#25 Cornell Holds Off Brown, 74-60

Saturday, February 6

7 pm

Brown University

Cornell

2/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Ithaca, New York - 25th-ranked Cornell had all it could handle with Brown, but closed with a 16-4 run in the game's last seven minutes to earn a 74-60 Ivy League win over the Bears at Newman Arena.

Cornell, who entered the USA Today Top 25 this week, has now won 19 of its last 20 games and earned its 20th win for third straight season (20-3, 6-0 Ivy). Brown drops to 7-16, 1-5 in Ivy play.

Bears' senior center Matt Mullery led all scorers with 21 points and became the 23rd player in Brown basketball history to score 1,000 or more career points. His 1,000th point came on a lay-up with 12:55 left in the first half and gave the Bears an 18-16 lead. Mullery now has 1,015 career points for the Bears.

The game was a dogfight throughout and the Bears trailed by just two points, 58-56, on a lay-up by Mullery with 7:32 remaining to play. But the Big Red turned up the defensive pressure and hit their stride, out-scoring the Bears, 16-4, to end the game, and come away with the victory.

The Big Red had not trailed in a game since January 8, but Brown took an early three-point lead, 12-9, when junior Peter Sullivan completed a three-point play. The Bears pulled ahead by an eight-point margin, 24-16, on a lay-up by freshman Tucker Halpern with 10:04 left in the half.

Cornell answered with an 13-2 spurt to pull ahead, 29-26, on a lay-up by senior Louis Dale with 6:40 on the clock. Again the Bears answered with a 10-2 spurt of their own to grab a 36-31 lead at the 4:04 mark.

The Big Red scored the last eight points of the first half to lead, 39-36, at intermission.

Brown pulled ahead, 45-44, on a jump shot by freshman Matt Sullivan with 15:57 left to play in an extremely hard-fought second half. But that was Brown's last lead of the game with Cornell taking the lead for good, 47-45, on a trey by Reaves with 15:45 left to play.

The difference in the game may have come on the backboards, with the Big Red holding a 39-27 rebound margin over the Bears.

Halpern was also a double figure scorer for the Bears with 14 points, while Peter Sullivan finished with eight points.

The battle of the top big men in the Ivy league was pretty much a draw, with Mullery scoring 21 points, while grabbing six rebounds and handing out five assists. Cornell's 7-1 center, Jeff Foote netted a team high 17 points with nine rebounds.

Seniors Ryan Wittman and Louis dale each tossed in 14 points for the Big Red.

The Bears return for home games against Dartmouth and Harvard on Friday and Saturday, February 12 and 13, at the Pizzitola Sports Center. Both games start at 7:00 p.m.