In an action-packed contest that turned into a battle between the brothers Hinton, it was Cornell and older brother Adam prevailing over Harvard and younger brother Robert, 86-79, at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday afternoon.
“If you can’t get up for playing your younger brother …” the senior guard from Hollywood Hills, Calif. told ESPN+ after the game. “We keep track for bragging rights for whose got more wins. I’m up 2-1 [in head-to-head matchups] right now. I’ve got one more win on my best friend [Harvard senior guard] Chandler [Pigge] as well.”
After going winless in their first three Ancient Eight contests, the Big Red (9-9, 2-3 Ivy) won their second straight road contest and move into a three-way tie for fifth place with Columbia and Penn. The Crimson (10-9, 3-2), however, ended a three-game winning streak and dropped to their own three-way tie for second with Dartmouth and Princeton.
Facing the Ivy League’s deepest roster, Harvard, which typically relies heavily on its top six players, was at an immediate disadvantage due to the absence of sophomore guard Austin Hunt. Things got even tougher for Tommy Amaker’s team with three fouls limiting Pigge to six minutes and two fouls keeping Hinton’s minutes to nine in the opening half.
Despite those challenges, the Crimson used hot shooting from sophomore guard Tey Barbour and junior forward Thomas Batties II, as well as seldom-used first-year forward Frankie Mannino, to jump out to a 41-25 lead at the 6:12 mark.
Coming out of the subsequent media timeout, Adam Hinton hit a three from the left baseline and jumped started an 8-3 run to make it an 11-point game in the final minute of the frame.
Following a shot-clock violation that left the game clock at 3.5 seconds, the elder Hinton took the inbounds baseline pass to the inside edge of the mid-court “H” and launched a deep three to cut the Harvard’s lead to 44-36 at the break.
With Pigge headed back to the bench with his fourth foul 15 seconds into the half and the Crimson struggling to connect from the field, the Big Red used an 18-0 run to open up a 59-50 advantage with 13:25 left in regulation.
Cornell opened up an 11-point lead, 73-62, with just over 6:34 to go, and looked on its way to a comfortable victory when Harvard turned the tables with a 12-0 run over the next three minutes to go up one.
During the last 90 seconds of that stretch, the younger Hinton, playing with four fouls, connected on two triples from the left elbow, a contested layup, a free throw and defensive rebound.
Just when momentum had turned in the Crimson’s favor, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year was called for a questionable blocking foul on the Big Red’s next possession and his afternoon was over.
With Harvard’s star sophomore star on the bench for good, the elder brother seized the moment.
Cornell was up one when Adam connected on an old fashion three off a fadeaway jumper from the left side of the lane to make it a two-possession game.
A left baseline triple from Mannino, his first of the year, and two Barbour free throws put the Crimson back ahead by one, 79-78, with just over a minute left on the clock, but that would be its last lead of the day.
Adam found himself with a small opening from the right baseline and put up a three-ball that hit four different parts of the rim before falling through the net to put Cornell up 81-79.
On Harvard’s next trip up the court, Hinton was fouled after stealing a Pigge pass intended for Batties and his two free throws gave the Big Red an insurmountable four-point advantage.
For the winners, Adam Hinton led the way with 27 points, five rebounds and one block of his younger brother, while senior guards Cooper Noard and Jake Fiegen added 19 and 15 points, respectively.
Despite only playing 20 minutes, Robert Hinton scored 19 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Batties contributed 18 points, including four triples.
Pigge, the team’s second-leading scorer, was held to four points in 15 minutes of action, but Mannino did an admirable job off the bench with career highs of 11 points and 21 minutes.
While the matchup was played more at Harvard’s methodical half-court pace than Cornell’s speed-up game, both teams had strong offensive performances and effectively similar defensive numbers.
In the close contest, the ultimate differences came in the form of the Big Red’s slightly better shooting (59.3% from two, 45.8% from three and 80.8% from the line versus the Crimson’s 51.9% from the inside, 42.9% from the outside and 83.3% from the charity stripe), Adam Hinton’s heroics and the limited minutes from Pigge and Robert Hinton.
Cornell returns to Newman Arena, where the team welcomes Princeton and Penn for the first true Ivy back-to-back weekend of the season. Harvard, meanwhile, leaves the confines of Lavietes Pavilion after a three-game home stand to visit eighth-place Brown on Friday and league-leading Yale on Saturday.