On the other end, Crimson freshman Laurent Rivard missed an open look from beyond the arc, and the visitors pulled down the rebound.

Peck struck again, this time sinking a three off the dribble to pull the Big Red back within three and forcing Harvard coach Tommy Amaker to burn a timeout.

But that’s as close as Cornell would get.

Coming out of the timeout, the Crimson gave the ball to Wright, who put the ball on the floor and finished with a spinning layup.

Sophomore Christian Webster nailed a triple on Harvard’s next possession to put the Crimson back up by eight.

Harvard closed out the half on a strong note, as Rivard knocked down a 25-footer with just seconds on the clock to give the Crimson a 10-point lead heading into the break.

“It was very big,” said Amaker of Rivard’s deep ball. “That gave us the double-digit margin that we were trying to get throughout the first half.”

But Harvard would have to withstand one more Cornell run before it could cruise to the victory.

Coming out of the break, the Big Red jumped out on a 7-2 run to get within five. Peck played a crucial role in Cornell’s success once again, finishing an acrobatic alley-oop and an and-one layup for five of his team-high 15 points.

“Peck is a tough matchup,” Amaker said. “He’s strong, [and] he’s physical. He can play inside and out.”

“He’s really fluid and he’s really athletic,” added Casey, who was charged with the primary task of defending Peck. “I definitely respect him as a player.”

But within less than two minutes, Harvard built its lead back into double digits, relying on a pair of layups from Wright and a pretty spin move from Casey in the post.

The Crimson also put the clamps down defensively, forcing the Big Red to miss its next three shot attempts.

“I think, defensively, we just locked up a lot better,” Casey said. “Communication kind of picked up, and defensive intensity picked up. And our defense always leads to our offense, so I think that’s kind of how we kind of turned it around.”

A three-pointer from Rivard with 16:34 to play set the lead at 14, and the Crimson’s lead never dipped below 12 the rest of the way, reaching 24 with under four minutes to play.

With Saturday’s victory over Cornell and Friday’s win against Columbia, Harvard improves to 4-0 in the Ivy League and extended its home winning streak to 13 games—a program record.

“I was very pleased with the effort we displayed both nights defensively,” Amaker said. “Obviously, a gratifying weekend for us.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.