Brown men’s basketball leaves Cornell with a hard-fought 83-82 win

Despite having one of the worst offensive performances of his storied Brown career, star senior guard Kino Lilly Jr.’s go-ahead free throw with 10 seconds left withstood two Cornell chances, and his Bears came away with an 83-82 victory in Ithaca on Monday afternoon.

Bruno’s victory, its first league win of the 2024-25 season, was much needed after Brown was upset at home by Harvard on Saturday.

“Really pleased,” head coach Mike Martin told the ESPN+ broadcast crew. “Really excited and happy for my team, after a tough one on Saturday.”

With the first two weeks of conference play in the books, the Bears (9-7, 1-2 Ivy) sit in a log jam for fourth place with Dartmouth, Harvard and Penn, while Cornell (10-6, 2-1) is alone in third place.

As usual for a game involving the Big Red and Bears, the pace was fast, the shots were frequent, and the contest was close.

After five lead changes and four ties over the opening 10 minutes, Cornell used a 9-2 run, featuring a deep three from senior forward Guy Ragland Jr., a close-range layup from senior center/forward Ryan Kiachian and two buckets from senior guard Nazir Williams to stretch a 23-21 advantage to a game-high 32-23 lead.

The Big Red were up eight, 38-30, when Brown went on a 12-4 run of its own to knot the game at 42 with 2:21 to go in the half. Senior guard guard/forward Aaron Cooley scored 10 of those points, hitting two triples and two layups, including one which was a quick recovery from a missed uncontested windmill dunk.

Cornell took charge over the last part of the stanza with Williams forcing his way to a close-range layup, a triple from sophomore guard Jake Fiegen and a give-and-go layup from junior guard Cooper Noard to give the Big Red a 49-43 lead at the buzzer.

While the Big Red had lots of plusses in the first half, shooting 88% (14-for-16) from inside the arc, hitting 67% (6-for-9) from three and limiting Lilly to zero points, hitting only 43% (3-for-7) from the free throw line, allowing the Bears to shoot 55% from the field and having Cooley net 17 points were concerning.

To make matters worse, Ragland, who had two triples in the first half and anchored Cornell’s inside defense, picked up his third personal foul a few moments into the second half and his aggressive play on both sides of the ball lessened.

Brown took advantage of this situation and recaptured the lead, 58-57, at the 14:37 mark.

Cornell tied the game a few seconds later, and neither team could gain more than a four-point advantage the rest of the afternoon.

With two and a half minutes to go in regulation and the Big Red up 81-77, Brown’s junior forward Landon Lewis hit a layup to make it a two-point game.

AK Okereke was sent to the line moments later and converted half of his attempts to give Cornell an 82-79 advantage.

On the next possession, Lilly went to the line and the season-long 83% free-throw shooter looked to cut the deficit to one.

Lilly made the first, but the second went off the front of the rim. Fortunately for Bruno, Lewis was there to corral the huge offensive rebound.

Eventually ending up with the ball around the right three-point line, Cooley eventually drove right at Ragland, whose foot was in the charge circle, and the Big Red’s big man was called for the foul.

After Cooley calmly sank both free throws, the game was again tied, 82 all.

Cornell had the ball with under a minute to go, when Brown’s defense forced Williams into a long three which missed the basket and ended up as a shot clock violation.

With one possession left, Martin wanted the ball in the hands of his team’s best shooter and Lilly took a shot from the left side of the free throw line. The jumper missed, but he was fouled on the play by Fiegen.

Lilly again made his first attempt but missed his second. This time, however, the Big Red came down with the rebound. 

Even though Cornell coach Jon Jaques had one timeout left, he instructed his team to stay on the court.

Williams took the rebound, rushing up the left side and drove to the hoop but was met with multiple Brown defenders. Not able to pass it to anyone, he took a fadeaway one-handed jumper that missed the hoop.

Fortunately for the Big Red, Lilly knocked the loose ball out of bounds and Cornell had one last chance. Unfortunately, it only had 0.5 seconds left on the clock.

After Jaques used his last timeout, Williams inbounded the ball from the left baseline to Ragland, who quickly launched a triple from the left corner, but the potential game-winning shot clanked off the rim.

In another close game between teams that were separated by a combined five points in their matchups last season, the difference may have come down to Brown using its 9% rebounding advantage to secure 11 more second change points (12-1).

Cooley was the star of the show, scoring a career-high 28 points on 10-for-13 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds.

“He (Cooley) played like a senior,” Martin said immediately after the contest. “Man, did he impact the game.”

Lewis gave additional help for the victors, adding 17 points and five rebounds, including the key offensive board late in the second half.

Lilly, who entered the day as the Ivy League’s second leading scorer with 19.1 points per game, managed only six points on 2-for-16 shooting and a 2-for-4 effort from the free throw stripe, but his last shot from the charity stripe sealed the deal.

For the Big Red, Okereke finished with 18 points, Williams added 17 and Ragland totaled 11. 

While Lilly had a tough day from the field for Brown, so did Cornell’s Noard.  The Big Red’s second leading scorer arrived with a 13.5 points per game average, but Cooley and company limited him to only four first half points and five shots on the day.

The two teams return to action next Saturday, with Brown hosting Dartmouth (7-9, 1-2) and Cornell visiting lead-leading Princeton (14-4, 3-0).

1 thought on “Brown men’s basketball leaves Cornell with a hard-fought 83-82 win”

  1. Heartbreaking loss for the Big Red Machine but nothing to be ashamed of-Brown played a great game. They will rebound next weekend vs. Princeton, who will be riding high from their great comeback vs. Columbia and won’t know what hit them next Saturday.

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