SMITHFIELD — When it made the jump to Division I, the Bryant basketball team knew it would be in for some difficult nights this winter. Last night was another one of them.

The Bulldogs were overmatched as they were beaten by Ivy League champion Cornell, 69-46, at the Chace Athletic Center.

Bryant struggled all night and never got going, while Cornell played extremely well at both ends of the court. Perhaps the best indication of how the visitors controlled the game is that they had 10 3-point baskets, and a 26-point lead at 46-20, before Bryant made its first trey.

“There’s a reason they were in the NCAA Tournament and they went undefeated in the Ivy League last year,” said Bryant coach Tim O’Shea. “They’re very good.”

The Big Red have size, with 7-foot Jeff Foote, an excellent point guard in Louis Dale and two bigtime shooters in Ryan Wittman and Geoff Reeves. Reeves, a 6-foot-4 junior, got his team started, making three 3-pointers and having 12 points in the first eight minutes. He finished with 15.

Wittman, a 6-6 junior, took over from there, scoring eight straight points, including two 3-pointers, late in the first half. Dale, the Ivy player of the year last season who missed the first eight games this season with injury problems, was good throughout with 16 points and five assists.

Cornell made 7 of its first 10, and 10 of its first 16 3-pointers and finished 11-for-22 behind the arc.

They, and their teammates, made it a pleasant night for Zach Spiker. Spiker was the acting head coach for the night for the Big Red, in place of Steve Donahue, who did not attend because of a death in his family.

“It’s easy when you make 11 threes,” Spiker said of being a head coach. “We’ve got a team that shoots pretty well and tonight they were able to do it.”

Spiker was as pleased with his team’s defense.

“Defensively I thought we did a great job. As well as we shot it I thought we defended better,” he said. Cornell held Bryant to five field goals in the first half, which ended with Cornell on top, 43-18.

The Big Red are 10-6 entering Ivy play, the first time in 58 years the team has won that many non-conference games. Bryant, which earlier had knocked off Yale from the Ivy League, falls to 2-14. After playing a monstrous early schedule, the Bulldogs hoped that the beginning of a three-game homestand would help them. But the match was too tough on this night.

“You always look where there are mismatches that you might be able to take advantage of,” O’Shea said. “We didn’t have many of those tonight. … They’re a team that not only could go to the NCAA Tournament, but could win a game in the tournament.”

Nick Pontes did battle his way inside to 13 points and Cecil Gresham had 11 for Bryant. But the Bulldogs were only 2-for-15 on 3-pointers and were never able to get inside 20 points in the second half.

Bryant will not have any time to worry about the bad night.

“What I really stressed in the locker room is that we have to show a certain character and bounce back,” O’Shea said. “We only have one day to prep and we play Sacred Heart [tomorrow].”

Cornell, meanwhile, begins defense of its Ivy title Saturday at Columbia.

“I’d say we’re better than last year,” Dale said of his team. “We’re a lot more experienced. We have a lot more depth.”