MONMOUTH, Ill. – Cornell played its way safely into the Midwest Conference Men's Basketball Tournament and moved closer to a regular-season championship with Tuesday's 75-69 road win over Monmouth at Glennie Gymnasium.
 
The Rams (16-7 overall, 11-3 MWC) secured a berth in the four-team MWC Tournament Feb. 25-26, and were joined by Ripon (11-3 MWC) which also won and stayed even with Cornell for first place in the league with two games remaining.
 
Cornell's next hurdle is red-hot Grinnell (15-6 overall, 9-4 MWC), winners of nine straight, at 6 p.m. Thursday in Mount Vernon. The Rams beat the Pioneers, 101-92, on Dec. 8.
 
The Rams never trailed against Monmouth (3-19 overall, 2-12 MWC), although were in for a 40-minute battle that was a two-possession game with less than a minute to go.
 
Leading 69-65, Cooper Kabela sank two free throws and Logan Sharp converted a pivotal putback with 45 seconds left that stretched the margin to 73-65. Cornell's Logan Christensen hit two free throws in the final seconds to close it out.
 
Kabela shot 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and finished with a game-high 18 points. The fifth-year senior forward is now only 28 points shy of Cornell's all-time scoring record held by Griffin LaDew (1,561 points, 2005-09) with at least three more games guaranteed to play.
 
Jordan Magnani and Sharp pitched in 17 and 16 points, respectively, for the Rams, who shot an even 50.0 percent from the field. Magnani made 7-of-11 field goals and grabbed six rebounds. Sharp was an efficient 7-of-10 from the floor and had two blocked shots.
 
Marcus Quirk added nine points and seven boards. Christensen led the Rams with nine rebounds, all defensive.