Yale men’s basketball owns Brown.
The Bulldogs have now won 10 out of their last 11 games against the Bears under coach James Jones, whose team won another road contest in the series Tuesday night, 80-70. Brown never led.
“Great way to start league play,” Jones said. “Always tough to win on the road, especially with our travel partner. The team is starting to come together. We’re close to playing Bulldog basketball.”
Junior guard John Poulakidas set a winning tone for the visitors by scoring 11 of Yale’s first 21 points, pushing the Bulldogs out to a 21-8 lead.
Yale (10-6, 1-0) went up 30-14 on a trey from sophomore big man Danny Wolf and led 44-31 at the half. Junior guard Bez Mbeng held his childhood friend and Ivy leading scorer, junior guard Kino Lilly Jr., to five first-half points.
Wolf rung up 12 and Poulakidas 11 first-half points.
Brown (4-12, 0-1) made it a game at a few junctures in the second half. Junior forward Nana Owusu-Anane made an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the Yale lead to 65-60. Mbeng returned the favor with an old-fashioned three-point play of his own to put the Bulldogs up 68-60.
An Owusu-Anane lay in around Wolf cut it to 70-66. Yale then went on a 6-0 run which culminated in a sophomore forward Nick Townsend layup.
Townsend started over senior forward Matt Knowling who was out with an ankle injury.
Wolf, Yale’s leading Yale scorer and rebounder, finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Mbeng also chipped in with 16. Lilly posted 23, 18 of which came in the second half.
Yale is next in action at home Monday at 7 p.m. against Columbia.
Brown also plays on Monday, at Harvard at 2 p.m.