This Saturday, men’s basketball (14-13, 6-8 Ivy League) closed their season against Yale (20-7, 13-1), losing 70-61 in the Pizzitola Sports Center. The Bears needed the win — and two other unlikely results — to qualify for the Ivy Madness Tournament, hosted by Brown next weekend.
The game was also the final time that seniors Lyndel Erold ’25, Sam Klores ’25, Kino Lilly Jr. ’25, Aaron Cooley ’25 and Nana Owusu-Anane ’25 donned Bruno colors.
In typical fashion, Lilly was directly involved in nearly half of Bruno’s points, notching 19 with five assists. He closes his college career with the most three-pointers made in program history, coming in second for points scored.
Lilly is “a better person than he is a player,” Head Coach Mike Martin ’04 said. “He’s an amazing teammate. He allows you to coach him… every minute of every day.”
But the standout performance of the night was Bruno’s paint defense. Holding Yale — one of the more physically dominant teams in the Ivy League — to only 14 points in the paint and nine offensive rebounds, the Bears managed to temper the best team in the league.
“I’m not sure (Yale has) scored that few points in the paint all year,” Martin said. “You got to tip your hat to” Bruno, he added.
Landon Lewis ’26 was a key player in this defensive performance, grabbing nine rebounds and three blocks.
After the Bulldogs scored the first four points in the game, a three-pointer by Cooley got Bruno up and running.
But the Bulldogs warded off an early Bruno drive, jumping out to a 22-8 lead with 11 minutes to play in the first half. It looked as though the Bears’ hopes for victory were already waning early in the game.
Bruno still fought back. Set off by a lay-up from Adrian Uchidiuno ’27, the Bears went on a 10-0 run to get themselves within four points of the Bulldogs. From then on, it was raining threes at the Pizz. Excluding free throws, the next five buckets were scored from behind the arc, with both teams trading back and forth.
With the score at 31-24 and three minutes left to play in the first half, another triple from Alexander Lesburt Jr. ’26 got Bruno within four points of their first lead of the game. Two good free throws from Uchidiuno — in response to another Bulldog basket — took the Bears into the half within punching distance of Yale.
After halftime, Bruno stormed out of the locker room, tying the game in less than two minutes into the half. The Bears then stretched their lead out to 37-35 off of a layup from Erold.
For the rest of the game, both teams traded the lead back-and-forth in a shootout. The game finally slowed back down after a three-pointer by Lilly put the Bears up by one, 42-41.
After Yale stole their lead back and continued knocking down shots, a three-pointer from David Rochester ’28 tied the game at 47 with 13:24 to go. Another layup from Uchidiuno took the lead back — Bruno’s last lead of the game.
Uchidiuno “stepped into a huge opportunity and played great,” Martin said. “We needed him on the court.”
But Yale’s John Poulakidas took over soon after. Scoring 10 of the Bulldogs’ last 16 points down the stretch, his late surge kept the Bears at arm’s length. Despite their last-minute efforts, Bruno was unable to get themselves back into the game and their season ended in defeat.
Dennis Carey is a Sports editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
