ITHACA, N.Y. – Bez Mbeng tallied a triple double, and John Poulakidas and Nick Townsend had career days as the Yale men's basketball team picked up its eighth straight win with a 103-88 victory at Cornell on Saturday. The Bulldogs improve to 14-6 overall, and 7-0 in Ivy action.
 
Mbeng notched 15 points, a career-high 12 assists and 10 rebounds, recording the second triple double in program history. The senior also became the only DI player this century to reach all those marks in a road game.
 
Turning Point
After the score was knotted up at 44, the Bulldogs went on a 10-0 run highlighted by back-to-back threes from Poulakidas to take a 54-44 advantage into halftime. Yale shot 66.7% (20-of-30) in the second half, led by as many as 22 points (92-70) with 6:11 to go, and didn't look back the rest of the way.
 
Notable Performances

• Poulakidas had a career-high 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting and was 6-of-10 from deep.
• Townsend notched a career-high 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting with six rebounds and five assists.
• Samson Aletan added 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting with four rebounds and two blocks.
• The Bulldogs outrebounded Cornell, 33-29.
• Yale was dominant in the paint, tallying 52 of its points there.
• The Bulldogs shot 62.5% overall (40-of-64) and 47.6% (10-of-21) from three.
• Yale had 22 assists on 40 made baskets.
• The Bulldogs tallied a season-high 103 points.

Bulldog Notes

• Townsend has recorded double figures in his past 15 games.
• Poulakidas has notched double figures in 16 games this season, including his past six.
• For the 16th time in 20 games, Yale outrebounded its opponent.
• Yale's 103 points marks the second time the season that the team has scored 100+ and is the first time since 2019 the Bulldogs surpassed the milestone against a DI opponent (Nov. 20, 2019 vs. Siena).
• The victory marks the first time since the 2019-20 season that the Bulldogs have won at Cornell. It also marks Yale's first win in regulation against the Big Red on the road since 2018-19.

Hear from Coach Jones
On the team's performance: "One of the best performances offensively that I've seen from a Yale basketball team. It took that kind of effort because Cornell was special too."
On Mbeng's triple double: "It's outstanding, what he's capable of doing. And that doesn't talk about what he did on the defensive end, guarding their best player and holding him to 6-for-14"

Looking Ahead
The Bulldogs will return home to host Penn on Friday, Feb. 14 and then Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 15.