COLUMBUS, Ohio -- One of the great seasons in Cornell men's basketball history came to an end after a hard-fought 88-83 loss at second-seeded Ohio State in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday evening at Value City Arena. The Big Red closed its season with a 22-8 record, while the Buckeyes live to play another day in improving to 21-13.

The Big Red led into the game's final minute in a contest that featured six ties and 17 lead changes thanks to an electric offense that assisted on 26 of its 33 baskets, shot 49 percent overall and connected on 12 3-pointers. Cornell turned the ball over just nine times and featured four double figure scorers led by Isaiah Gray with 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. The senior made 8-of-10 field goals, including 7-of-8 shots in the final 20 minutes as the visitors made 58 percent of its attempts. Guy Ragland Jr. chipped in 17 points and nine rebounds off the bench, Nazir Williams posted 14 points and four assists and Cooper Noard netted 10. Jake Fiegen scored nine points with five rebounds and AK Okereke had seven points, six assists, three rebounds and zero turnovers.

The Buckeyes dominated the glass all evening, holding a 51-32 edge with 22 of its rebounds coming on the offensive end, and its 15-7 edge in second chance points proved to be the difference. Roddy Gayle Jr. and Jamison Battle scored 17 apiece while combining for 15 boards, while Felix Okpara scored 16 points with all seven of his rebounds coming on the offensive end. Devin Royal rounded out the double figure scorers with 13 points and five boards. Ohio State had 22 assists to just 10 turnovers in advancing to the second round.



Gray's layup off a curl with 64 seconds left put the Big Red int he lead at 81-79, but Battle responded with a corner 3-pointer for the final lead change of the game with 43 ticks remaining. After a Big Red turnover on a jump ball where Cornell wasn't granted a timeout, Devin Royal beat the defense long for a layup to go up three. Cornell opted to go for two to cut into the lead, but Gray missed the layup and the Buckeyes rebounded, then made their final four free throws to seal the win.

Cornell was ready for the challenge from the tip, which it won and scored five seconds later when Gray hit Williams for a tough layup. The visitors built an early 10-point lead (19-9) on the second of two treys by Noard as the Big Red defense limited Ohio State to 4-for-22 shooting to open the game. The home team led 44-38 at the break, however, in large part due to its 32-16 edge on the backboards. Ohio State had 11 offensive rebounds in the game's first nine minutes alone.

The see-saw second half started when Cornell caught back up six minutes in on a 3-pointer by Ragland to make it 55-54. The junior had seven points in a short stretch. Both Sean Hansen, on a nifty feed from Noard, and Gray on the fastbreak produced dunks that kept the energy up into the final quarter of the contest, which saw Ohio State take a five-point lead and the Big Red battle back yet again. Gray's layup in traffic with 3:14 remaining put Cornell up 76-75. The senior worked his magic again with a minute to play, but Ohio State took control in the final 60 seconds to advance.

The Big Red shared the basketball all season, and its 26 assists against the Buckeyes not only ranked as the 12th-most in a game in Cornell history, but it pushed its season total to 559, surpassing the 2009-10 team for the team record (543 in 34 games) despite playing four fewer games. 

NEXT UP
• The Big Red's season has concluded with a 22-8 record, a second-place finish in the Ivy League standings and the program's first-ever NIT bid.
• Practice for the 2024-25 season will commence in October.