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Highlights

ITHACA, N.Y. – Freshman Robert Hatter scored 21 points and Devin Cherry added 14, but Saint Francis (Pa.) shot 52 percent from the floor after halftime and held on for a 72-62 victory over Cornell on Saturday afternoon at Newman Arena. The Red Flash improved to 2-7, while the Big Red fell to 0-10.

Hatter connected on 8-of-14 shots from the floor and added four rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot, while Cherry had six rebounds and four assists. Dwight Tarwater chipped in seven points and eight rebounds and Nolan Cressler had eight points and seven boards. The Big Red shot 41 percent from the floor, but were limited to 4-of-21 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

Earl Brown dominated the paint with 14 points, 19 rebounds, two blocks and two steals for a Saint Francis squad that held a 46-37 edge on the backboards. Malik Harmon scored 19 points and had five assists and Dominique Major scored 16 points off the bench for the Red Flash, who shot 44 percent from the field.

After taking an eight-point lead into halftime, Saint Francis had to slow an initial second half run that saw the Big Red even the game at 37-37 as Cornell put on a 15-7 run over the first six minutes thanks to Hatter's seven points and five more from Cherry. The Red Flash hit a pair of 3-pointers in a little over a minute to push the advantage back to six (45-39) and the Big Red would never get closer the rest of the way.

Cressler was all over the place in the opening moments of the game, scoring the Big Red's first four points and pulling down three rebounds in 3:55 of action before a trey from Tarwater put the home team up, 7-2, at the 14:37 mark.

SFU responded with 10 unanswered points, which included four consecutive free throws from Harmon and back-to-back layups from Major, to take a 12-7 lead at the 10:29 mark. From there, Cornell used a 6-1 scoring run of its own to knot the game at 13-13 with 6:40 to go. During the run, the Big Red shared the ball with buckets from Nenad Tomic, Tarwater, and Giddens.

Another 6-0 spurt by the visitors, which included another four made free throws from Harmon, gave SFU some separation and the teams traded baskets the rest of the way with the Red Flash taking the 30-22 lead into the break.

Cornell came out of the break with great energy and used a 7-3 run to quickly made it a four-point game (33-29), with four points coming from Robert Hatter and 3-pointer from Devin Cherry. The Big Red continued to chip away and eventually made it a 40-39 contest with 13:08 showing on the clock but the Red Flash answered with a 12-3 run over the next 3:40 to return its lead back to double-digits (52-42).

With the Big Red trailing 62-48 with just over five minutes to play, Hatter tried to take matters into his own hands, scoring seven of Cornell's points, including a traditional three-point play to make it a 65-58 contest with 2:26 to go. Just over one minute later, a jumper from Cherry made it a six-point game, but that would be as close as it would get as it would get as SFU made enough free throws down the stretch to earn the 72-62 victory.

The Big Red will take a two week break for finals before returning to action on Sunday, Dec. 22 at 6 p.m.