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It was Yale-Harvard, so ignore the records. The Crimson ended Yale’s 13-game winning streak, 74-69, before a crowd of 1,636 at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday, handing the visitors their first loss in Ivy League play.
“I thought they had a really good game plan,” coach James Jones said. “Hopefully we can take this as a learning tool going into our last game (at Brown) and the Ivy tournament.”
It took 71 years to accomplish it, but Yale men’s basketball is 9-0 in Ivy League play for the first time in program history.
The Bulldogs made that history emphatically Saturday night with an 84-57 win over Princeton in snowy New Haven at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
“I mean it is another part of history,” Yale coach James Jones said. “There’s so many things these guys have done over a career.”
Yale (16-6, 9-0 Ivy) led by as many as 34 points, 73-39, on a wide-open Bez Mbeng corner trey.
Princeton (16-8, 5-4) started with more energy than its loss to Yale at Jadwin Gym two weeks ago or its defeat Friday evening at Brown. The Tigers went up 8-3 on a trey from senior guard Blake Peters, 90% of whose shots this season have been from long distance.
Yale went on an 8-0 run to take a 17-12 lead.
The Bulldogs led 32-20 at the half against a Tiger team averaging 75 points per game.
Princeton scored only eight points in the last 11 minutes of the half and shot 23% from the field.
“That was as good a defensive effort as we have all year,” Jones said.
Yale went on a 10-0 run in the second half to effectively end the game at 56-31.
The Bulldogs proved once again that they could be dominant even on an off night from the Ivy League’s leading scorer, senior John Poulakidas, who was held to 11 points on 4-for-15 shooting.
The home team was led in scoring by junior forward Nick Townsend, who tallied 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Senior guard Bez Mbeng added 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
Junior guard Xaivian Lee was the only bright light for the Tigers with 19 points.
Junior forward Caden Pierce, reigning Ivy Player of the Year, stayed in his funk with no field goals and two free throws.
Yale clinched a slot in Ivy Madness with the win.
The Bulldogs are playing at a higher level and more cohesively than a year ago, despite the losses of Danny Wolf (Michigan), Matt Knowling (USC) and August Mahoney (graduation).
Yale has won 13 out of the last 16 meetings against Princeton. The 27-point margin is the largest in Yale history over the Tigers.
Yale hosts Cornell while Princeton hosts Harvard at 7 p.m. Friday.
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.”
Two teams with strong revenge motives met at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday.
Brown had defeated Yale on the last day of the regular season last year (84-81) to prevent Yale from sharing the regular season Ivy title with Princeton.
But then Yale overcame a six-point deficit with 27 seconds left to defeat Brown in the Ivy League championship game in March, 62-61.
It was Yale that prevailed Saturday in the rematch, 79-58.
“Really good team win for us. We got contributions from everyone,” Yale coach James Jones said.
James Jones’ team is growing up quickly before his eyes – both out of skill and necessity.
With leading scorer and senior guard John Poulakidas still sidelined with a foot injury, senior guard Yassine Gharram off the team and junior forward Casey Simmons injured, the Bulldogs staged a ferocious second-half rally and fell narrowly to UTEP in the final of the Sun Bowl Invitational Saturday, 75-74.
No one ever accused Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones of playing an easy out-of-conference schedule.
Yale traveled to Kingston, R.I. to take on the 7-0 Rhode Island Rams Monday night.
Rhody won 84-78 to start the season 8-0 for the first time since the 1946-47 season.
Jones called it “a tough loss on the road.”