A key injury spelled doom for Yale at the Palestra in a 66-64 loss to Penn Friday.
With 18 minutes left in the game and the score knotted at 33-33, Yale leading scorer Matt Knowling rolled his ankle. He would not return to the game and his status for tonight against Princeton is questionable.
Penn hung on in a defensive struggle featuring 14 lead changes in which Yale converted just three field goals in the final 5:26. The visitors’ fate was sealed when a fallaway shot landed off base after Yale got the ball back down two with 5.1 seconds left following a 1-for-2 trip to the foul line by Ivy League free-throw percentage leader Clark Slajchert.
A three-pointer by sophomore guard John Poulakidas had cut Penn’s lead to 65-64.
A short-range bucket by senior forward EJ Jarvis cut the deficit to 63-61. But Mbeng then had to sit after picking up his fifth foul.
Dingle hit a floater with 12 seconds left to put Penn up 65-61.
The first half was a nip-and-tuck battle after Yale grabbed a six-point lead with a little over 13 minutes remaining. Penn went on a 7-0 run to take a 22-19 lead. The Quakers led by 31-29 at the half.
Sophomore guard Bez Mbeng guarded Ivy leading scorer Jordan Dingle scorer and held him to seven points in the first stanza. Dingle, though, finished with a game-high 18 points on 5-for-15 shooting from the field. Sophomore guard George Smith picked up some of the early offensive slack for Penn with two crucial first-half treys.
“Penn was quicker to the ball than we were tonight and made more hustle plays,” Jones said. “Losing Knowling early in the second half really hurt. He’s such a huge part of what we do.”
Yale was whistled for 23 fouls to only 12 for Penn. Driving that disparity were touch fouls called on Mbeng, sophomore guard Yassine Gharram and sophomore forward Jack Molloy in the second half.
Poulakidas led Yale with 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting and Jarvis and Mbeng each chipped in 13.
Slajchert emerged from a shooting slump with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting. Smith hauled in 10 rebounds to go with nine points in a reserve role.
Penn outrebounded Yale, 37-31.
Penn hosts Brown while Yale travels to Princeton for two key Saturday night matchups.