No one ever accused Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones of playing an easy out-of-conference schedule.
Yale traveled to Kingston, R.I. to take on the 7-0 Rhode Island Rams Monday night.
Rhody won 84-78 to start the season 8-0 for the first time since the 1946-47 season.
Jones called it “a tough loss on the road.”
“We failed to make winning plays when they mattered the most,” Jones said.
The Rams entered the game with a KenPom ranking of 85, which will undoubtedly improve. Yale sat at 98, second in the Ivy League behind Columbia.
The Bulldogs, playing without senior guard Yassine Gharram, who did not travel with the team, opened up an 8-2 lead on a layup by senior guard Bez Mbeng.
Rhode Island grabbed its first lead at 16-15 on a trey by junior guard Jamarques Lawrence, who played at Nebraska last season.
Jones turned to a full-court press, and Yale went up 35-28 on a triple from senior guard John Poulakidas.
Poulakidas led the team in scoring once again with 25 points before he fouled out, but the sharpshooter was only 2-for-10 from long range.
Yale was up 35-31 when Rhody senior forward David Green hit a shot at the buzzer to cut it to one. Green posted 14 first-half points and finished with a game-high 26, which included a 6-for-11 performance from three-point range. Green snared nine rebounds.
The teams went back and forth in the second half and two free throws from freshman forward Isaac Celiscar put Yale up 56-51.
But Rhode Island went on a 9-2 run, capped off by a senior guard Sebastian Thomas three to lead 65-58. Thomas notched 20 points.
Yale would never lead again.
Two Celiscar free throws cut it to 81-78 with 19 seconds left.
Poulakidas’ string of 18 straight free throws snapped in the second half.
Yale (4-5) was on the road for 19 straight days. The Bulldogs entertain Vermont on Saturday at 2 p.m. at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
Rhode Island hosts arch-rival Providence on Saturday before taking on Brown next Tuesday at the Pizzitola Sports Center.