Brown University
8-7, 1-1Ivy
Yale
8-10, 1-1Ivy
Late Surge Lifts Brown To 81-80 Ivy League Win Over Yale
1/19/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Providence, R.I. – Junior forward Obi Okolie (Ajax, Ontario) connected on two free throws with 5.3 seconds remaining and freshman Tamenang Choh (Lowell, MA) added two more free throws with two seconds left to lift Brown to an 81-80 Ivy League win over Yale Friday evening at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The victory lifts Brown to 8-7 overall, 1-1 in the Ivy League, while Yale falls to 8-10 overall, 1-1 in Ivy play.
With the score tied, 72-72, Brown's Zach Hunsaker (Orem, UT) made a steal with 1:30 remaining. A long trey by Okolie with 1:00 left gave Brown a three-point lead, 75-72, but Yale answered with a three-point play by Alex Copeland with 51 seconds to play, tying the game, 75-75.
Bears' sophomore guard Brandon Anderson (Mahwah, NJ) connected on two free throws with 44 seconds left for a 77-75 Brown lead, but Bulldogs forward Miye Oni tied the game once again at 77-77 with 33 seconds remaining.
Brown drew down the shot clock and Okolie went to the free throw line with 5.3 seconds remaining. He connected on both free throws for a 79-77 Bears' advantage.
Yale called timeout at halfcourt and ran a play for Oni, but he was unable to convert with two seconds remaining. Choh was fouled and knocked down two free throws for a four-point Brown lead, 81-77. A midcourt trey by Yale's Alex Copeland accounted for the final score, 81-80.
"A great win for us and it says a lot about our team and its resiliency to be able to come back in this game," said Brown head coach Mike Martin. "Give Yale a lot of credit. They kept coming back at us, but give our guys a little more credit for finishing the game the way we did."
Brown freshman guard Desmond Cambridge (Nashville, TN) led the Bears by scoring 11 of his 16 points in the second half before fouling out with 33 seconds remaining. Okolie finished with 12 points for the Bears, while Choh netted a career high 12 points with five rebounds
Anderson had 12 points and handed out six assists to match his career high. Freshman forward Matt DeWolf (Barrington, RI) also exceled for the Bears, scoring a career high nine points, while grabbing a game high seven rebounds. Junior forward Joshua Howard (Charlotte, NC) scored nine points before fouling out with 4:50 remaining.
Copeland was a one man show for the Bulldogs, scoring 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from the free throw line. Trey Phills, who had 23 points last week in the Bulldogs' win over the Bears in New Haven, scored 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field. Oni finished with nine points for the Bulldogs.
The seesaw opening 20 minutes had both teams go on wide streaks with Brown leading by as many as eight points and Yale by as many as seven points. Brown trailed 18-11 following a trey by Yale's Blake Reynolds at the 10:33 mark and went on a 19-4 run to grab a 30-22 advantage following an Anderson short jump shot with 5:41 left in the half.
Yale reversed the momentum and outscored the Bears, 16-3, for the remainder of the half to grab a 38-33 lead at intermission.
The Bears took their first lead of the second half, 63-61, on two free throws by DeWolf with 8:04 remaining.
Brown extended its lead to 69-65 with 4:32 remaining on a dunk by Choh off an Anderson pass.
Yale came right back and regained the lead, 72-71, on a three-point play by Copeland at the 2:01 mark, but a free throw by Cambridge tied the game, 72-72.
Brown hosts its first full Ivy weekend at the Pizzitola Sports Center, facing Dartmouth on Friday, January 26 at 7:00 pm, and Harvard on Saturday, January 27 at 6:00 pm.
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