PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Senior captain
Kobe Dickson's putback with 0.1 seconds to play allowed Cornell to escape snowy Providence and a ravenous Brown defense with a 74-72 win on Sunday morning at the Pizzitola Sports Center. The Big Red nearly surrendered a 21-point second half lead, but the resilient finish showed just how tough it is coming home with a conference road victory.
Dickson's made a great grab with his left hand on the inbounds pass but had it blocked. He gathered the rebound and quickly went back up with it off the glass. With only 0.1 seconds left on the clock, all Brown could do was inbound as the horn sounded, evening the Big Red's Ivy record (3-3) with four of its next set for Newman Arena, where it is 7-0 on the season.
Dickson finished with nine points, six rebounds and two assists, with four of those points coming in the final 90 seconds.
Dean Noll led the Big Red with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists while shooting 9-of-10 from the free-throw line, with
Sarju Patel adding 14 points, six rebounds and two steals.
Chris Manon also scored nine points and
Jordan Jones had eight.
Marcus Filien (five rebounds) and
Keller Boothby (six points, five rebounds) helped Cornell outrebound the Bears 42-34.
Kino Lilly Jr. scored a game-high 23 points, while Paxson Wojcik scored 16. All-Ivy forward Tamenang Choh was limited to 10 points, while Jaylan Gainey had eight points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots for the Bears. Brown shot 29 percent from beyond the arc, which was still better than Cornell's 4-of-24 afternoon (17 percent).
You'd have been hard-pressed to guess the game would end as dramatically after watching the Big Red slice Brown apart in building a 43-25 lead, a bulge that grew to 21 early in the second half. Cornell shot 53 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes, outrebounded the Bears 22-12 and forced 10 Brown turnovers.
The second half was a completely different story, with Brown's pressure defense forcing 11 Cornell miscues with seven steals. The Bears also grabbed 10 offensive boards, as it asserted itself in chipping away at the lead.
FIRST HALF
• Brown began the game with a wide-open Paxson Wojcik 3-pointer on its first possession.
• That was its high-water mark of the first half.
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Chris Manon scored the next four points and the Big Red went on an 11-0 run to seize the lead.
• It was 20-10 after Manon canned a 3-pointer and
Nazir Williams hit a pretty floater in the lane on an inbounds pass.
• The Bears cut the lead to six before the Big Red again took control.
• The lead remained in double digits for the final 8:30 of the half after Dickson hit
Dean Noll for a backdoor layup to make it 24-14.
• Cornell seemingly answered every Brown basket with one of its own, never allowing the home team to make a run.
• Dickson scored on a duck-at the buzzer to send the Big Red into halftime with a 43-25 lead, a preview of what lay ahead.
SECOND HALF
• After both teams missed initial shots out of the locker room, Cornell's
Sarju Patel drained a 3-pointer.
• That was nearly its high water mark in the second half.
• Brown used pressure defense that start chipping away, forcing live-ball turnovers with steals and getting a couple run-outs.
•
Keller Boothby got behind the defense for a fast break layup with 13:53, but it would be 11:50 before the Big Red scored its next field goal.
• It was still a 15-point Big Red lead with 9:48 to play, but a sustained 22-7 Brown run tied it up with 3:21 to play when Kino Lilly drained a 3-pointer to make it 65-65.
• Cornell scored the next four and eventually regained the lead at five (72-67) after a three-point play by Dickson with 85 seconds left.
• Lilly hit a 3-pointer, then a driving layup with 32 seconds left, setting up Cornell's final possession and Dickson's heroics.
NEXT UP
• Cornell will play its only back-to-back Ivy League weekend when Princeton and Penn visit next week, beginning with a rematch against the Tigers on Friday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The Big Red led by as many as 18 in the second half, but Matt Allocco's buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted the Tigers to a 72-70 win on Jan. 8 at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• The Tigers remain unbeaten in conference play (5-0) and bring a 10-game win streak into Saturday's home contest against preseason Ivy favorite Yale.
