Letdown? No way.
Yale men’s basketball navigated the treacherous trap game waters with excellence by downing Penn, 74-58, at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday night for its eighth consecutive win.
Yale coach James Jones did not see any letdown.
“Defensively, we were really good,” Jones said. “Offensively, we didn’t flow as well, maybe not as much energy in the building as last night because the gym wasn’t filled.”
Yale (15-6, 6-0 Ivy) opened the game on a 7-0 run before Penn (9-12, 1-5) went on its own run, going up 12-10 on a freshman guard Tyler Perkins jumper. An August Mahoney trey put Yale up 29-21 and the home team led 34-28 at the break.
Yale opened the second half on a 12-0 run off treys by junior guard John Poulakidas and sophomore frontcourt standout Danny Wolf.
Wolf led Yale in scoring and rebounding with 24 points and 12 boards in 29 minutes. It was his ninth double-double of the season.
Jones said that the 7-foot Wolf “is pretty special as to what he can do. He is a guard playing the post.”
Yale took its biggest lead at 74-52 on a Poulakidas trey.
The Bulldogs shot 52% from the field and committed only eight turnovers.
Senior forward Matt Knowling chipped in with 14 points on 7-for-8 shooting and is fully healed from a December ankle injury.
”I feel great,” Knowling said. “I am back involved.”
Freshman guard Sam Brown led Penn with 20 points.
Junior guard Bez Mbeng held Penn guard and Ivy Rookie of the Year candidate Tyler Perkins (14.9 points) to eight points. Mbeng matched his career-high with eight assists.
Yale and Cornell are both 6-0 in league play and meet on Saturday in New Haven.
Penn is at Princeton next Saturday at 6 p.m.