The Canisius men's basketball team had five players score in double-figures, led by senior guard Malcolm McMillan and his game-high 16 points, and the host Golden Griffins outscored Cornell 51-29 in the game's second half en route to an 87-62 Saturday afternoon in the Koessler Athletic Center. The win improved Canisius to 2-1 on the year, while the Big Red slipped to 2-2 in 2015-16.

McMillan, who entered the game ranked second nationally in scoring average at 32 points per game, added three assists, two rebounds and two blocked shots to his final line as the Blue and Gold scored 80-plus points for the third-time this season, the program's longest string of 80-plus point performances since Feb. 16-22, 2014. Junior Phil Valenti added 15 points, five rebounds, three assist and two steals to the winning cause for the Griffs, while senior center Kevin Bleeker chipped in 14 points and eight boards. Sophomore Kassius Robertson posted 11 points and matched a career-high with four assists, while freshman Chris Atkinson came off the bench to score a career-high 10 points to go with three assists and two steals in 17 minutes of action. For the game, Canisius shot 44.8 percent from the field and the Blue and Gold turned 17 Cornell turnovers into 26 points.

Cornell, which trailed at the half by three points at 36-33, scored the first five points of the second stanza to take a 38-36 lead with 18:49 left to play in regulation time. From there, Canisius took over, as the Griffs went on a 19-4 run over the game's next 4:52 to give Canisius a 57-42 margin with 12:51 left to play. In that scoring run, the Griffs got six points from Bleeker, six points from McMillan and a 3-pointer from Robertson. Cornell shot just 30.8 percent from the field, 21.4 percent from behind the 3-point line and 55.6 percent (10-for-18) from the free-throw line in the game's final 20 minutes.

"We knew coming in that Cornell was a good team that could really score the basketball," Canisius head coach Jim Baron said. "We had to keep their scorers in front of us, and I thought we did an excellent job with that today. We took away Robert Hatter and Matt Morgan, two guys who were both averaging better than 20 points per game for them. We played gritty and we really did a great job rebounding the basketball. We had 47 rebounds, and 20 of them were offensive rebounds. That's just pure energy and I credit our guys for just going up and getting the ball."

The win was the 450th in Baron's head coaching career, which spans 29 years at four different Division I schools (St. Francis (Pa.), St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island and Canisius).

For Cornell, Hatter and Morgan each had 12 points in the loss, while junior David Onuorah was good for five points, seven rebounds and four blocks before he fouled out of the game.

Canisius will close out its first three-game homestand of the 2015-16 season on Tuesday, Nov. 24, when the team plays host to long-time rival St. Bonaventure in the Koessler Athletic Center. Tipoff in the 164th all-time meeting between the two Western New York rivals is set for 7 p.m., and the game can be seen live on ESPN3. The audio call will be on Timeless WECK 1230-AM and 102.9-FM in Buffalo and through GoGriffs.com.