BELOIT, Wis. – Cornell's men's basketball capped a terrific 10-1 run to close the regular season with Saturday's 63-56 Midwest Conference victory over Beloit inside Flood Arena.
The Rams (14-11 overall), who have lost just once since Jan. 7, finished runner-up in the MWC race at 12-4 for the second year in a row. The 12 conference wins equal the most by a Cornell squad since the 1969-70 season.
Cornell begins defense of its MWC Tournament title Friday, Feb. 24, with a 7 p.m. semifinal against No. 3 seed Monmouth (14-11 overall, 10-6 MWC) in Jacksonville, Ill.
Sophomore
Jayden Meeker tossed in a game-high 18 points and
Jordan Magnani netted 17 for the Rams, who led the Buccaneers (7-18 overall, 3-13 MWC) for all but 1:23 of the contest.
Magnani moved within 19 points of Cornell's career scoring record of 1,647, set by
Cooper Kabela last season. Magnani connected on four 3-point goals Saturday as the Rams shot 10-of-24 from beyond the arc.
The Rams raced to a commanding 38-16 lead with 5:12 remaining in the opening half, which saw them shoot 57.1 percent from the field. Cornell played with a double-digit advantage for most of the second half.
Cornell received eight points apiece from
Logan Sharp,
Zach Ingle and
Izic Mackey. Magnani and Mackey shared team-high rebounding honors with five.
