Yale fell behind No. 21 Auburn 11-0 on the road Saturday.
The game wasn’t even that close at the time, with the Tigers blocking six Yale shots during the run.
Bruce Pearl’s squad secured the win with relative ease, 86-64.
Yale coach James Jones adjusted his defense after the early Auburn surge. The Bulldogs (5-5) went on their own run and started to dictate the tempo of the game.
But the War Eagle relentless pressure and superior athleticism was too much for the smaller Elis, and Auburn (7-1) took a 47-30 lead into the half. It was the most first-half points notched by the Tigers this season.
The second half brought much of the same.
Sophomore guard K.D. Johnson led the Tigers with 19 points and freshman forward Jabari Smith posted 17 points and eight rebounds.
Junior guard Matt Cotton pitched in 14 points for Yale, while and junior forward EJ Jarvis had arguably his best game of the season, contributing nine points and eight boards in just 19 minutes in a reserve role.
The Elis are next in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. at John J. Lee Amphitheater against Albany, Jones’ alma mater.
The junior forward completed her seventh double-double in as many games with 26 points and 11 rebounds as Yale outlasted Fairfield, 71-64, before a crowd of 1,529 at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport as part of a doubleheader with the Fairfield men.
With the win, Yale improved to 5-2 and 4-1 on the road. Fairfield fell to 3-3.
Yale opened strong and seized a first-quarter lead. That didn’t last long.
Yale opened the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off with a tough 88-85 loss in overtime to worthy Big Sky foe Southern Utah in Florida Tuesday afternoon.
The Bulldogs (3-3) led for much of the game, but the Thunderbirds (2-3) kept clawing back.
Southern Utah senior forward Maizen Fausett made three free throws with 13 seconds to go in regulation to tie the game and force overtime, and redshirt senior guard John Knight III made another three from the charity stripe with 0.8 ticks left in overtime to seal the victory.
Yale led 39-33 at the half. The Thunderbirds went on a 16-2 run early in the second half to tie the score at 51. Yale then went on an eight-point run of its own, but Southern Utah rallied to send the game into overtime.
All five Yale starters scored in double figures, led yet again by senior guard Azar Swain with 21. But Swain was only 1-for-9 from three-point range.
Yale was outrebounded, 42-36.
Yale will face Milwaukee in the consolation game Wednesday at 11 a.m. The Panthers feature freshman sensation Patrick Baldwin, Jr. (son of Milwaukee coach Pat Baldwin), who apparently suffered a slight ankle sprain Tuesday.
The Yale men fell on the road to a strong Vermont team Friday, 61-53, before a crowd of 2,188.
The Elis clung to a one-point lead at the half, and the second stanza was nip and tuck the whole way.
Senior guard Azar Swain led the way with 22 points, while senior forward Ryan Davis paced the Catamounts with 18.
The Bulldogs were ranked No. 20 in the CollegeInsider.com men’s mid-major top 25 entering the contest, while Vermont was perched just below them at No. 22.
Announcers and writers around the nation focused a lot of attention to the 600-plus days between games for the Ivy League. While many expected the teams to be a bit rusty out of the gates, the Ancient Eight acquitted itself quite well in the season’s first week.
Thirteen of the league’s 16 teams had at least one win, with the Princeton and Columbia women notching three victories each. The Brown men almost upset No. 19 UNC without their top player, and the Princeton men just missed out on winning the Asheville Championship.
Check out some of the highlights from a very successful and welcome week of Ivy hoops:
Yale faced a more talented foe Sunday in KenPom No. 35 Seton Hall at the Prudential Center in Newark.
Except for one spurt in the first half which cut the deficit to five, it was never a game. The Pirates won in a cakewalk, 80-44.
The perimeter defense for Seton Hall (2-0) held Yale (2-1) to 24% shooting and a paltry 13% from three.
Gabbidon led Yale with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Cotton chipped in with 12 points.
Seton Hall faces No. 6 Michigan on Tuesday in Ann Arbor in a battle of teams formerly coached by Tommy Amaker.
Yale’s previous outing was a very different story.
Someone told me a few minutes into the Bulldogs’ matchup against Massachusetts at John J. Lee Amphitheater Friday night that while Yale and UMass may have nearly equal talent, Yale will win because
Will Venable surveys the Cameron Indoor Stadium floor during Princeton’s battle versus Duke on Jan. 5, 2005. | Photo by Beverly Schaefer
Editor’s note: Ivy Hoops Online contributor Erica Denhoff caught up with former Princeton hoops great Will Venable, who just finished his first season as Boston Red Sox bench coach and reflected on a remarkable two-sport career and Ivy League basketball’s place in it.
Will Venable, Princeton ‘05, shines brightest on the biggest stages.
Against JJ Redick-led No. 5 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 5, 2005, Venable, a senior guard, played 39 minutes and put on an offensive skills clinic. He scored 21 points, dished out three assists and collected four rebounds in a 59-46 loss for the Tigers. Venable’s athletic defensive play came to the fore as he stole the ball three times from the Blue Devils.
“Venable was terrific tonight,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. ” … He is a heck of a competitor, in the Ivy League or any league.”
“As we go into our league play, I know that Will Venable is going to give me that 100 percent effort for 40 minutes every single night,” then-Princeton coach Joe Scott said.
Almost one month to the day later, Venable demonstrated both coaches described him accurately.