PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team got out to a fast start Friday night, but Cornell showed why it's tied for the Ivy League lead as the Big Red came back and made the plays down the stretch for an 87-81 win at The Palestra.
Penn scored the game's first 12 points and led by as many as 14 in the opening period. Cornell came all the way back and tied things up at 56-56. The teams battled back and forth after that, but the Big Red scored seven of the game's last eight points to break an 80-80 tie and win.
Penn fell to 10-17 overall and is now 2-10 in Ivy League play. Cornell remains tied atop the Ivy standings with Princeton and Yale, all three at 10-2, and the Big Red is 21-5 overall.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn knocked down 15 three-pointers on Friday night, a season high and one shy of the program record against a Division I opponent; the Quakers have now hit 40 treys across the last three games and shot 43 percent from beyond the arc across that stretch.
*Senior
Clark Slajchert led Penn with 22 points, scoring 11 in each half. He knocked down four three-pointers on the night.
*Sophomore
Cam Thrower had 15 points on Friday night, giving him 43 across Penn's last three games.
*Freshman
Sam Brown also had 15 points, draining five of his first six three-point attempts and finishing the night 5-of-8. He also had four assists.
*Junior
Nick Spinoso flirted with a triple-double, finishing the night with a game-high 14 rebounds which tied his season/career high, eight assists—which tied a season high—and seven points.
*Sophomore
Johnnie Walter tied his season/career high with eight points.
*Cornell—which scored 53 points without committing a turnover in the second half—put four players in double figures as AK Okereke scored 18, Cooper Noard added 13, Chris Manon had 11 and Nazir Williams recorded 10. Sean Hansen finished with nine points and seven rebounds, Jake Fiegen had seven points and eight boards, and Guy Ragland Jr. finished with nine points and five rebounds.
How It Happened
Penn roared out with the game's first 12 points, led by three-pointers from Slajchert and junior
George Smith on consecutive possessions. The Quakers' lead grew to 16-3 and then 21-7 less than eight minutes into the contest, before Cornell scored eight in a row to get within 21-15. Penn kept up the offensive pressure, though, with four in a row to get the margin back to double digits 25-15, and the Red and Blue still led by 12 at the half, 46-34. The 46 points were one shy of the team season high for a first half (47 vs. Dartmouth on January 6).
Thrower opened the second-half scoring with a fallaway in the lane, but Cornell quickly responded with the next nine points to get within five and force a Penn timeout. The stoppage didn't help, as the Big Red kept coming and eventually tied it at 56-56 on back-to-back treys from Manon and Ragland Jr. In all, it was a 22-8 run for the Big Red.
Brown ended Penn's skid with a long trey, then Spinoso put back a missed Slajchert trey. Cornell got two of the points back, but Perkins drilled a triple to give Penn a 64-58 lead. Cornell scored the next five to make it a one-point game at the under-12 media timeout, and then out of stoppage the Big Red used a classic backdoor cut to take their first lead of the night at 65-64.
It was 67-64 when Brown nailed a long trey to tie it up, but Isaiah Gray hit a pair of free throws and Williams drained a trey to put the Big Red up 72-67. Slajchert rose up at that point, creating his own shot at the elbow and then drilling a corner trey on a nice tic-tac-toe play, Spinoso whipping a pass cross-court to Brown who one-timed the ball to the senior in the corner. The score was still tied at the under-8 media timeout.
Ragland Jr. dialed long distance out of that stoppage, then both teams went quiet for a few possessions before Spinoso pinned his man on the block to get Penn back within one, 75-74. However, Penn then fouled Noard taking a three and he made all of his free throws to make it 78-74.
Slajchert again put on the Superman cape, his trey getting Penn back within one at 78-77, then after a Cornell bucket and timeout the senior hit yet another three, this time off a Spinoso feed to tie things at 80-80 as the clock rolled under three minutes to play.
Cornell came down and Williams missed a three-pointer, but a long rebound ended up in the hands of Noard and it eventually led to an Okereke trey for 83-80. Penn got good 3FG looks on consecutive possessions after that, Brown from right in front of the bench and Perkins up top, but both were off the mark as the clock went inside its final minute.
Ragland was fouled with 36.4 seconds left, making one of two to make it a four-point lead. This time Slajchert couldn't conjure up his magic, missing a contested three, and Penn was forced to foul on the rebound. Jake Fiegen again made one of two, pushing Cornell's lead to five with 24.7 left.
Thrower drove the lane and was fouled but could only hit one of his two shots, and then Cornell broke Penn's trapping press to account for the night's final points.
Up Next
Penn continues this traditional Ivy League weekend with Columbia at The Palestra. Once again, the game will be the back end of a Penn women's/men's doubleheader, the women hosting Harvard at 4 p.m. before the Quakers and Lions men tip off at 7 p.m.
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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