NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale's offense seems to be peaking at just the right time. The Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent for the second straight night, had 25 more assists, and, oh by the way, played pretty stingy defense in cruising to an 80-60 victory over Harvard before another capacity crowd at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
Yale, which beat Dartmouth 80-56 last night, is on a three-game winning streak. The Bulldogs (20-8, 11-2 Ivy) won their 20th game and have now won 20 or more games in four of the last five seasons. In the one season they didn't reach 20 they finished with 19 victories.
The Crimson (14-12, 5-8 Ivy) lost for the second straight night.
STATISTICAL LEADERS
The Bulldogs once again filled up the stat sheet.
Danny Wolf had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to post his 13th double-double of the season.
Bez Mbeng also had a double-double, but his came thanks to a career-high 10 assists and 10 points. He also had five steals.
Nick Townsend scored 14 points off the bench, and
John Poulakidas added 12 points.
Matt Knowling scored eight points and
August Mahoney had five points.
NOT IN THE BOX SCORE
Mbeng had a big night at the offensive end but also played stellar defense. He helped hold Harvard's leading scorer Malik Mack to just 3-of-14 shooting from the field and eight points, 10 below his season average.
TURNING POINT
The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the game and never relinquished the lead. Seven minutes in, Yale's lead was 18-3. The Crimson rallied and pulled within two on a couple of occasions, but by halftime the Bulldogs had built a 44-30 advantage. The closest Harvard came in the second half was 11, 55-44, with 13:12 left. Yale answered with the next 10 points to put the game away.
KEY STAT
The Bulldogs had 25 assists on their 32 field goals. In Friday's win over Dartmouth, the Bulldogs tallied 23 assists on 33 field goals. In the weekend sweep, Yale assisted on 74 percent of its field goals.
QUOTING JONES
"I thought we had as good a game start to finish as we've had in some time," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We had one lull in the first half where they did a good job of getting back in the game. Outside of that, we were very good. We were sound defensively."
[On Mbeng's play] "His unselfishness offensively has really helped change the way we play, and he's just been brilliant in leading this team."
NOTES
• The Bulldogs limited Harvard to 38.2 percent shooting from the field.
• Jones has now guided Yale to seven 20 or more win seasons in his tenure as head coach.
• The field for the Ivy League Tournament is now set. Brown clinched the fourth and final spot with an 89-67 victory over Dartmouth. Yale, Princeton and Cornell had already secured spots.
• Yale and Princeton are now tied for first place with 11-2 league records. The Tigers beat Cornell 79-77, handing the Big Red its third league loss.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bulldogs close out the regular season by hosting Brown next Saturday at noon at Lee Amphitheater.
