SMITHFIELD, R.I. - Despite trailing by four points with under five seconds left, junior Jimmy Boeheim's game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer bounded off and Bryant escaped with an 82-81 victory on Sunday afternoon at the Chace Athletic Complex. What transpired in those five seconds allowed the Bulldogs to pick up their first win of the season and dropped the Big Red to 1-1 .

Boeheim scored 20 points, including a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds to play to cut a four-point deficit to one. After an intentional foul by the Big Red on the inbounds, Bryant missed two free throws, then threw an inbounds pass into the rafters for a turnover. With the ball under its own basket, Boeheim got a hurried look at the basket off the inbounds but couldn't connect to help the Bulldogs avoid a second straight buzzer-beating loss to an Ivy team.

Senior Thurston McCarty (17) and freshman Jordan Jones (14) had career scoring highs, while Terrance McBride finished with 13 points, seven assists, sis rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot in the loss. Josh Warren narrowly missed a double-double with nine points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks and Bryan Knapp scored eight,  Cornell shot 45 percent from the floor and connected on 11 3-pointers, but turned the ball over 15 times and was outrebounded 41-32.

Adam Grant scored 24 points for Bryant, with Benson Lin (16), Charles Pride (12) and Mikail Simmons (11) also reaching double figures in scoring. Patrick Harding notched eight points and 19 rebounds off the bench. In all, Bryant's bench boosted the home team with a 35-14 scoring advantage. Bryant hit 15 3-pointers, but left itself open for a comeback by missing 10 of its 23 free throw attempts.
 

FIRST HALF

• Bryant got out to a 7-2 lead, but the Big Red took the lead by the first media timeout with a run of its own, a 6-0 spurt.
• Cornell controlled much of the first 13 minutes, leading by as many as eight at 28-20 before the home team closed strong.
• Freshman Jordan Jones hit consecutive 3-pointers for the Big Red and a Dean Noll steal and look-ahead pass to Bryan Knapp made it an eight-point Cornell lead with 7:21 remaining, but Lin connected on a trey on the other end to get the rally started.
• Led by 13 points from Lin, who entered the game with just two career points, the Bulldogs went on a 22-4 run that included four of the team's nine first half 3-pointers.
• Cornell stopped the bleeding on a driving layup by Terrance McBride right before the buzzer to go into the break trailing by eight (42-34).
• The Bulldogs controlled the glass (21-11), including scoring six second chance points thanks to a 6-0 lead in offensive boards.
• Boeheim had 11 points to lead the Big Red and Terrance McBride had three points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
• Cornell had 11 first half turnovers, nearly twice what it had in a season-opening win over Binghamton (six).
• The Big Red cut its turnovers in the second half (four) and held a 21-20 edge on the glass in the second half to help make the comeback.
• McCarty had 12 points in the final 20 minutes, while McBride had 10 to go along with four assists and zero turnovers.
 

SECOND HALF

• After going down by 11 on the first couple of possessions, Cornell made a surge to get within 47-44 at the first media timeout after back-to-back treys by McCarty.
• Jordan Jones tied it up on three consecutive possessions to go into double figures in scoring for the first time in his collegiate career.
• The Bulldogs regained the lead for the final time at 56-54 on a pair of free throws by Simmons to trigger an 11-2 Bryant spurt.
• Cornell cut the lead to two with 4:50 remaining after Boeheim canned 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor, and for a second time on a driving bucket by McBride with four minutes on the clock.
• The home team's lead stood at seven with 20 seconds left after two free throws by Grant.
• McCarty converted a three-point play with 13 ticks remaining to get within four.
• After a pair of missed free throws by Bryant, Boeheim hit a 3-pointer with just under three seconds left to set up the wild final seconds.
• The ensuing inbounds pass went between the legs of a Bulldog player, but McBride was called for a foul.
• After going to the monitor, the foul was called intentional, giving Bryant two shots and the ball.
• The Bulldogs missed both free throws, and the inbounds pass directed toward halfcourt instead hit the rafters for a turnover.
• Boeheim got a look, but the shot rimmed out and Bryant earned its first win of 2019-20 season.

 

NEXT UP

• The Big Red returns home to play 2019 postseason foe NJIT on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at Newman Arena in Bartels Hall.
• Tip-off will be at 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Cornell has won all three previous meetings between the teams dating back to the first matchup during the 2006-07 campaign, including an 86-73 road win last November against a 22-win Highlanders squad that eventually earned a bid to the CIT Postseason Tournament.