ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell senior Josh Baldwin entered the center circle for the opening tip Saturday morning at Newman Arena and just smiled at Yale’s Samson Aletan.
At 6-foot-5, Baldwin knew he had no chance to win the jump, but his insertion into the starting lineup has been integral to Cornell’s late-season success, particularly on the defensive end, where the Big Red made great strides to win eight of 11 and somewhat improbably get to Ivy Madness at all after an 0-3 league start. The most prominent of those wins was an uncharacteristic 72-69 slugfest over two-time defending champ Yale two weeks ago.
But James Jones did not get to five of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments by failing to adapt. Yale went right at Cornell early and often, and after the Big Red cooled off in the second half, the end result was a wire-to-wire 88-76 victory for the top-seeded Bulldogs, and their sixth straight Ivy Madness final.
“For us, we’re a team that’s really good at scoring in and around the basket,” Jones said. “If you want to double us, it’s going to give us a chance to hit from the outside, and all of that was on display today.”
Said Cornell coach Jon Jaques: “They tried to get inside two weeks ago also. They made a couple of threes early in the game, that – to be honest – we were OK with them shooting. Isaac Celiscar is an awesome player, one of the best in the league, but shooting threes is not his strength, but he made a couple to his credit, and they’re one of the best shooting teams in the country anyway. I think that was just in the back of our minds and made some of our doubles just that much slower, it’s just human nature. But give them credit, they’re where they are for a reason.”
The prime beneficiary to Yale’s gameplan was Celiscar, a sophomore who scored a career-high 27 points on 12-for-16 shooting. With a lot of Cornell’s attention going to Ivy Player of the Year Nick Townsend, Cornell had no answer for Celiscar, another of Jones’ players who starts their career somewhat slowly (although he did play 25 minutes in last year’s Ivy final against Cornell), then blossoms into an All-Ivy player.
“We wanted to give Isaac some opportunities to drive to the basket,” Jones said. “He’s difficult to stop. We felt like he was going to be a good matchup for us. We felt like when we really needed a bucket, we thought he could drive because if we got it to him in the post, they could come and double. We’ve had some really special players in the past, but it’s nice to see our sophomores grow. They’ve each taken a step from last year to this. Isaac wasn’t a starter, he’s a starter now. Jordan [Brathwaite] and Riley [Fox] didn’t play much last year, now they are key members of our rotation.”
Another one of those is junior Trevor Mullin, who scored 21 points, including some tough interior baskets not seen from him in previous years. Ironically, it was Mullin who hit two big threes in an unexpected spot in last year’s Ivy final, but he scored just six points here two weeks ago in that Cornell win.
“Every shooter knows they’re going to have their off days and their on days, and last time I was here it just wasn’t my best game, so I knew coming in, playing the numbers game, I was going to hit more today,” Mullin said.
The Big Red somehow never led, despite hitting 10 of their first 11 shots, 13 of its first 16, and six of its first eight from behind the arc. But Yale was dominating the offensive glass, grabbing nine of its first 12 misses to keep its noses in front, eventually leading 49-42 at the break on a Mullin driving layup. Cornell got a little better on the defensive glass, but Yale still rebounded more than half its misses on the game.
Cornell, with the capacity crowd behind them made a couple of runs, getting to within 61-58 on an Anthony Nimani drive with 14:03 left, and then got the crowd to their feet on a Jacob Beccles three that made it 72-68 with 7:52 remaining.
But after the Big Red’s white-hot start, Cornell went just as cold down the stretch, finishing just 11-for-37 from behind the arc after starting 6-for-8. Cooper Noard, in his final college game, was just 1-for-11 from three-point range, while Adam Hinton missed his last five from that range.
Eventually, Celiscar got a traditional three-point play and Jordan Brathwaite (who had 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting and is another play whose role increased dramatically) hit a three and Cornell never seriously threatened again, although it did get to within five with 1:30 left.
Cornell actually finished with more offensive rebounds than Yale (19 to 16), which spoke to its effort and desperation in the second half (and how many shots they missed).
Jake Fiegen led the Big Red with 23 points, while Beccles – who had hit just 16 threes all season entering Saturday – had a big game with 18 points and three triples (and seven offensive rebounds). Beccles is the one starter that will return for the Big Red as they look to continue the success they’ve had in the past few seasons.
“I have to watch the film and see how good the looks for, but I felt live like most of them were good looks,” Jaques said. “Maybe a couple could have gotten a cleaner look, but my gut reaction is that they were good looks. Cooper is not going to shoot 1-for-11 very often, he just had a tough shooting day.”
Meanwhile, Townsend added 15 points and six assists for Yale, who will go after its third straight Ivy Madness title and sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last 11 seasons (with two of them not having Ivy participation).
It’s a remarkable run for a program that spent so long as an Ivy afterthought. The win was the first over an Ivy Madness hosts since the inaugural tournament in 2017 when No. 4-seeded Penn fell in overtime to Princeton at The Palestra.
“A lot of people think that this just happens,” Jones said. “This doesn’t just happen. We’re very fortunate to be in this position to play for a championship again. But it’s really hard. As I get older, I think it’s getting harder year by year to do this. But I’m very fortunate to have a coaching staff and players that know how to play in these situations and to practice for it all year.”