The Cornell Big Red got off to a good start, but things went downhill towards the end of the first half as the Brown Bears picked up their first Ivy League victory of the season, 74-63.
The Big Red (4-12, 1-2 Ivy) led 30-23 with 6:48 left in the first half after Bryan Knapp drilled a three. The Bears (8-8, 1-2) then proceeded to go on an 18-4 run to end the first half and take a 41-36 lead into the locker room.
To open the second half, the Bears extended their run to 32-8 and took a 55-40 lead with 13:01 remaining after a Perry Cowan layup. The Big Red could never get closer than eight points again.
Zach Hunsaker led the Bears with 20 points off of 5-for-7 shooting, and four made threes. Tamenang Choh and Jaylan Gainey had 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Bryan Knapp limited Brown leading scorer Brandon Anderson to just seven points off 1-for-16 shooting from the field. Dan Friday had nine off the bench for the hosts.
As for the visitors, Josh Warren had 17 points and five rebounds to lead the Big Red. Jimmy Boeheim added 12 points and pulled in eight boards, and Terrance McBride and Knapp notched 11 points and 10 points, respectively.
The Big Red shot better than the Bears, hitting 45% of their shots compared to Brown’s 44%. But they were beaten on the boards (40-30), and the Bears had six more offensive rebounds (14-8).
Both teams shot 33% from deep, but the Bears shot 74% from the free throw line compared to 43% for the Big Red.
Cornell travels to Yale on Saturday, while the Bears will host Columbia.