No Nick Townsend. No problem.
Yale men’s basketball had sophomore forward Isaac Celiscar and senior forward Casey Simmons, and that duo powered Yale to a 74-70 win over surging Penn at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Yale (21-4, 9-2 Ivy) clinched a bid to the Ivy League Tournament.
“Nick Townsend is much better. I expect him to practice next week,” coach James Jones said.
Yale started Celiscar, Simmons, junior center Samson Aletan, junior guard Trevor Mullin and sophomore guard Jordan Brathwaite.
Penn (13-11, 6-5) bolted out of the gate early and went up 10-0 on a senior guard Ethen Roberts layup.
Junior forward TJ Power hit a trey to give Penn a 25-14 lead. A nifty Simmons steal and dunk brought Yale within 25-20.
A corner triple by Yale sophomore guard Riley Fox cut the Penn lead to 34-32 and Penn led 40-36 at the half.
Penn shot 50% from the field in the first stanza.
Yale had its own 10-0 run out of intermission to lead, 45-40.
A Simmons trey put Yale up, 61-53, but Penn answered with a 7-0 run on two junior forward Augustus Gerhart free throws.
Celiscar, channeling his inner Miye Oni, converted on an NBA level stepback jump shot to put Yale up 70-66 with 16 seconds remaining.
Two Celiscar free throws gave Yale a 72-68 lead. Roberts answered with two free throws, after being fouled by Brathwaite.
Mullin sealed the deal with two more foul shots.
“We have been involved in some really good basketball games,” Jones said. “We didn’t want to lose.”
Celiscar had a career game with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting, a game-high 14 rebounds and five assists. Simmons posted 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
Senior guard Michael Zanoni led Penn with 20 points, and Power added 18.
Yale was far more physical than Penn, especially in the second half. Yale had 36 paint points and Penn 22.
All without Townsend, perhaps the toughest matchup offensively in the conference.
Penn’s long-range shooting kept it in the game. The visitors shot 10-for-19 in that category, whilr Yale, leading the country in three-point percentage l, was only 6-for-26.
Yale is at Cornell at 6 p.m. and Penn hosts Dartmouth at 7 p.m. on Friday, in the final Ivy back-to-back weekend of the regular season.