Cornell men’s basketball didn’t win Friday night’s marquee matchup with Yale because of its offense.
It won because of its defense and grit. And maybe a little luck.
Surviving the Bulldogs, 65-62, the Big Red took sole possession of first place in the Ivy League standings.
Down 56-52 with four minutes to play, Cornell (20-4, 9-1 Ivy) had been struggling to score on Yale (17-8, 8-2) in the second half. Senior forward Sean Hansen got an unlikely looking hook shot to roll down before Yale junior guard Bez Mbeng connected on a tough jumper in the paint.
Then junior guard Nazir Williams made magic happen. With 2:56 remaining, he stepped back after a nice dribble move and calmly splashed a triple to cut the deficit to one. Senior guard Isaiah Gray split free throws moments later to tie it at 58.
Freshman guard Jake Fiegan and Yale senior guard August Mahoney traded free throws before Gray hit the shot of the night. Penetrating toward the basket, he pulled up in traffic to sink a difficult floater while drawing a foul. He converted to put Cornell ahead 63-60 with 1:08 left.
After empty possessions by both teams, capped by an offensive foul from Williams, Yale could tie it with 16 ticks left. The Bulldogs advanced the ball before calling a timeout, setting up an inbound underneath the basket. Junior guard John Poulakidas tried a catch-and-shoot three and drew the foul.
But Yale’s Achilles heel all night kicked in again. Poulakidas missed two of the three shots, contributing toward an 11-of-26 effort from the charity stripe as a team.
Gray sunk two free throws with four seconds left to make it a two-possession game and essentially sealing it. Bulldogs’ sophomore forward Nick Townsend had two free throws with under a second left, but it didn’t matter.
Gray led Cornell with a career-high 18 points off 5-for-9 shooting, while Williams registered 14. Senior guard Chris Manon, who leads the team in scoring, battled foul trouble and had trouble shaking Mbeng, scoring 11. Sophomore forward AK Okereke added nine off the bench.
Two stats stick out like sore thumbs for Yale:
- The Bulldogs were a woeful 11-for-26 from the charity stripe, including 1-for-3 from normally reliable (80%) junior guard John Poulakidas with 11 seconds remaining and Yale down 63-60. The visitors entered the game third in the Ivy in free throws at 73%.
- Yale’s leading scorer, sophomore big man Danny Wolf (14.7 points per game) was held to seven points. Wolf was coming off of a zero-point outing at Princeton last Saturday. The Glencoe, Ill. native appeared to suffer a nose injury in the second half.
”In a league game, you can’t shoot the way we did from the free throw line and expect to win,” Yale coach James Jones said.
Yale wasted a tremendous defensive effort, having held Cornell to 38.5% shooting from the field. Cornell had been leading the country in two-point shooting at 63.7% and was averaging 82.8 points per contest.
Yale was led by Mahoney’s 16 points and 15 from senior forward Matt Knowling, who had been out with a groin injury since Yale’s win over Cornell on Feb. 10.
Knowling single-handedly kept Yale in the game through scoring droughts in the first half.
With the victory, the Big Red are officially in the driver’s seat. They control their destiny toward the regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
Cornell wraps up its home slate Saturday when it hosts Brown. That means the Big Red end the season with three straight on the road, including a stop at Jadwin Gymnasium to face Princeton. That matchup will likely determine who earns the No. 1 seed.
If Cornell were to get the top seed, that would make the Big Red’s path to the NCAA Tournament significantly easier. It would mean an easier semifinal game, instead of having to play Yale or Princeton in the No. 2 vs. No. 3 game. But only one of the bunch will gain that advantage.
Cornell’s victory on Friday certainly means something. It puts the Big Red a step closer to the top seed, and it secures their first 20-win season in 14 years.
But the season isn’t close to done yet. It’s just getting started.