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.”
Yale senior forward EJ Jarvis (15) notched 12 points on 6-for-12 shooting and seven rebounds in just 23 minutes against a physical No. 16 Kentucky squad at Rupp Arena Saturday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
John Calipari had a halftime message for his Kentucky Wildcats against Yale Saturday afternoon at Rupp Arena.
With his ‘Cats clinging to only a six-point lead, Calipari told them in no uncertain terms to get the ball inside to reigning Associated Press National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe.
They did.
Tshiebwe answered with 22 second-half points to lead No. 16 Kentucky to a 69-59 home win before a crowd of 20,264 over pesky Yale. The Bulldogs actually held a 35-33 lead with 17:26 left before Tshiebwe took over underneath. He finished with a season-high 28 points and added 12 rebounds.
Yale (8-3) played without its leading scorer Matt Knowling, who was out with a bicep injury.
The score was knotted at 6-6 early. Kentucky went on a 9-0 run consisting of three treys to grab a 25-13 lead. Yale then went on a tear highlighted by a Jack Molloy triple to cut the Wildcat advantage to 28-25. Kentucky (7-2) led by 33-27 at the half. Yale shot 40% in the first half and only trailed the physical hosts 20-18 in rebounds. Senior forward EJ Jarvis posted eight first-half points.
Yale rung up the first eight points of the second half, culminating in a John Poulakidas two from close range.
Calipari then shifted to a full-court press, and Kentucky finally succeeded in getting the ball inside to Tshiebwe. The Democratic Republic of the Congo native scored 12 straight points to give Kentucky a 53-47 lead which it never relinquished.
Yale received a far more even whistle than it did at Colorado or Butler, getting whistled for 13 fouls to 14 for Kentucky.
Yale coach James Jones called the outing ”a great effort by the team.”
Calipari called Yale a NCAA Tournament team.
”Harvard and Yale are going to be battling,” Calipari said. “They’re both really good teams.”
Molloy finished the game with a career-high 14 points, and Jarvis registered 12 points and seven rebounds.
Kentucky finished the game with a narrow 31-30 rebounding edge. Yale shot 43% for the game.
This was the second all-time meeting between Yale and Kentucky. The Wildcats beat Yale 79-58 in 1961, a year in which Yale won the Ivy League at 13-1 and received an NCAA bid.
Yale was supposed to play Gonzaga instead of Kentucky, but Zags coach Mark Few ran into a scheduling conflict because of a Gonzaga game against Kentucky and assisted in getting Yale a game at the latter.
It was the third of six straight road games for Yale. The Elis do not have a home game in December. They play at Fairfield in the brand new Leo D. Mahoney Arena on Monday night.
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.”
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.
It had been 77 years since Yale men’s basketball last started a season 6-0.
Until Tuesday night.
Yale defeated Vermont 73-44, performing a 46-14 demolition of the Catamounts in the second half at John J. Lee Amphitheater to improve to 6-0 and move forward as the Ivy League’s only undefeated team.
The Bulldogs were down 30-27 at the half. They came out in the second stanza with a renewed intensity on both ends.
”I have a really good staff. Everyone made good suggestions (at halftime),” coach James Jones said. “We cut off the post.”
Yale sank seven of 11 field goals to start the second half on a 20-5 run, building a 47-35 lead with 11:58 remaining. Vermont answered with a three, but Yale topped that with seven straight subsequent points to lead 54-38 with 10:32 left.
Yale shot 61.3% in the second half while holding Vermont to a paltry 21.7%.
Junior forward Matt Knowling once again led Yale with 22 points on 10-for-13 shooting. Sophomore guard John Poulakidas and senior forward EJ Jarvis each pitched in 10 points.
Vermont fell to an uncharacteristic 1-5.
Quincy Jones, son of James Jones, hit a half-court shot to win a TV during a game timeout.
Yale’s KenPom ranking is No. 105 after the win. Princeton is the closest Ivy to Yale at No. 136.
The Bulldogs’ next action comes at Colorado on Sunday. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Jalen Gabbidon, who captained Yale last season and now starts for the Buffaloes.
Junior forward Matt Knowling contributed 18 points in 40 minutes, both game highs, in Yale’s Outrigger Rainbow Classic-clinching win in Honolulu. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
Add an Outrigger Rainbow Classic win to James Jones’ coaching resume.
Yale men’s basketball outlasted Hawaii in a defensive struggle, 62-59, in overtime to claim the title early Monday night local time in Honolulu.
The Yale men’s basketball team improved to 3-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season that it finished in the NCAA Tournament round of 32 with an 80-51 thrashing of Mississippi Valley State Sunday.
The game in the Outrigger Rainbow Classic in Honolulu wasn’t even that close.
Yale senior guard Matt Cotton will miss the 2022-23 season due to a lingering shoulder injury. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)
Yale men’s basketball will have to compete this season without a very valuable cog.
Senior guard Matthue Cotton suffered a shoulder injury last season, had it operated on and it hasn’t healed sufficiently. Cotton likely would have started at the wing.
For only the second time in the 23-year tenure of James Jones as Yale’s head basketball coach, the Elis are adding a transfer student. Casey Simmons, a 6-6 swing from Milton, Mass., will join the Elis for the 2023-24 season. (Dominick Martin in 2002 marked the first such occurrence.)
As a senior at Milton Academy, Simmons was rated as the No. 1 prospect in Massachusetts and the No. 92 player in the country by 247Sports.
Yale recruited him out of high school, but he chose Northwestern over Yale, Penn, Boston College, Georgetown, Miami and Penn State.
James Jones appears to be sticking around Yale for a while longer. (photo by Erica Denhoff)
Another Ivy League Tournament title and NCAA appearance, another ride on the coaching carousel and another contact extension for the dean of Ivy coaches.
Hours after Adam Nelson at HoopDirt.com stated that Yale’s James Jones was “picking up steam” for the open position at the University of San Diego, Jon Rothstein tweeted that Jones was finalizing a deal that would keep him at Yale through the completion of the 2030-31 season.
When reached for comment about the extension, a member of Yale Athletics informed Ivy Hoops Online that the school doesn’t comment on personnel matters, and nothing could be added “at the moment.”
