Bez Mbeng

Dartmouth men drop Yale to 0-2 in Ivy play in road upset

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Dartmouth junior forward Dusan Neskovic scored an efficient 24 points in 32 minutes, making all four of his three-point attempts and shooting 7-for-10 from the field in the Big Green’s. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Yale men’s basketball was the clear favorite to claim a fifth Ivy League regular-season crown in the last seven seasons under James Jones.

Suddenly, though, the Bulldogs are 0-2 in Ivy play.

“For the last two hours, I did not see anything which resembled Yale basketball, and tip your cap to Dartmouth,” Jones said after his Bulldogs lost to Dartmouth, 81-77, at John J. Lee Amphitheater Friday night.

Yale had not given up more than 72 points in a game all season.

In fact, Yale (10-5, 0-2) hadn’t lost consecutive Ivy games since March 2019 and had not lost to Dartmouth since March 7, 2015, a game that opened the door for Harvard to tie Yale atop the Ivy standings and win an Ivy playoff game to nab its most recent NCAA Tournament berth.

Dartmouth (5-11, 1-1) held a narrow 34-33 lead at the half. Yale’s shooting woes from three-point land carried over from the Columbia loss last Friday, as the home team shot 0-for-8 from deep in the half. The Bulldogs finished 2-for-14 (14.3%).

Yale fell behind by as many as seven in the second half (54-47) but knotted the score at 58 on a Matt Knowling shot from close range.

Dartmouth then pulled ahead, 77-71. Yale cut it to 79-76 with junior guard August Mahoney on the free throw line with under five seconds remaining. Mahoney made the first and intentionally missed the second, but he committed a lane violation. Then the visitors added two free throws to seal the win.

“Winning games on the road is extremely hard,” Dartmouth coach David McLaughlin said. “We executed well.”

Dartmouth junior forward Dusan Neskovic posted 24 points on 7-for-10 field-goal shooting, including 4-for-4 from three-point range, in a standout performance. Sophomore guard Ryan Cornish contributed 18 points in just 23 minutes.

There were nine ties and nine lead changes.

“We tried to mix up our defenses,” Jones said. “Our team defense was not there.”

Yale was led in scoring by Knowling with 17 points. Sophomore guard Bez Mbeng had 15 and Mahoney 13. Both Mbeng and fellow sophomore guard John Poulakidas fouled out.

Yale is next in action Saturday night at home against Harvard. Dartmouth visits Providence to take on Brown after its overtime loss to Harvard there Friday night.

Yale men outlast Fairfield, 77-64

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Remember Yale’s romp over Vermont last month?

Yale was down at the half by 30-27 and blitzed Vermont 46-14 in the second half. The Elis played a similar game against Fairfield at the Leo D. Mahoney Arena last night, winning 77-64 after being down 29-24 at intermission.

In a game marred by 41 foul calls and 55 free throws, Yale shot 62% in the second half in an eventually dominant win.

Fairfield (4-7) opened up a 14-5 lead, and it looked like the Bulldogs were still jet-lagged from their long trip back from Lexington, Ky. after a loss to the Wildcats, which included a three-hour layover in Raleigh, N.C.

”We got off to another slow start and we didn’t react well to it,” coach James Jones said. “[In] the second half, we got to play more Yale basketball.”

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Yale men can’t dig out of Hinkle hole in 71-61 loss at Butler

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You can’t spot a power conference team a 22-7 lead on the road before 7,042 screaming fans and expect a good outcome. Yale didn’t get one Tuesday night at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, where Butler defeated Yale, 71-61.

Yale (8-2) did fight back and cut the Butler lead to eight at the 3:24 mark of the second half. But sharpshooter Simas Lukosius hit two dagger threes in the last minute to preserve the victory for Butler (7-3).

“It was a hard-fought game. Our guys didn’t go away,” coach James Jones said. “Those first 10 minutes we did a poor job of taking care of the ball.”

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Yale men suffer first loss of season at Colorado, 65-62

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Colorado beat KenPom No. 3 Tennessee and Associated Press No. 24 Texas A&M earlier this month by a combined 40 points.

But it took the Buffaloes – including Yale graduate transfer and defensive stalwart Jalen Gabbidon – all they could muster to hold off Yale Sunday in Boulder.

The Bulldogs fell, 65-62, to Colorado, their first loss of the season.

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New Yale men’s captain Michael Feinberg looks ahead to promising year

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Feinberg

The recently named 2022-23 Yale basketball captain is junior Michael Feinberg, a native of Hidden Hills, Calif.

