ITHACA, N.Y. – The Harvard men's basketball team had its two-game winning streak stopped on Saturday afternoon at Cornell, falling to the Big Red, 76-61, at Newman Arena. The Crimson could not maintain its halftime lead and dropped to 10-6 overall (2-2 Ivy League), while Cornell moved to 10-6 (2-3 Ivy).
 
The game opened with a barrage of three-pointers with the Big Red nailing the first and the Crimson making the next four to take a 12-3 lead. After yielding the first bucket of the afternoon, the Harvard defense tightened, holding Cornell without a field for more than five minutes. The Big Red snapped its cold streak on a three-point play, which spurred a 10-0 run leading to a 13-12 advantage.
 
The teams stayed close as the half continued and found the score deadlocked at 30 with 2:06 remaining. Louis Lesmond broke the tie with his second trey of the period, and Harvard's eighth of the first half, to jumpstart a 7-2 finishing run to take a 37-32 lead into the locker room.
 
The Crimson was not able to carry the momentum into the second half as it took nearly five minutes for it to find the bottom of the net. Kale Catchings stopped scoreless streak with 15:21 on the clock when he splashed home a three-pointer, ending a 9-0 Cornell run. With the hosts owning a 41-40 lead, the Big Red caught fire from deep as its next four field goals were from behind the arc, helping push its lead to 53-44. From there, Cornell kept extending its lead as Harvard struggled on both ends of the floor, ultimately falling short at the end of 40 minutes.

Harvard Highlights

• Noah Kirkwood reached double figures in scoring for the 16^th time in as many tries this season. The reigning Ivy League Player of the Week finished with a game-high-tying 18 points and four assists. The senior also shared team-high honors in rebounding with Louis Lesmond as they both had five boards.
• Lesmond continued to fill the scoring column, registering 14 points as he reached the double-digit scoring plateau for the fourth straight game, extending his personal-best streak. The first-year made four three-pointers, finishing one off a career high.
• Sam Silverstein came off the bench and scored 10 points, to establish a career high vs. a Division-I opponent. The first-year scored 16 points vs. MIT earlier this season. Silverstein also added a career-high three steals, a figure that Denham Wojcik also reached.
• Kale Catchings matched his career high with four steals.

Game Notes

• Harvard had its two-game winning streak halted, falling one short of tying its season-long winning streak.
• The Crimson lost to Cornell for the first time in the last three outings. Harvard, however, has still won eight of the last 11 meetings.
• Harvard was playing without the services of two starters in juniors Chris Ledlum and Idan Tretout.

What's Next?

Harvard returns home to Lavietes Pavilion to play host to Penn on Friday, Jan. 28. The Ivy contest is set for a 5 p.m. ET start and will air live on ESPNU.