Yale

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 72-71 loss at Yale

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Another week, another gut-punch loss for Penn.

The Quakers were on the verge of pulling the biggest upset in Ivy League play this season before another sequence of late-game disasters sent Penn to a 72-71 defeat at Yale.

Penn (6-15, 2-6 Ivy), after another flat start, used a pair of deep Sam Brown threes to take two late leads on the Bulldogs (15-6, 8-0), but the Red and Blue never were quite able to land the killshot they needed.

Eventually, Yale made Penn pay. With the game on the line and the visitors clinging to a one-point lead, Bulldogs big man Nick Townsend found freshman wing Isaac Celiscar cutting to the hoop for an easy layup with a little more than eight seconds to play. The Quakers ran both their big men at Townsend, and Brown was just a step behind Celiscar.

Penn couldn’t even get a potential winning shot off. The Quakers had a sideout inbounds opportunity on Yale’s end of the floor with six seconds to play, but no one could get open and Ethan Roberts’ desperation pass to freshman Michelangelo Oberti was easily deflected for a game-killing turnover.

The Quakers’ devastating loss brought back plenty of bad memories, starting with how …

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Big fourth quarter lifts Penn women’s basketball past Yale

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In a game it had to win, the Penn’s women’s basketball team missed shot after shot, giving up a lead and then just keeping even with lowly Yale.
And then the third quarter ended and the fun started at the Palestra, as the Quakers blew past the Bulldogs with 27 fourth-quarter points to take the win, 71-59, Friday night. That sets up a Saturday afternoon showdown with Brown as a key game for Penn to stay relevant in the run for the Ivy League Tournament.

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Yale men’s basketball survives Penn scare, 72-71

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It took a lay-in by freshman forward Isaac Celiscar off a nifty assist from junior forward Nick Townsend assist with eight seconds remaining to give Yale a 72-71 win over upset-minded Penn at John J. Lee Amphitheater Friday..

“We were trying to iso [senior guard] John [Poulakidas] and Nick,” Yale coach James Jones said. “Nick is as unselfish as they come.”

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Yale men’s basketball throttles Cornell at Newman Arena

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Total domination. There’s no other way to describe Yale’s 103-88 win over Cornell at Newman Arena, in a battle between two of the top three teams in the Ivy League standings.

Cornell (13-7, 5-2 Ivy) led 44-40 in a nip-and-tuck battle in which neither team held more than a five-point lead.

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Yale men’s basketball really is as good as advertised – and maybe better

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So much for a nip-and-tuck game with arch-rival Princeton.

And so much for a trap game at Penn in between playing at Princeton and Cornell.

Yale answered those bells emphatically with a 77-70 win at Jadwin Gym and a 90-61 win at The Palestra.

In fairness to Penn, it was a 12-point game with a little under six minutes t0 play and then Yale closed the game out with a 23-6 run. But the game was never in doubt.

If consistency is a virtue, then Yale was more than virtuous. The Bulldogs shot 57% from the filed in both games and held both Princeton and Penn to 34% shooting.

“That’s a really good Yale basketball game,” Yale coach James Jones said. “A really good game from us from start to finish.”

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Quakeaways after Penn men’s basketball’s 90-61 loss to Yale

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Penn’s Saturday matchup against Yale went pretty much according to script.

The Bulldogs opened the game on a 9-0 run and never looked back from there in a 90-61 dismissal of the Quakers at the Palestra. Penn (6-13, 2-4 Ivy) rallied from that opening punch to the mouth and cut the deficit to as little as seven points with 4:38 to go in the first half after a Niklas Polonowski layup.

Yale (13-6, 6-0) responded with an immediate 10-0 run, which was kicked off by a deep open three from stretch big man Nick Townsend. Penn never seriously threatened after.

Instead of recapping what went into an entirely predictable loss, these Quakeaways will instead be reformulated as questions, which will hopefully establish what’s at stake the rest of the season.

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Princeton women’s basketball rolls over Yale, 74-38, in opening night of back-to-back weekend

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The Princeton women’s basketball team used tenacious defense and efficient offense on Friday night to collar the Yale Bulldogs, 74-38, at Lee Amphitheater in New Haven. Yale’s 38 points were the fewest allowed by Princeton so far this season.

The Tigers raced out to a 4-0 lead when Fadima Tall found a cutting Skye Belker for a beautifully executed backdoor layup. The Tigers never looked back from there as Princeton led wire-to-wire for the seventh time in their last 10 games.

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LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball’s postgame press conference after 77-70 loss to Yale

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark brings us Princeton’s press conference after a 77-70 home loss for Princeton (14-6, 3-2 Ivy) to Yale (12-6, 5-0) Friday evening:

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Yale and Princeton: This era’s Ivy League men’s basketball duopoly

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I am old enough to remember the Princeton-Penn hegemony in Ivy hoops.

We’re talking 1965-2015. That’s 50 years. That’s a long time. Names like Carril, Dunphy, Bradley, Petrie, Calhoun and many, many more.

Tommy Amaker entered in 2007 and assisted in disrupting the world order. In 2010, Cornell made a run to the Sweet 16.

Since then, it has been mostly Yale and Princeton.

And the rivalry is very heated.

James Jones and Mitch Henderson could not be more different, personally and stylistically. But since 2016, their hegemony is crystal clear.

Yale has gone 88-28 and Princeton 85-31 in the Ivy regular season. Yale has won three Ivy League tourneys and Princeton two. They have each won two NCAA tourney games.

Little to separate them, but Yale has won 11 out of the last 14.

Princeton and Yale have, as a duo, separated from the pack.

This year, Yale sits atop the Ivy standings at 4-0. Princeton is 3-1 after a home loss to Cornell.

Yale has a league-leading NET ranking of 79 and a KenPom ranking of 75. Princeton sits at 130 and 137, respectively.

“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Yale coach James Jones. “That’s what college basketball is all about.”

And he is correct. The 5 p.m. start at Jadwin Gym will be televised by ESPN2.

Keys to the game:

  • Yale senior guard John Poulakidas shooting from long range.
  • Princeton senior guard Blake Peters making three-plus treys.
  • Yale senior guard Bez Mbeng not picking up two quick fouls guarding Princeton junior guard Xaivian Lee.
  • Princeton being able to rebound with Yale, especially on the offensive glass. How vocal an expected sold-out crowd is at Jadwin.