NEW YORK, N.Y. –
Paul Atkinson got the preliminaries out of the way quickly. Atkinson scored Yale's first two baskets, the second one giving him the 1000
th point of his career. Then the Bulldogs went out and took care of the more important task at hand, maintaining their hold on first place in the Ivy League. That proved quite easy as well. Yale built a commanding 44-28 lead by halftime and cruised to an easy 83-65 victory over Columbia at Levien Gym.
Azar Swain scored 29 points to lead the way, while Atkinson finished with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field.
His milestone basket came less a minute into the game on a jump hook in the lane.
"It's special. I knew about it coming into the game," Atkinson said. "I owe a lot to my teammates over the years. If you look it up, 60 or 70 percent of my shots are assisted by one of my teammates."
Atkinson got plenty of support Saturday as well. Yale's bench outscored Columbia's reserves 21-5.
Matthue Cotton led the way with nine points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes, while
August Mahoney added six points.
Jordan Bruner grabbed eight rebounds,
Jalen Gabbidon scored six points and
Eric Monroe had five points.
Yale shot 48 percent from the field, while limiting Columbia 41 percent.
Mike Smith scored 37 points to pace Columbia.
The Bulldogs, who completed a weekend sweep with the win, showed little after-effects from Friday's thrilling double overtime victory at Cornell that was followed by a 4.5-hour bus ride to New York City.
"I [wasn't] worried about fatigue. Our guys are used to it. They are physically fit," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs.
A stretching and yoga session with Athletic Trainer
Drew Moore at the hotel early on Saturday afternoon helped.
"We all understood what we needed to do to get our bodies ready," said Swain, who was 10-of-18 from the field and made five three-pointers.
The Bulldogs (20-6 overall) remain in first place at 8-2, one game ahead of both Harvard and Princeton, who are each 7-3.
Yale has now reached the 20 overall wins mark for the second straight season (the Bulldogs won 22 last year) and the fourth time in the last six years. In the 119 seasons of Yale Basketball prior to 2014-15, the Bulldogs only won 20 or more games in a season five times.
Yale is back home next weekend, hosting Penn and Princeton at Lee Amphitheater. Tipoff on both Friday and Saturday nights is slated for 7 p.m.
