YALE at CORNELL
Fri., Feb. 23 – 7 p.m.
Newman Arena
Watch on ESPN+ | Live Stats | Game Notes
 
YALE at COLUMBIA
Sat., Feb. 24 – 6 p.m.
Levien Gym
TV: SNY
Watch on ESPN+ | Live Stats
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's basketball team has racked up quite a few miles on the road this season, even venturing to New Brunswick, Canada, for three games. The final trip of the regular season will be the longest during Ivy League play. The Bulldogs are at Cornell on Friday at 7 p.m. and then head to NYC to face Columbia on Saturday at 6 p.m. Both games can be viewed on ESPN+, while Saturday's contest also will air on SNY.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
 
• Yale (17-7, 8-1 Ivy) saw its 10-game winning streak end with a hard-fought 72-63 loss at Princeton last Saturday in front of a big crowd at Jadwin Gym. It was the longest winning streak for the Bulldogs since the 2015-16 team rolled off 12 straight wins on its way to an Ivy League championship. 
 
• Yale was the second to last team in the nation to lose a conference game this season. Saint Mary's (WCC) is the only remaining unbeaten team in conference play.
 
• Friday's game at Cornell is a battle for sole possession first place in the Ivy League. Both the Bulldogs and Big Red are 8-1 in league play, one game ahead of third-place Princeton.
 
• Yale continues to lead the Ivy League in rebounding margin (+5.8) and field goal percentage defense (.414). The Bulldogs are also among the national leaders in fewest turnovers at 9.6 per game, which is 12th nationally.
 
• Five Bulldogs average double figures in scoring in league games.
 
• Both Bez Mbeng and John Poulakidas were named to the weekly Ivy League Honor Roll on Monday. Mbeng averaged 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in the two games last weekend. Poulakidas, who led the team with 17 points in the victory at Penn, averaged 16.5 points.
 
• Mbeng is the Ivy League leader with 91 assists. He is second in the league with 45 steals.
 
• Poulakidas remains as one of the most accurate three-pointer shooters in the nation. He is connecting on 43.3 percent (61-of-141) of his long-range attempts, which is 11th nationally.
 
• Over his last six games, August Mahoney is shooting 50 percent (17-of-34) from three-point range. Mahoney is sixth in the league in three-point field goal percentage (.429). His 142 career three-pointers are the ninth most in school history.
 
• Danny Wolf leads the Ivy League in rebounding at 9.8 rpg., which is 21st in the nation. His 11 double-doubles also lead the league and are 22nd in the nation. In addition, Wolf is second in the league in blocked shots (31) and ninth in scoring (14.7 ppg.). His scoring numbers are even better in Ivy games when he is averaging 15.9 ppg. and 10.9 rpg. Wolf has posted double-doubles in all but two league games (at Harvard, at Princeton).
 
HISTORY LESSONS
 
Yale is looking to sweep the season series from the Big Red. Two weeks ago at Lee Amphitheater, Matt Knowling's conventional three-point play with 3.2 seconds left in the second half lifted the Bulldogs to an 80-78 victory before a sell-out crowd. Danny Wolf contributed 25 points and 10 rebounds. Yale rallied from a 15-point deficit late in the first half. The Bulldogs won two of three meetings last year, including in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament at Princeton. The Bulldogs are 8-2 in their last 10 games Newman Arena, but the two losses came in each of the last two seasons. Yale leads the all-time series with Cornell 122-112. The first meeting came in 1899.
 
The Bulldogs also have a chance to sweep the season series from Columbia. Back on Martin Luther King Day, John Poulakidas scored a season-high 26 points and had seven three-pointers as Yale cruised to an 89-70 victory over the Lions. The Bulldogs had only a two-point lead at halftime, 41-39, but erupted in the first 10 minutes of the second half, outscoring the Lions 29-6. In the last meeting at Levien Gym, Columbia upset the Bulldogs 62-60 which snapped Yale's eight-game winning streak in the building.  Columbia leads the all-time series 127-117. The first meeting came in 1902, a 48-3 Yale victory in New Haven.
 
Yale is making the Cornell-Columbia back-to-back road trip for the first time since the 2019-20 season when they won both games.
 
SCOUTING CORNELL
 
The Big Red (19-4, 8-1 Ivy) is coming off a home weekend sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth. First year Jake Fiegen averaged 12.5 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 56 percent from the floor in the games and was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Chris Manon, who had 22 points in the first meeting with Yale, scored a career-high 25 points in the victory over Dartmouth. Cornell is 9-0 at home this year, averaging 88.3 points on .521 shooting overall and .372 from 3-point range with 21.7 assists per game. The Big Red is shooting a blistering .637 from inside the arc this season (first nationally in two-point field goal percentage). Cornell is seeking its fifth 20-win season in school history. The Big Red has two double figure scorers, six with at least 8.5 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 6.3 points per contest.
 
SCOUTING COLUMBIA
 
The Lions (13-9, 4-5 Ivy) host Brown on Friday. Columbia is currently tied with Harvard for fourth place in the Ivy League. Last weekend, the Lions split with Dartmouth and Harvard, beating the Big Green 73-63 and falling to the Crimson 80-75. Columbia is 9-3 at home, and the nine wins are the most in a season in Levien Gym since 2015-16. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa enters the weekend seven points shy of 1,000 for his career. He leads the team in scoring at 14.0 ppg. Avery Brown (10.6 ppg.) also averages double figures in scoring. The Lions are 11th in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at .385. Columbia was 7-of-22 from long range in the first meeting with Yale.