Penn gets by Cornell

With two league losses through four Ivy contests, Penn doesn't have much margin for error in its quest for a 26th conference title.

The Quakers will need some help and likely will have to win out to catch league favorite and unbeaten Harvard. If the long shot is going to hit, Penn will need more stretches like the final 11 minutes of the first half in a 90-83 victory over Cornell on Friday night at the Palestra.

Cornell took its only lead of the contest, 21-20, with 10 minutes, 50 seconds left in the opening 20 minutes before Penn ran off 30 of the next 41 points to enter the break in control with a 50-32 lead.

"I liked the last 11 minutes of the first half," Penn coach Jerome Allen said. "The offense was clicking. We were sharing the ball and valuing it, for the most part."

Miles Cartwright-Jackson had 15 of his 19 points during the pivotal first-half stretch. Tony Hicks paced the Quakers (5-13, 2-2 Ivy) with 27 points, and Fran Dougherty added 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Big Red (1-18, 0-5) came out with some spunk after halftime and slowly whittled the 18-point deficit down. Cornell got as close as five points with 8:55 remaining and cut it to five on three more occasions, but never got closer.

"When they made their run, guys didn't fold," Allen said.

The Quakers came into Friday's game limping after losing at Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend, marking the first time since the 1987-88 season they had been swept on that trip.

It certainly helped playing Cornell, which dropped its 11th straight league contest and 14th consecutive road game. The Big Red's lone win this season came against Division III Oberlin.

With two losses already, Penn faces an uphill battle in search of its first Ivy title since 2007.

"We still have a lot of basketball ahead of us. That's the good thing," Allen said.

Steve Rennard made his first start of the season in place of Jamal Lewis, who was away from the team due to a death in the family. Lewis also will miss Saturday's game against Columbia.