Cornell men’s basketball was 14-0 when giving up 76 or fewer points this season.
Make that 14-1, as Yale defeated the Big Red, 69-57, at Levien Gym to advance to the Ivy League Tournament final against Brown at noon Sunday.
Yale (21-9, 12-3 Ivy) ran out to a 9-2 lead on a trey by senior guard August Mahoney and never trailed.
“I was proud of my guys.” Yale coach James Jones said. “Our defense gave effort. We were locked in more so than any time of the year.”
Yale went up 26-17 on a nifty move inside by senior forward Matt Knowling.
Yale led 37-25 at the half on a sophomore center Danny Wolf lay in with two seconds remaining in the stanza.
A Mahoney trey gave Yale its largest lead at 44-25, with 16:48 remaining.
Mahoney finished with 16 points on an efficient 5-for-9 showing from three-point land.
“I tried to lead by example,” said the Yale captain.
Cornell (22-7, 11-4) cut the deficit to 56-50 on a senior guard Chris Manon lay in with 5:43 remaining but would get no closer.
Both Manon and Freshman guard Jake Fiegen had 10 points to lead Cornell.
Yale was led in scoring by Wolf with 19 points. Both he and junior guard Bez Mbeng had 10 rebounds. Mbeng only had three points but played tenacious defense.
The game was played before a sold-out, partisan Cornell crowd of 2,605.
Former Yale star and 16-yseason NBA veteran Chris Dudley was in attendance and said that Yale played “with great pace.”
Yale fell to Brown by three in overtime seven days ago on Senior Day, and there is no doubt that Yale and starting seniors Knowling and Mahoney will use that loss as motivation in the Ivy final.