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HAMILTON – Behind a stellar crowd here Wednesday night, the Colgate men's basketball team gave its fans plenty of reasons to cheer.

The Raiders showcased a dominant performance in an 81-58 victory that was the program's largest margin of victory over rival Cornell in 61 years. Not since a 60-34 triumph early in 1952 has a Colgate team won in as convincing fashion over the Big Red.

"It was great to get home after two tough road games and get established in what seems like a new venue," Colgate head coach Matt Langel said. "We have the benches on a new side, we have added beautiful new banners hanging from the rafters and the crowd made it a warm feeling for sure."

Colgate (1-2) reached 80 points against the Big Red for the first time since the 2003-04 season when the Raiders recorded an 84-77 overtime victory. Wednesday's win was the fourth-largest margin for Colgate against its neighboring rival, behind the 26-point game in 1952 and a pair of 25-point victories in 1936 and 1951.

Leading the Raiders was Murphy Burnatowski with 19 points, 11 of which came in the second half alone. Junior Ethan Jacobs posted his third double figure scoring night in as many games. His career-high 15 points was not the only thing he contributed on the night as he also earned four boards, two assist, two blocks and went 3-for-4 from behind the arc. Luke Roh tallied eight points and led all players with a season-high six rebounds and six assists.

"He's an offensive weapon," Langel added of Jacobs. "Big people aren't used to guarding guys who are as capable of shooting from the outside as he is. And then when he mixes in his interior game he can be a tremendous force."

Cornell (0-5) saw Nolan Cressler notch 19 points and four boards. Devin Cherry also hit double digits with 12 and went 1-for-2 from downtown.

On Big Red's first possession, Jacobs displayed his size when he swatted away a layup attempt from Cressler.

After earning the game's first basket, Colgate watched Cornell jump out to a quick 6-2 lead, following a layup from Deion Giddens. But an 11-0 run for the Raiders gave Colgate a 13-8 advantage with less than 14 minutes to play in the first half. Jacobs and Burnatowski led the rally with six and five points, respectively.

The Big Red fought back retaking the lead at 22-21 seven minutes later but a trey from Burnatowski put the Raiders back on top by two.

Colgate increased its advantage to 11 points, at 38-27, with less than two minutes to play before half.

The Raiders' 48 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes didn't stop when they came out of the locker room as they went on a 9-0 run to start the second half.

Cornell and Colgate exchanged baskets but an and-1 from Burnatowski created a 21-point deficit between the teams with 13:31 to play in the game.

Colgate continued to extend its lead and was able to get it up to 29 thanks to a good free throw from Chad Johnson. The Raiders finished out the remainder of the game strong to ultimately secure their 23-point victory.

The Raiders shot an impressive 61.5 percent from the floor in the second half, hitting 16 of their 26 attempts. Colgate slightly outrebounded the Big Red 14-12 and held the advantage on points off turnovers 24-14.

Colgate is back on Cotterell Court on Saturday when it hosts St. Francis (Pa.) for another non-conference matchup at 2 p.m.

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