Penn suffers another OT Ivy League loss

ITHACA, N.Y. - For the third time in as many games, Penn found itself in overtime after a second-half comeback.

And for the third time in as many games, the Quakers failed to seal the deal in the extra minutes, falling, 82-71, to Cornell on Friday night in their second Ivy League road game of the season.

Though both teams got off to a slow start at Newman Arena, Cornell (6-15, 2-5 Ivy) hit its stride early in the first half as Penn (9-3, 3-3) struggled to find its focus.

Going 13 for 29 from the floor, the Big Red went ahead. A deep roster helped Cornell extend its lead, with nine players scoring in the first half and 22 points coming from the Big Red bench.

Penn struggled to get that same momentum. Despite putting up big numbers in the Quakers' most recent contests, senior forward Tyler Bernardini couldn't hit a shot in the first half. Though Penn drained 10 of 14 attempts from the line, a solid man-to-man defense by Cornell kept the visitors from finding the same success from the floor.

But just as they had in their previous two games, the Quakers managed to turn things around. After allowing Cornell to surge to a 16-point lead with seven minutes left in the half, Penn used a renewed defensive effort to slow the Big Red's shooting spree. Senior Jack Eggleston - who led the Quakers in the first half with 12 points - drained a shot from three-point land that sparked a Penn offensive blitz. By the end of the half, the Red and Blue had cut the gap to seven.

That energy continued in the second frame. Penn tightened up even more on defense, keeping Cornell from getting the same looks it had in the first half. The Quakers, meanwhile, found the bottom of the net easily and went on a 13-5 run to regain the lead.

With Penn ahead by eight with less than eight minutes remaining, Cornell went on a 9-1 run to tie the game.

The Quakers responded with a 5-0 run. A three from Zack Rosen and a layup from freshman Miles Cartwright preserved Penn's lead. It looked as though the Ivy League's comeback kids finally would seal the deal.

Enter Big Red junior Chris Wroblewski, who hit one from downtown and two from the line to tie the game again at 63-all. With the clock running down, Penn senior Conor Turley attempted a layup, but it was no good. Wroblewski, a Bob Cousy Award candidate and Cornell's leading scorer, took the ball across the line, waiting for the final shot. Finally, he launched one from the top of the arc. The shot fell short, but a Cornell player tipped the ball in. The crowd erupted, thinking the Big Red would take home the win.

But the refs called off the shot because of an offensive foul committed with 1.3 seconds left on the clock. The foul sent Turley to the line with a chance to ice the game.

The ball bounced off the rim, sending Penn into another overtime. And to the Quakers' detriment, the early minutes of the extra period resembled the first half more than the second. The Big Red outscored the Quakers, 19-8, in overtime.