Freshman Lilly Leads Brown Past Quinnipiac Sunday
Brown University Press Release
HAMDEN, CONN. – The Brown men’s basketball team defeated Quinnipiac 72-61 Sunday evening at the People’s United Center. A career-high 24 points from Kino Lilly Jr. and double-doubles from David Mitchell and Jaylan Gainey sparked the Bears to victory.
“We are really pleased with the win today,” head coach Mike Martin said. “Our defense was solid throughout the entire game and, in the second half, we got it going offensively. To win a game against a quality opponent like that with as many turnovers as we had, it says a lot about our defense and rebounding.
“Kino Lilly was terrific and is such a great talent – he was obviously the difference in the second half for us offensively and his teammates did an outstanding job of finding him and screening to get him open.”
Lilly Jr. led the team with 24 points, all of which came in the second half, on a 7-for-11 shooting performance. Gainey had 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Mitchell had 11 and 10. Dan Friday led the Bears with five assists. As a team, Brown outrebounded Quinnipiac 36-24.
The Bears started the game on an 11-0 run that saw all five members of the starting lineup record at least one point. The Bobcats didn’t score their first points until the 15:40 mark of the first half. Quinnipiac’s offense woke up after that and the Bobcats managed to tie the game at 21 with 6:55 remaining in the opening frame.
Mitchell hit a three with 44 seconds left in the half to put Brown up 34-29 and that was how the two sides would go into the break.
Quinnipiac opened the second half on a 9-2 run to take its first lead of the game, 38-36, at 15:44 of the second half. Brown would retake the lead on a Lilly Jr. three at 41-38. Over the next three minutes, there were six lead changes with the final coming at 11:16 on another Lilly Jr. three. It put the Bears ahead 49-47 and the Bobcats would never regain the lead for the remainder of the game.
From 11:48 through 8:57, Brown scored 13 points all coming from Lilly Jr.
A couple late missed free throws by the Bears gave Quinnipiac a glimmer of hope, but Gainey’s dunk with 45 seconds left in the game pushed Brown’s lead back to 11 for the first time since its game-opening 11-0 run.
The Bears continue nonconference action this Wednesday, Dec. 1 when they travels to UMass Lowell for a 7 p.m. matchup.
