Ithaca, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team earned a sweep of its trip through the Ivy League's two Empire State teams, defeating Cornell on Saturday night, 63-58.
 
The Quakers looked like they might cruise to the win, leading by 21 points with less than 11 minutes remaining. However, the Big Red—which entered the night unbeaten at home this season (8-0)—fought back as a partisan Newman Arena crowd urged them on. Cornell got as close as three points on two occasions in the final seconds, but Penn hit enough free throws down the stretch to escape with the victory.
 
Penn has now won four in a row and is 10-12 overall, 7-2 in Ivy League play. The Quakers remain in second in the Ivy standings, behind Yale which is 6-1 after a 58-55 win over Harvard on Saturday night. Cornell fell to 12-7 overall, 4-4 in Ivy play.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*This was the 25th time Penn has swept the Columbia-Cornell road weekend in 62 tries; the Quakers have swept this weekend the last two times, four of the last five, and six of the last eight times they made it.

*Penn improved to 9-0 when leading at halftime and 8-0 when holding its opponent below 70 points.
 
*Penn had another strong night on the boards, with 45; that was tied for the Quakers' season high until last night, when they had 47 at Columbia.
 
*Penn set season highs in free throws taken (28) and made (21).
 
*Sophomore Jordan Dingle led Penn in scoring for the fourth straight game, with 19 points.
 
*Sophomore Max Martz scored 16 points for the second time in as many nights, tying his season high.
 
*Sophomore Andrew Laczkowski, who came on in a big way last night with 12 points, added 10 more on Saturday night.
 
*Laczkowski also had five rebounds and two steals.
 
*Sophomore Clark Slajchert and freshman George Smith scored eight points each, Slajchert adding four rebounds and Smith three boards.
 
*Junior Michael Moshkovitz was in foul trouble most of the night, playing just 23 minutes, but he grabbed 10 rebounds—giving him 41 across Penn's last four games—and dished off four assists.
 
*Cornell was led by Chris Manon, who finished the night with 20 points, while Dean Noll added 19.
 
How It Happened
The scored was only 29-22 at halftime but it was no indication of what was a back-and-forth, up-tempo affair. Instead, scoring was hard to come by as both squads were tenacious defensively which limited good scoring opportunities at either end. Overall, the two teams combined to shoot just 19-of-59 (32.2 percent) from the floor in the first half, many of those efforts heavily contested.
 
There were five ties over the first 14 minutes, before a three-pointer from Slajchert and a hard-earned layup by Lucas Monroe on consecutive possessions pushed Penn in front by five. Cornell got within two twice the rest of the period, but Dingle found Laczkowski for a layup, then nailed a long three-pointer right at the halftime buzzer to give the Quakers a 29-22 lead at the break.
 
It was 31-25 when Penn started pulling away. Smith scored four points over a pair of possessions, the start of a 6-0 run, and then when Cornell ended the run with a transition layup the Quakers ever so slowly reeled off an 11-0 streak. When Dingle hit a layup in the lane with 10:59 left, Penn's lead was 48-27, the Red and Blue's 17-2 run taking a little more than four minutes of game time.
 
Cornell came back. It was still a 19-point game with seven minutes left, but the Big Red whittled away little by little. They got within 15 with five minutes to play, then 11 with 3:42 left. Penn's lead was 63-50 when Dingle hit a pair of free throws with 3:24 to play, but Noll hit a quick layup and then, after a Williams miss, got fouled and drained his foul shots for 63-54 with 2:28 left.
 
Both teams had empty possessions after that, but then a Dingle missed trey was rebounded by Cornell's Nazir Williams who rushed down the floor for a layup that made the score 63-56 with 1:26 left.
 
Cornell began fouling at that point. Slajchert made both shots with 1:18 left, but Noll scored, was fouled by Moshkovitz—his fifth of the night—and made the free throw for 65-59. Dingle was fouled and made one of two, followed by a Noll trey that had the score at 66-62 with 46 seconds still to play. Laczkowski was fouled on the inbounds, and while the crowd reached a deafening pitch he banked home his first shot before missing his second.
 
It looked like Penn was in the clear when Cornell turned it over with 37 seconds, then Dingle was fouled and made both for a 69-62 lead with 31 ticks to play. However, Noll again drew a quick foul and made both of his shots to get it to 69-64, and then Martz missed both of his free throws and Manon drove the lane at the other end to make it a one-possession game with 14 seconds left. After a pair of timeouts, Penn finally got the ball in to Martz who was fouled again, and this time he made both. Noll quickly got it back, once again making it a one-possession game, but with 1.4 seconds left Williams made both of his foul shots to ice matters.
 
Up Next
After playing three in a row on the road, the Quakers are at home next Saturday when they host Harvard. Tipoff with the Crimson is scheduled for 2 p.m.