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Richard Kent Give Felisha Legette-Jack a lot of credit. The first-year Syracuse women’s coach brought a power-conference team into John J. Lee Amphitheater to do battle with Yale.
And the Orange escaped with a 60-58 win.
Yale (4-5) dominated the first half, building a 17-8 lead by the 3:53 mark, holding Syracuse (6-2) to 3-for-16 shooting from the field and converting on three of trey attempts. Yale controlled the tempo and forced Syracuse into a slower style of play.
What do Hofstra, Colgate, Siena, Loyola Chicago, UMass and Vermont all have in common? They are all solid mid-major men’s basketball programs and willing to travel to the home gym of a top Ivy team.
It doesn’t seem like a big deal on the surface, but it is.
Consider Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have one natural rival in their 153 years of playing college sports. Not Penn State. Not Syracuse.
Princeton.
Colorado beat KenPom No. 3 Tennessee and Associated Press No. 24 Texas A&M earlier this month by a combined 40 points.
But it took the Buffaloes – including Yale graduate transfer and defensive stalwart Jalen Gabbidon – all they could muster to hold off Yale Sunday in Boulder.
The Bulldogs fell, 65-62, to Colorado, their first loss of the season.
It had been 77 years since Yale men’s basketball last started a season 6-0.
Until Tuesday night.
Yale defeated Vermont 73-44, performing a 46-14 demolition of the Catamounts in the second half at John J. Lee Amphitheater to improve to 6-0 and move forward as the Ivy League’s only undefeated team.
The Bulldogs were down 30-27 at the half. They came out in the second stanza with a renewed intensity on both ends.
”I have a really good staff. Everyone made good suggestions (at halftime),” coach James Jones said. “We cut off the post.”
Yale sank seven of 11 field goals to start the second half on a 20-5 run, building a 47-35 lead with 11:58 remaining. Vermont answered with a three, but Yale topped that with seven straight subsequent points to lead 54-38 with 10:32 left.
Yale shot 61.3% in the second half while holding Vermont to a paltry 21.7%.
Junior forward Matt Knowling once again led Yale with 22 points on 10-for-13 shooting. Sophomore guard John Poulakidas and senior forward EJ Jarvis each pitched in 10 points.
Vermont fell to an uncharacteristic 1-5.
Quincy Jones, son of James Jones, hit a half-court shot to win a TV during a game timeout.
Yale’s KenPom ranking is No. 105 after the win. Princeton is the closest Ivy to Yale at No. 136.
The Bulldogs’ next action comes at Colorado on Sunday. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Jalen Gabbidon, who captained Yale last season and now starts for the Buffaloes.
It’s a game that Dalila Eshe will never forget.
Eshe earned her first victory as Yale head coach with a hard fought 68-61 home win over in-state rival and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent Fairfield Monday night.
The Bulldogs (1-2) had opened the season with losses at Fordham and St. Joseph’s.
First-year guard Kiley Capstraw poured in 24 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field.
Add an Outrigger Rainbow Classic win to James Jones’ coaching resume.
Yale men’s basketball outlasted Hawaii in a defensive struggle, 62-59, in overtime to claim the title early Monday night local time in Honolulu.
The Yale men’s basketball team improved to 3-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season that it finished in the NCAA Tournament round of 32 with an 80-51 thrashing of Mississippi Valley State Sunday.
The game in the Outrigger Rainbow Classic in Honolulu wasn’t even that close.
The James Jones system is all about rebounding and defense. The system was on full display Friday in Honolulu.
The Bulldogs bested Eastern Washington, 74-60, at the Outrigger Rainbow Classic, powered by a 36-24 edge in rebounding over the Eagles.
“It was a tremendous defensive effort,” Jones said.
Five takes on the Penn men’s season-opening blowout loss at Iona Monday night, a startling stumble out of the gate for the Ivy preseason favorite against the MAAC preseason favorite:
Yale men’s basketball will have to compete this season without a very valuable cog.
Senior guard Matthue Cotton suffered a shoulder injury last season, had it operated on and it hasn’t healed sufficiently. Cotton likely would have started at the wing.