ITHACA, N.Y. — Cooper Noard and Jake Fiegen guard each other every day in practice at Cornell. They've been competing in that manner since the first day Fiegen arrived on campus as a freshman in 2023-24. But the two had lined up across from each other many times before growing up in the Chicagoland area.

With the stakes as high as possible, that rivalry came to a head on March 4, 2022. Fiegen, then a junior, took his New Trier Trevians to the Titan Dome to face off with Noard's Glenbrook South Titans for a highly competitive IHSA 4A Sectional Final. The teams entered the game a combined 62-5, both contenders to take home a state championship, but one would go home.

In front of a standing room only crowd, Noard delivered a performance to remember, a game-high 27 points to lead Glenbrook South to a 55-52 win.

"That was an insane game," Noard recalled to Basket Under Review.

Fiegen, who scored 11 points, had his junior season end in a crushing road defeat, but he only looks back with a smile when thinking about his high school days.

"Very loud, packed gym, fierce rivals, crowd talking," Fiegen said. "Those teams were some of the best basketball I've played and enjoyed."

It was also the last game Noard would win as a high school player alongside now-Northwestern star Nick Martinelli, as the Titans fell to Barrington, 52-50 in the state quarterfinals.

Growing up in the same basketball ecosystem, even a year apart, Fiegen and Noard studied each other's games, knowing they'd need to guard the other when they lined up on the same floor.

That familiarity helped build an instant relationship when they teamed up at Cornell in 2023-24.

"We kind of both understood that now it's time to come together," Noard said. "That rivalry between us kind of stopped once Jake got here. We've grown closer because of our rivalry, we both worked really hard in the gym and got into the gym a lot."

"Coming in, we probably weren't best friends, but we knew that we would both need to be good teammates on the court," Fiegen added. "Especially my freshman year, and even now, I hate losing to him, and he hates losing to me. We're guarding each other hard, probably fouling each other a little, but it definitely pushes me to try to be my best self."

The two have had a similar career path thus far, going from lightly-used, back-of-the-rotation freshmen into key starters as sophomores. In Noard's junior year, he averaged 14.5 points per game in Ivy League play, shooting 50% from three in those 14 games. Fiegen put up 11 points per game as a sophomore, shooting 38% from beyond the arc and 70% from inside the arc in the Big Red's fast-paced system.

Heading into Noard's senior season and Fiegen's junior year, they are Cornell's only two returning starters from the group that lost in the Ivy Madness Final last season in Providence. The young Big Red are looking to their Chicago sharpshooters to show them what it takes to get back to that spot.

"Picking guys up when they're down, being a role model on and off the court, stuff that we really value and stuff that I've learned from guys before me," Noard said. "It's great to be competitive, but you gotta have the right competitiveness. Playing within our offense, it's okay to get frustrated about a turnover or a missed foul call, but if you get frustrated, just focus back in on our offense, what we're trying to do on defense, and not venture outside."

"It's about showing everybody, including the freshmen, how we compete every single day in practice," Fiegen said. "That's what really separates us. People watch the games and they're like 'that's chaotic,' but you should watch our practices."

From rivals to housemates, their relationship has grown to the point where it's Fiegen and Noard against the Ivy League. But for those two, it just becomes schoolyard basketball once again with more familiar foes.

Fiegen played high school ball with Jackson Munro, now a senior at Dartmouth. Princeton guard Dalen Davis played for Whitney Young. Penn star Ethan Roberts played for John Hersey High. It doesn't stop there, as it feels like every team in the Ivy League has a few kids who played against each other in the Chicagoland area.

"Playing in high school for your home team and just your home neighborhood," Fiegen said. "And then coming and playing those guys in the Ivy League, you kind of reminisce on those days where you are competing for your community. And we're competing for our community in Ithaca now."

Noard and Fiegen still watch New Trier/Glenbrook South games when they can, but no matter what Fiegen does, Noard will always have the last laugh in that conversation.

Fiegen can mostly forget about that game though, as everything that kept the two on parallel paths growing up has brought them together.

"That level of competitiveness, but also friendship, is what helps us succeed," Noard said.