Yale

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 women let Syracuse slip away in 60-58 home loss

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Give Felisha Legette-Jack a lot of credit. The first-year Syracuse women’s coach brought a power-conference team into John J. Lee Amphitheater to do battle with Yale.

And the Orange escaped with a 60-58 win.

Yale (4-5) dominated the first half, building a 17-8 lead by the 3:53 mark, holding Syracuse (6-2) to 3-for-16 shooting from the field and converting on three of trey attempts. Yale controlled the tempo and forced Syracuse into a slower style of play.

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“Leper treatment” for top Ivy men’s teams needs to stop

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Princeton men’s coach Mitch Henderson has struggled to line up strong in-state nonconference competition for his Tigers, but not due to a lack of trying. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

What do Hofstra, Colgate, Siena, Loyola Chicago, UMass and Vermont all have in common? They are all solid mid-major men’s basketball programs and willing to travel to the home gym of a top Ivy team.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal on the surface, but it is.

Consider Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have one natural rival in their 153 years of playing college sports. Not Penn State. Not Syracuse.

Princeton.

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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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Yale men deliver second-half performance to remember in 73-44 rout of Vermont

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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.

Yale women deliver Eshe her first win as head coach by besting Fairfield, 68-61

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Dalila Eshe got her first win as a head coach with Yale’s win over Fairfield Monday night. (Dalila Eshe Twitter page)

It’s a game that Dalila Eshe will never forget.

Eshe earned her first victory as Yale head coach with a hard fought 68-61 home win over in-state rival and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent Fairfield Monday night.

The Bulldogs (1-2) had opened the season with losses at Fordham and St. Joseph’s.

First-year guard Kiley Capstraw poured in 24 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field.

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Yale men nab “gutsy win” to clinch Outrigger Rainbow Classic title

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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.

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Eight-man rotation coming into shape for Yale men ahead of matchup with Hawaii

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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.

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How Yale men outlasted Eastern Washington in Honolulu showdown

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Yale junior forward Matt Knowling posted 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting in 28 minutes in his team’s 74-60 win over Eastern Washington in Honolulu Friday. Knowling has shot 80% from the field through the first two games of the season. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

The James Jones system is all about rebounding and defense. The system was on full display Friday in Honolulu.

The Bulldogs bested Eastern Washington, 74-60, at the Outrigger Rainbow Classic, powered by a 36-24 edge in rebounding over the Eagles.

“It was a tremendous defensive effort,” Jones said.

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2022-23 IHO Men’s Preseason Poll

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Only five points separated the top three teams in the Ivy League Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll, and our final tabulation was even tighter. Just three points separated the team atop IHO contributors’ preseason poll.

Yale gets the slight nod here, with our contributors trusting James Jones to lead the Bulldogs to their fifth Ivy League title in an eight-season span in a bid to represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament for a third straight time. Penn, the Ivy League preseason poll’s top team above Princeton by a single point, also finished a single point above Princeton in our standings. Our contributors saw potential for success in a roster that returns most of the key players from last year’s squad that placed third in the Ivy standings. We’ve got Princeton pegged to finish third, aided in their quest to repeat as Ivy League champions by returning 2021-22 Ivy Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan but losing significant backcourt production from last year’s conference title team.

Harvard was the clear No. 4 finisher in our poll, a showing that would improve upon the disappointing sixth-place result that locked the Crimson out of the Ivy League Tournament on its home floor last season. We have Cornell ranked slightly ahead of Brown as the Big Red look to build on last season’s overachieving Ivy League Tournament berth and the Bears look to bounce back from an underachieving sixth-place finish (tied with Harvard) a season ago. Columbia and Dartmouth tied in our voting tally at the bottom of the standings as both programs look to secure their first Ivy League Tournament appearances.

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