
Entering this month, Yale had gone nearly six years without beating Harvard in the regular season.
Now they’ve pulled it off twice in five days.
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Entering this month, Yale had gone nearly six years without beating Harvard in the regular season.
Now they’ve pulled it off twice in five days.

Feb. 26, 2016 was a long time ago – so long ago that no member of the Yale men’s basketball team was even enrolled at Yale.

It was just another day at the office for James Jones and crew – until it wasn’t.

Remember the name Matt Knowling.

After a disappointing loss at Penn on Saturday set up by a subpar performance by Azar Swain, Yale got just what the doctor ordered Tuesday night: a visit to Payne Whitney Gym from Ivy bottom-dweller Columbia.
But Yale did not play down to the opposition.

Brown coach Mike Martin was 6-2 against Yale and coach James Jones during his storied playing career for the Bears, but the tables have been turned in head-to-head coaching.
It would be logical to expect that Yale would be down at the half to the high-flying Cornell offense if Azar Swain did not score.
It was just a day at the office for Yale Tuesday night at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
The Bulldogs started strong, grabbed a 30-19 lead over Albany at intermission and never looked back en route to a 71-52 win.
Yale (6-5) led at one point by 56-31. Albany (1-7) did go on a 13-0 run to narrow the deficit a bit.
Even with the easy win, coach James Jones found ample room for improvement.
”I didn’t think we were very sharp,” the Albany alumnus said.
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.
A 22-point first-half deficit was too much for Yale to overcome Sunday as the Bulldogs fell at home to Stony Brook, 85-81.
It snapped a 10-game home winning streak for Yale (4-4) which goes back to December 2019 and a home loss to Monmouth.
The Seawolves (2-3) shot 53.7% from the field against a usually tough and reliable Yale defense.
“We were really poor defensively,” Yale coach James Jones said.