Ever since the Ivy League season started, everything has gone right for the Penn men's basketball team.
Not only have they posted an unblemished 7-0 mark over the first half of the season, but the Quakers have witnessed parity so great in the rest of the league that they are ahead by at least three games in the loss column of every other Ancient Eight team.
On Saturday night against Cornell, Penn started the game ice cold on offense, but several runs turned a potential upset into an easy win, as the Quakers beat the Big Red going away, 64-50.
Senior guard Tim Begley led the charge for Penn (14-7, 7-0 Ivy), hitting six of seven three-pointers and scoring a game-high 24 points.
The Quakers have now won 10 straight games, their first winning streak of this length in two years.
Cornell (10-11, 5-3) led by as many as 12 points in the first half, as Penn struggled to an 8-of-32 shooting performance from the field.
But when the Big Red jumped out to its 23-11 lead with 4:31 to play in the first half, the Quakers immediately responded with an 11-3 run to end the half, cutting the deficit to four.
Despite the lead, Cornell had not played a great half of basketball, turning the ball over 10 times and shooting only 43.5 percent.
In the second half, as the Quakers came back with a 29-10 run starting with 14:15 to play, Cornell's offense struggled even more.
The Big Red turned the ball over 10 more times in the second half, leading to 16 Penn points. Begley had three steals and sophomore guard Ibby Jaaber had four to lead all players.
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue called the Penn defense "opportunistic," and was frustrated that his team could never get an offensive rhythm going in the second.
As a team, Cornell shot 9-for-24 from the field in the second half, and missed six of their 11 free throws after hitting all three before the intermission.
"When things go bad for us as a team, it's first on the offense," Donahue said.
At times the Quakers used the pressure defense that led to the big second-half comeback against Princeton last Tuesday night, but only sparingly.
This time it was the defense on Cornell's set offense that made the difference.
Big Red junior forward Ryan Rourke led all scorers in the first half with nine points, but was held scoreless in the second, missing all four of his shots. Sixth man Cody Toppert, who is second on the team in scoring, missed both of his two field goals in the second, hitting only foul shots to reach his team-high 10 points.
Forward Lenny Collins, who leads Cornell with 14.6 points per game, and is the reigning Ivy League co-Player of the Week, was a total non-factor in the game.
After two quick fouls and a scoreless first half, Collins could muster only five points and two rebounds in the second.
Penn's run was keyed by Begley, who hit four of his three-pointers in the second half as the Quakers shot 53.6 percent from the field.
"Every time he was open he knocked one down," Donahue said.
Penn's head coach Fran Dunphy agreed with his former assistant.
Begley "just carried us there for that stretch."
"It's a pleasure to watch... this was pretty special," Dunphy added of Begley's performance, which kept the Quakers' hope for an undefeated Ivy League season alive.
The play that clinched the game for the Red and Blue came with 2:29 to go. After a jumper by Cornell's Andrew Naeve cut Penn's lead to 56-46, Jaaber broke the Big Red press, passed the ball to senior guard Eric Osmundson, who then returned it to Jaaber. The sophomore cut to the basket, dished the ball to sophomore forward Steve Danley, who faked towards the basket and then dumped it off to the waiting Begley, who knocked down a triple from the right wing.
Notes: Begley was honored before the game for becoming the 32nd player in Penn history to break the 1,000 point mark for his career, which he did against Dartmouth on Feb. 5.
Begley also needs eight more three-pointers to move past Matt Maloney into first place on the all-time Penn list.
