Yale Stuns Brown at Buzzer to Win Ivy League Title & NCAA Tournament Bid

Brown University Press Release

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Brown men’s basketball team fell in a last-second heartbreaker to Yale 62-61 in the Ivy Madness Championship game on Sunday afternoon. The Bears finish the 2023-24 season 13-18 overall and became the first No. 4 seed to advance to the Ivy Madness final.

After Brown matched its largest lead of the game at six points with 27 seconds left, Yale closed the game on an 8-1 run over the final 22 seconds, including scoring the game’s final five points over the final 15 seconds to pull out the win, which came on a layup as time expired.

For his performance in this weekend’s games, junior guard Kino Lilly Jr. was selected to the All-Tournament Team.

Lilly Jr. scored a game-high 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Sophomore Kalu Anya had 12 points and seven rebounds on 5-of-7 from the floor, and senior Malachi Ndur had 12 points and six rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting. Sophomore Alexander Lesburt Jr. chipped in eight points.

The Bears finished the game 8-for-15 from the free throw line including hitting just one of their last four in the closing 20 seconds.
Lydel Erold drained a three from the corner to spot the Bears an early lead, as both teams started a combined 2-for-10 ans Yale held a 4-3 lead at the first media timeout.

Ndur got a huge block at the rim on defense, which set up Lilly for a pull-up three on the offensive end to pull Brown within 11-8 at the under-12 media timeout with 10:44 to play in the half.

After a Ndur three pulled Brown within two, Yale ran off four straight to hold a 17-11 lead with 7:44 to go. Lesburt hit his first three-pointer to pull Brown within two at 3:43, but Yale used an offensive putback to go back up four, 24-20 prompting a Brown timeout at 2:18.

Anya drove into the lane and rolled in a nifty layup to get Brown within two once again with two minutes to go as Yale carried a 26-22 lead into the locker room.

Yale built their first seven-point lead coming out of the locker room and each team continued to trade buckets and defensive stops through the under-16 media timeout with Yale on top 35-29.

Ndur and Anya took over for Brown and sparked the Bears rally to take the lead, each going 5-for-6 at one point.
Ndur completed the and-one to pull Brown within three, then answered a Yale basket with a breakaway layup off a Lilly assist to pull Brown within 41-37 with 10:45 to play.

Right out of the timeout, Lesburt drained a three to pull Brown within one. Anya hit a pair of free throws, Nadur backed down for a layup to tie the score at 44 and Anya used a layup to give Brown its first lead since early in the game as part of a 6-0 run to go ahead 46-44, forcing a Yale timeout with 8:15 to go.

Ndur helped get the lead back to four with a huge putback ahead of the final media timeout with 3:48 to go. Anya added a layup to make it 54-48 with just under three minutes to go.

Yale pulled within 54-51 with a big three after a turnover in the inbound with 2:08 remaining. Kimo Ferrari found Lesburt for a huge layup to get it back to five before Yale answered with another triple to pull within two with just over a minute to go. Lilly hit two from the line to and sank a jumper to grow the led back to six before Yale’s final run.