LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)—Sam Kaplan had 16 points, including a pair of free throws with 6.7 seconds left, to lead Yale a 68-67 win over Louisiana Tech in the John Thompson Foundation Basketball Challenge on Friday.
Yale (1-0) won the game at the foul line, hitting 25 of 36 attempts for the game and 13 of 15 in the final 6:18.
Louisiana Tech (0-1) made 5 of 17 free throws and were just two of six down the stretch.
Yale trailed by 10 at half and was down by seven when Louisiana Tech’s Corey Dean drained a 3-pointer that made the score 60-53 with 5:53 remaining.
Then Yale began its free-throw driven rally, taking the lead on Caleb Holmes’ pair of foul shots with 4:25 left. Yale went in front 64-60 on Travis Pinick’s 3-pointer with 3:35 remaining.
But Corey Dean hit three straight jumpers in final three minutes to put Louisiana Tech back in front at 68-66 with 1:23 left.
Pinick hit one of two free throws with 1:08 remaining to cut the margin to one. Deavon Haskins missed a pair for Louisiana Tech with 55 seconds left. Tech got the rebound, but couldn’t score, setting the stage for Kaplan’s game winners.
Jerome Richardson missed a last-second jumper for Tech.
Paul Millsap scored 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead Tech before fouling out with 3:10 remaining.
