Ivy League Basketball Roundup: 12/5/2014
Below is the Ivy League Basketball Roundup for Friday, December 5, 2014. Only one team, Yale, played on Friday night and they had the tough task of going on the road and facing Connecticut.
Yale Shocks Connecticut On Montague’s Last Second Three
An ugly game presented a beautiful finish for Yale. Jack Montague’s three with 1.7 seconds left on the clock provided the Bulldogs with a stunning 45-44 upset of Connecticut on the road.
Yale was not intimidated by UConn at all in the first half. They opened up with a three pointer from Armani Cotton and held a 7-6 lead early. That lead only grew as UConn went over 7 minutes without a bucket. Yale went up 17-6 before a Sam Cassell Jr. three pointer made it 17-9 and Yale proceeded with another run of 5-0 to lead by as much as 13 points. The final 6:11 of the first half belonged to UConn with a 10-2 run to close the half. Yale held a 24-19 lead at the break.
Justin Sears had a big first half with 9 points and 6 rebounds while Javier Duren scored 6 points. Yale shot 38% from the field and hit only 1 of 11 three pointers (9.1%). They out-rebounded UConn 19-14 on the glass and committed 5 turnovers. Sam Cassell Jr. led UConn in the first half with 7 points on 3 of 4 shooting. Amida Brimah scored 6 points for the Huskies. UConn shot 35% from the field and hit 1 of 5 three pointers (20%). They committed 7 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
UConn’s Amida Brimah scored the first 6 points for the Huskies and trailed 30-25 at the first TV timeout. Both teams continued to go back and forth with some turnovers and defense mixed in. UConn took a 38-37 lead with a Ryan Boatright layup before Matt Townsend responded with a bucket of his own and giving Yale the lead back at 39-38. The final few minutes did not include much in the way of scoring, but provided plenty of action.
A 40-40 deadlock was broken by Boatright before two Cassell free throws made it 44-40 in favor of UConn. Justin Sears hit two free throws before Boatright missed the front end of a one and one. Sears grabbed the rebound and tried to dribble in the lane. He lost control of the ball, but it hit off a UConn player. On the in bounds play under UConn’s basket, Sears threw the ball into Montague in the corner and he drilled the three pointer with two UConn players closing in on him. UConn in bounded the ball, but Sears was there to make the steal and run the clock out.
For the game, Javier Duren led Yale with 15 points on 6 of 13 shooting including a paltry 1 of 8 from beyond the arc. Duren also grabbed 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Sears had 12 points and 15 boards while Matt Townsend scored 8 points. The Bulldogs shot 18 of 55 from the field (32.7%) and hit only 3 of 21 three pointers (14.3%). They went 6 of 7 from the charity stripe (85.7%), out-rebounded UConn 36-25, had 10 steals, and committed 11 turnovers.
UConn was led by Amida Brimah with 14 points and 4 rebounds. Sam Cassell Jr. scored 12 points of the bench for the Huskies and Daniel Hamilton scored 8 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Ryan Boatright scored 6 points on 3 of 9 shooting including 0 for 4 from beyond the arc. He also had 4 rebounds and 6 assists. The Huskies went 19 of 43 from the field (44.2%) and made 2 of 11 three pointers (18.2%). The Huskies made 4 of 6 free throws (66.7%) and committed 13 turnovers.
Yale (8-2) has won three in a row and takes the win streak on the road again to face the Florida Gators (3-3) on Monday. Connecticut (3-3) has now lost three games in a row and the last two games have both been lost by a point on last second three pointers. Connecticut welcomes Coppin State (1-5) to town on Sunday, December 14.