HANOVER, N.H. – The Bulldogs are Ivy League champions – again.
Eric Monroe matched his career-high with 15 points as Yale rolled to a 72-61 victory over Dartmouth at Leede Arena.
The win, coupled with Brown's victory over Harvard, clinches the outright regular season Ivy title for the Bulldogs, who will be the No. 1 seed in the league tournament next weekend. That makes back-to-back Ivy championships and four in the last six years for Yale.
"For Yale Basketball to do that, it's a great statement for us and where our program is," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow Class of 1954 of the Bulldogs. "I couldn't be prouder of our guys."
It is the fifth title for the Bulldogs under Jones, who also led Yale to championships in 2002, 2015, 2016, 2019 and now 2020. It is the eighth title in school history.
As usual, it was a balanced attack that led Yale.
Paul Atkinson and
Azar Swain each added 14 points.
Jordan Bruner grabbed 11 rebounds, and
Jalen Gabbidon scored nine points.
"We always have different guys that step up and make big plays," said Monroe, the team captain. "That speaks to the veteran presence on our team. When it gets to the nitty gritty, we have someone that will make a big play."
Monroe made a number of big plays on this night. Twelve of his 15 points came in the second half as Yale broke open a close game. He finished 5-of-9 from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range.
"They were going under the ball screens," Monroe said. "That's a shot that I work on because teams do that to me. I'm comfortable taking that shot and my teammates did a good job of finding me."
The Bulldogs made 10 three-pointers on the night giving them a school record 259 for the season. The previous mark of 252 was set by the 2017-18 team.
There was also a big contribution from the bench.
Matthue Cotton and
Wyatt Yess each scored seven points, and Yess added six rebounds and a steal in seven very productive minutes.
"Wyatt was absolutely terrific," Jones said. "One of the question marks I had coming into the season was who was going to be our third and fourth post man. What we were asking of those guys was to go out and chase the ball and defend, and Wyatt has done that at a great clip. And offensively he is becoming much more reliable, which is great for us because it adds a little punch."
The win improves the Bulldogs to 23-6 overall and 11-2 in Ivy play. The 23 wins matches the total of the 2015-16 team. A victory over Harvard on Saturday would give Yale its most overall victories since the 1906-07 team finished 30-7-1.
Dartmouth was still alive for an Ivy Tournament berth entering the night and made it difficult for the Bulldogs for a while. Yale had a 16-point lead midway through the first half, but the Big Green cut the deficit to 33-30 by halftime.
The Bulldogs then seized control with a 10-0 run midway through the second half.
"This was a good team we had to play tonight that had won five of their last six. We knew they'd be coming out really hard," Monroe said. "Tonight, was the same thing that is always the focus for us – defend, rebound and share the ball. In particular we are really trying to get back to our defensive roots. I thought we did a good job of that for most of the game."
Yale held the Big Green to 44.2 percent from the field for the game.
The Bulldogs and Crimson tip off at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Cambridge.
