What a difference a week can make.
Yale men’s basketball suffered a surprising 16-point defeat at Jadwin nine days ago. But after manhandling Columbia 91-74 Monday at John J. Lee Amphitheater on the heels of a Saturday crushing of Cornell, Yale once again looks like the cream of the Ivy League crop.
The teams traded buckets early on until the Bulldogs (14-3, 3-1 Ivy) went on a 9-0 run and grabbed a 22-14 lead on a sophomore guard Riley Fox trey.
The hosts led 44-35 at the half, going 6-for-14 from three-point range, while Columbia (12-5, 1-3) was only 2-for-11.
The lead grew to 57-39 on a 9-0 run which culminated in a junior center Samson Aletan layup.
Columbia mounted a challenge on an 10-4 run to cut the deficit to 12, but that is as close as it got.
“It was a good game for us. We shot the ball really well,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We got contributions from everybody.”
Ten Bulldogs scored, led by leading scorer senior forward Nick Townsend with 25 points. The captain was 4-for-6 from long range.
Aletan was named the NESN Player of the Game with 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting. The total was one off of his career-high (Harvard).
Yale, third-best in the country in three-point shooting, was 12-for-24 for the game.
Columbia entered the game 12th in the country in rebounding, but Yale outrebounded it 31-26 and 14-8 on the offensive glass.
“It was a great win going back to playing Yale basketball,” Aletan told NESN.
Columbia was led in scoring by senior guard Kenny Noland with 13 points. The Lions played without star frosh Miles Franklin, who suffered a dislocated right shoulder against Brown on Saturday. It is unknown how long he will be out.
The afternoon Martin Luther King Jr. Day game attracted a large crowd of 1,652.
Yale plays at Penn on Saturday at 2 p.m. m and Columbia will hit the road to face Dartmouth at the same time.
Observations
Aletan the disrupter: The Yale center, arguably the top big in league, impacts the game in so many ways, including altering shots and powerful finishes at the hoop.
How to guard Townsend?: That is the issue which all teams face. Double him and Yale will score with impunity from long range. Guard him one on one, as Columbia did, and he will score inside and out.
Bench sparks: Fox is making a strong case for Ivy sixth man of the year and senior guard Devon Arlington came off the bench and hit two key first-half treys when the game was tight.