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The Princeton-Yale men’s basketball showdown lived up to its lofty expectations as the Ivy League game of the year to date and then some.
The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers, 70-64, before a standing-room-only and boisterous whiteout crowd of 2,532 at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
“[The] atmosphere was tremendous,” Yale coach James Jones said. “There were times when you felt the crowd.”
Yale men’s basketball has been a first-half team all season.
But don’t tell that to Columbia coach Jim Engles, as the Bulldogs went on a 29-6 second-half run Monday night to turn a narrow 41-39 first-half lead into an 89-70 victory at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
The Yale women’s basketball team returned five players who scored 10 or more points in a game last season, along with its top four scorers and rebounders. There was reason for optimism coming off of a 13-14 season which included 7-7 in Ivy play.
But the Bulldogs have opened up the season 3-10.
Even so, Yale’s on a one-game winning streak after finally putting together 40 minutes of solid basketball Saturday at John J. Lee Amphitheater with a 72-48 wire-to-wire win over in-state rival Quinnipiac.
There is no denying that Yale men’s basketball has tremendous talent. From the one through eight slots, Yale may have the best talent in the Ivy League.
But there is also no denying that another adjective applies to the Bulldogs. Coach James Jones used that word very pointedly in his postgame comments after a 75-71 loss to Fairfield at John J. Lee Amphitheater Wednesday night.
It was the Nick Townsend show at John J. Lee Amphitheater Wednesday night, as the sophomore forward posted a career-high 22 points and 15 rebounds to lead Yale men’s basketball to a 79-71 win over Stony Brook (2-4), in a rare out-of-conference home game.
Yale (5-3) trailed 29-28 with less than five minutes to play in the first half but were kept in the game up to that point in part by a burst of offense from junior guard Bez Mbeng (10 points) before charging ahead to grab a 41-35 halftime lead. Yale was outrebounded 18-17 at the half after being decimated on the boards in a loss at Rhode Island Sunday.
Yale won’t be making an Ivy League Tournament appearance in coach Dalila Eshe’s first season at the helm after finishing fifth in the conference, but the Bulldogs came through on Senior Day with a 63-53 victory over Brown before many program alumni Saturday at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
The only senior captain for Yale (13-14, 7-7 Ivy), Camilla Emsbo, was honored before the game. Emsbo was injured all season and will compete at Duke next year as a graduate student.
Yale completed its revenge tour of teams against defeated the Bulldogs earlier in the season with a decisive 76-58 win over Cornell at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday.
And oh, what a Senior Night it was for senior forward EJ Jarvis.
Editor’s note: Ivy Hoops Online writers George “Toothless Tiger” Clark and Richard Kent deliver audio and written recaps, respectively, of Yale’s stunning second-half offensive outburst that secured a win over Princeton:
A few things had to go well for Yale to beat Penn last night at John J. Lee Amphitheater and keep its Ivy League title hopes alive.
They did.
Sophomore guard Bez Mbeng played lockdown defense on Penn’s dynamic Jordan Dingle in the second half, holding him to nine points after intermission en route to Yale’s 70-63 win over Penn.
”I love guarding the best player on the other team,” Mbeng said.
”Bez is the best on-ball defender I’ve ever coached,” Yale coach James Jones said, offering high praise in his 24th year at the Bulldogs’ helm after coaching other standout defenders like Trey Phills and Jalen Gabbidon. “He did a fantastic job in the second half on the league’s best offensive player and one of the best in the nation.”
“It’s Yale-Harvard. There is no other game like it.”
That quote from Yale men’s senior forward EJ Jarvis was spot on, and so was another:
“This was a must-win game.”