Brown coach Mike Martin was 6-2 against Yale and coach James Jones during his storied playing career for the Bears, but the tables have been turned in head-to-head coaching.
Jones improved to 16-3 against Martin as Yale earned a narrow 66-63 road win Monday. It took a great team effort to hold off the Bears and Tamenang Choh, who posted a career-high 30 points, 18 of which came in the second half.
Yale (8-8, 2-0 Ivy) led by 35-32 in the first half. Jones played 11 players in the half. The margin might have been larger if Choh had not hit nine of 10 free throws for Brown (9-10, 1-3).
The Elis flew out of the gate quickly in the second half and grabbed a 55-41 lead with 10:53 remaining.
But Brown chipped away and went continually to Choh in the paint. The margin was cut to 60-59 on a Choh dunk with 2:15 remaining. Senior guard Azar Swain made two free throws in two different charity stripe trips and Choh then hit a jumper with 46 seconds remaining to narrow it to 62-61.
Yale then upped the lead to 66-61 on free throws and Choh dunked at the buzzer for the final margin.
Swain, the Ivy scoring leader, notched 22 points and senior guard Jalen Gabbidon pitched in 15.
Jones called the win “a credit to our guys.”
“You need games like this,” Swain said.
Yale was only 17-for-29 (58.6%) shooting free throws. Brown was 19-for-24 (79.2%).
Yale is one of two undefeated Ivy men’s teams left along with Princeton.