in the first half and the other three coming on a trey early in the second.
 
*Moshkovitz—whose rebound total tied a season/career high—also had five assists on Friday night, giving him 16 across the last three games.
 
*Williams—whose rebound total was one shy of a season/career high—also tied a season/career best with three steals.
 
*Freshman George Smith, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week, scored just three points but set a season/career high with five rebounds and tied a best with three assists.
 
How It Happened
Friday's game was a back-and-forth affair for much of the way, the Quakers and the Big Red tying 11 times and trading the lead 11 times.
 
Cornell needed less than five minutes to knock down five three-pointers early on, taking a 17-10 lead when Guy Ragland Jr. (team-high 12 points) dialed long distance. Penn drew back level at 22-22 on a Slajchert bucket, then went ahead 26-24 when Williams spun on his man from the right baseline and finished in the lane.
 
The game continued back and forth the rest of the half, Penn taking a 38-36 lead into the locker room when Williams found Martz along the baseline for an easy layin.
 
Penn opened up a six-point lead early in the second half, at 47-41, but Cornell used a 7-0 run that gave the Big Red a 51-49 lead. The lead flipped three times over the next few minutes until Moshkovitz hit one of two free throws to make the score 56-56 with 9:11 remaining.
 
Penn used that foul shot as a springboard. First, Monroe put back a Nick Spinoso miss, then Slajchert found Spinoso flying down the lane for another bucket. Slajchert then was fouled taking a three-pointer, and when he drained all three free throws the Quakers' lead was 63-56.
 
Cornell got as close as five points twice, at 63-58 and 66-61, but Penn kept the Big Red at bay from there and scored the game's final seven points to salt the game away.
 
Up Next
Penn is back at home again tomorrow night, hosting Columbia—which lost to Princeton on Friday night, 84-69—to complete this Ivy League weekend. The Quakers and Lions are scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m.