While Peck matched up with Casey, first-year coach Bill Courtney had no answer inside for Wright, who used his size and nimble footwork to score 21 points on mid-range jumpers and up-close looks at the rim.

“Every person they threw at me had something different,” Wright said. “[Adam] Wire’s definitely stronger, so he was leaning on me a little bit more. [Aaron] Osgood, he’s a longer and lengthier guy. I just try to adjust the way I post up and feed off them.”

While the big men eventually got things going, the opening half was defined by Harvard’s ability to drain shots from the outside.

Barely 10 minutes into the night, Harvard had already hit five three-pointers—exceeding its total made against Columbia—a team that pushed the tempo much more than the Big Red.

“Last night, [the Lions] were really up and down, sprinting to the three-point line,” Casey said. “Cornell got in the half court and ran a lot of offense, a lot of screens and things like that.”

Wary of the Crimson’s ability to get to the hoop, the Big Red stuffed the lane and mixed things up with a zone defense.

But looking for fewer baskets in transition, Harvard gave Cornell a taste of its own medicine, launching triples off the dribble and nailing 8-of-16 attempts in the first half.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.