ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball did its part of Saturday afternoon to earn the coveted fourth spot at the Ivy League Tournament. About five hours later, Yale did its part to send the Big Red to its second straight Ivy League Tournament.

On Senior Day, the Big Red picked up an 87-73 win over Columbia at Newman Arena, then earned its spot in the four-team conference tournament after Yale's 84-75 win at Brown. The Bulldog victory moved Cornell into a tie for fourth place with the Bears, and after the teams split the season series, the second tiebreaker was best record against the top seed (Yale). Cornell was 1-1, while Brown went 0-2. 

Now standing in the way of playing for the Ivy Tournament title? That would be the same Yale squad that just helped the Big Red get into the tournament. The Big Red will face the top-seeded Ivy champs on Saturday, March 11 at 11 a.m. at Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

Senior Greg Dolan scored 17 points and added four rebounds, three assists and two steals on Senior Day, while classmate and tri-captain Marcus Filien ​​​​​​had two points, four rebounds and three assists in his first collegiate start to spearhead the Big Red attack. Cornell shot 54 percent from the floor, connected on 11 3-pointers, dished 19 assists and looked much like the team it was for the first half of the conference season. Chris Manon added 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, ​Chris Cain registered a career-best 11 points with four rebounds and Sean Hansen had 10 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals in the victory.


Four players reached double figures for the Lions led by Avery Brown's 16 points, four rebounds and four assists. Liam Murphy added 13 points and six boards, Kenny Noland scored 12 with five rebounds and four assists and Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa had 11 with three steals. The Big Red forced 16 Columbia turnovers with 10 coming off steals. 

Cornell had control nearly from the tip, building a 22-point lead at 40-18 with just under four minutes to play. The Lions responded with a 16-0 run to get within six, ultimately trailing by that total (45-39) after Noland went the length of the court and hit a floater at the buzzer.

The Lions actually got within four on the first possession of the second half, but Cornell hit back. A Hansen basket in the lane and a Dolan layup on a feed from Nazir Williams pushed it right back to eight as the run eventually settled at 11-0, capped by a pair of baskets by Isaiah Gray and a steal by Hansen that led to a run-out by Dolan to make it 56-41 with 17:17 left. Cornell wouldn't be seriously challenged the rest of the way, with the visitors never climbing within the final margin of 14 points.

The team's 87 points give it 2m227 for the season, the third-most of any Cornell team in program history, with its 291 3-pointers also sitting second. Cornell already owns the single-season steals record as a team, building that up to 261.
 

Next Up

• Cornell will play Ivy champ Yale in the semifinals on Saturday, March 11 at 11 a.m. at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, N.J.
• It will be Cornell's third all-time appearance at the Ivy Tournament.
•  The contest will be televised live on ESPNU, with Sunday's championship game on ESPN2.