CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Yale men's basketball team is headed back to the NCAA Tournament.
Azar Swain scored 23 points and
Bez Mbeng added 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Bulldogs knocked off Princeton 66-64 in the Ivy League Tournament Championship Game at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion.
The victory earns Yale the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Bulldogs' fourth in the last six seasons. Yale has been the league's automatic qualifier in each of the last three seasons.
Defense was again the key to victory. Yale limited Princeton, the Ivy's top shooting team, to 41 percent from the field and held the Tigers 16 points under their season average.
"Defensively we were really good and that made all the difference in the world," said
James Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs (19-11) had the lead for nearly 37 minutes in the game. The Tigers' only advantages were 2-0 and 4-2 early in the first half.
Swain, who had 25 points in Saturday's win over Penn, was named the tournament's most valuable player.
Matt Knowling, who scored 12 points and added five assists, was selected to the all-tournament team.
"I had incredibly high expectations for this group and myself, but this is the ultimate goal," said Swain, who added six rebounds and two assists.
Yale (19-11) had a 32-25 lead at halftime and stretched the advantage to 11, 38-27, early in the second half.
Princeton, though, rallied and closed to within two in the final seconds. The Tigers had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but Yale's defense forced a Jaelin Llewellyn turnover with two seconds remaining, setting off pandemonium on the Bulldogs' bench.
Yale now awaits the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, which airs on Sunday night at 6 p.m.