Feinberg played for three seasons for Sierra Canyon High School, a national powerhouse. In his junior season, he played on a team with Marvin Bagley III, a former Duke player who is now with the Detroit Pistons, Cody Riley who played at UCLA and Remy Martin who had a great career at Kansas. Feinberg spent his senior season at Viewpoint School.

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No. 14 Yale fails to size up No. 3 Purdue in 78-56 defeat in NCAA Tournament

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In his final game for Yale, senior guard Azar Swain contributed 18 points on 8-for-19 shooting, making his first five shots before the No. 14 Bulldogs faded in a 78-56 loss to No. 3 Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Friday. (photo by Erica Denhoff)

Size matters.

That was evident in Milwaukee today at Fiserv Forum, where Purdue throttled a game but undermanned Yale team, 78-56, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday.

The game was reminiscent of Yale’s 80-44 loss at a much bigger Seton Hall in November. Purdue outrebounded the Bulldogs, 42-33, and at one point had a 23-1 advantage in free throw attempts.

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No. 2 Yale men outlast No. 1 Princeton to win Ivy League Tournament, clinch NCAA Tournament berth

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Senior guard Azar Swain came on strong in the second half in Yale’s Ivy League Tournament final win over Princeton Sunday. Swain registered 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field, including 3-for-6 shooting from three-point range, in the second stanza. (photo by Erica Denhoff)

 

The Bulldogs are headed back to the Big Dance.

Yale men’s basketball earned its third NCAA Tournament berth in five opportunities since 2016 with a 66-64 win over Princeton in the Ivy League Tournament final Sunday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion.

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No. 2 Yale men push past No. 3 Penn, 67-61, to advance to Ivy League Tournament final

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Webster’s defines “toughness” as the quality of being strong and not easily broken. The word and the definition define Yale men’s basketball.
Yale exhibited toughness throughout in defeating Penn, 67-61, to advance to the Ivy League championship game tomorrow at noon against Princeton, a winner in dramatic fashion over Cornell.
Both games were played at Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion before 1,250 fans.
Yale held a 32-29 lead at the half off 50% shooting. The lead widened to 44-35 before Penn went on an extended run to take a 56-55 lead. After a timeout, the characteristic Yale toughness was apparent in a 7-1 run.
Penn cut the deficit to one, but a dominant Yale defense and a key bucket from Bez Mbeng closed out the win.
“It was another really good college basketball game,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We fought very hard.”
“We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” coach Steve Donahue said. “We had our open shots, I thought. It didn’t go in today.”
Penn shot 23-for-58 (39.7%) from the field and 11-for-33 (33.3%) when subtracting the shot output of sophomore guard Jordan Dingle, who notched a game-high 28 points on 12-for-25 shooting.
“Very disappointed that I couldn’t get it done this year with this group of guys,” Dingle said.
Azar Swain led Yale with 25 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including a 5-for-8 outing from three-point range. Captain Jalen Gabbidon was held to nine points, as Penn and Jelani Williams keyed on him. Gabbidon had a total of 53 points in the two earlier meetings between the teams. Swain had shot just 8-for-25 from the field in the teams’ previous two meetings, which they split.
“Azar’s been our guy, obviously, all year, but he was extremely efficient tonight,” Jones said.
Matt Knowling added 10 points for the Bulldogs with an efficient 5-for-9 shooting from the field.
Rookie forward/center Nick Spinoso scored 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting for Penn in just 22 minutes.
Yale committed only seven turnovers.
The Bulldogs improved to 18-11, and Penn finished its season at 12-16.
In attendance for the win were former Yale greats Butch Graves, 16-year NBA veteran Chris Dudley and Steve Leondis, who was recognized during the game and got to see a memorable win for their alma mater.

Princeton snaps seven-game losing streak versus Yale to tie Bulldogs atop Ivy standings

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Yale coach James Jones had won seven contests in a row against Princeton prior to Saturday’s matchup at John J. Lee Amphitheater. But the Tigers snapped that streak with an 81-75 victory to pull into a tie with the Bulldogs atop the Ivy League standings. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Mitch Henderson is now into his second decade as skipper of the Princeton Tigers. Going into Saturday’s crucial meeting with the Yale Bulldogs, the only Ivy team to defeat the Tigers in Jadwin Gym, this season, Henderson had amassed 180 wins against 106 losses.

But the Tigers have struggled against James Jones’ Bulldogs, losing seven straight to them heading into their latest clash.

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