Remember those Yale trips to hostile environments at Gonzaga and then-No. 2 Kansas in November and December?
Well, they certainly prepared the Bulldogs for a sold-out and raucous crowd at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday as they prevailed against Harvard, 78-65, for their sixth consecutive win and fifth straight over the Crimson.
Yale (13-6, 4-0 Ivy) got the win despite its highest scorer, sophomore frontcourt stalwart Danny Wolf (14.6) being held to a season low and second-leading scorer (13.5) junior guard Bez Mbeng managing only two points.
Senior guard August Mahoney registered a career-high 22 points and was 6-for-10 from long range. Junior guard John Poulakidas also had 22 on 8-for-13 shooting.
“It was just one of those days,” Mahoney said. “I was feeling it.”
“August was tremendous and John was great,” Yale coach James Jones said. “What is great about our team is that Danny and Bez struggled, but other guys came through.”
Harvard (10-7, 1-3) played great interior defense early on and grabbed a 27-17 lead. Senior forward Matt Knowling kept Yale in the game with seven early points.
Yale cut the deficit to 29-28 on two long-range treys from Mahoney and a three-pointer from Poulakidas which keyed a 9-0 run.
Yale led 33-31 at the half and played much of it with Wolf and Mbeng on the bench with two fouls.
Harvard held a 19-14 rebounding edge at the half.
Yale raced out to a 45-36 second half lead, fueled by two Mahoney treys.
Harvard cut a 54-40 deficit to 54-46 on an old-fashioned three-point play by Ivy second-leading scorer Malik Mack. Mack hit a jumper to narrow the lead to 55-48, but Harvard would get no closer.
Mack finished with a team-high 20 points, but he was only 4-for-14 from the field and 11-for-12 from the charity stripe.
The Bulldogs outrebounded Harvard 23-7 in the second half.
Yale hosts Princeton and Harvard hosts Columbia on Friday, both at 7 p.m.