NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's basketball team found itself in an unfamiliar position at halftime of Tuesday's game with Vermont. The Bulldogs were trailing for just the second time this season. Their response was impressive.
Over the next 20 minutes, Yale outscored the Catamounts 46-14 on their way to a 73-44 win at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
"I have a really good staff, and everyone made great suggestions to the team [at halftime] on what we needed to do to be better," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "First of all, defensively we got beat on some simple screening action, and we cleaned that up. We got the ball in the post, and we cut off the post, which was really important, and we offensive rebounded. I thought we had great energy in the second half."
Yale was dominant in every phase of the game over the final 20 minutes, shooting 61.3 percent from the field, limiting UVM to 21.7 percent and winning the battle of the boards 23-8.
The Bulldogs are now 6-0 on the season, their best start since the 1945-46 team won its first seven games on its way to a 14-1 record and a New England championship.
Three Bulldogs scored in double figures, led by
Matt Knowling, who was 10-of-13 from the field and finished with 22 points. He also had six rebounds and three assists.
John Poulakidas and
EJ Jarvis both added 10 points, while
Bez Mbeng had nine points and
August Mahoney scored eight. Yale also got strong play from
Yassine Gharram (6 points, 2 assists) and
Michael Feinberg (2 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal) off the bench.
Knowling's floating jumper gave the Bulldogs a 36-34 lead four minutes into the second half, and from there it was all Yale. By the under-12 media timeout, the Bulldogs were ahead by 11, 49-38, and at the under-8 timeout the lead was 16.
Vermont, which opened the season with a 15-point win over Brown and battled USC to the end before falling 59-57, was led by Matt Veretto, who scored 12 points.
The Catamounts finished 28-6 last season, captured the America East Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they fell 75-71 to Arkansas in the first round.
Next up for the Bulldogs is a trip to the University of Colorado on Sunday where they face old friend Jalen Gabbidon '22, who is using his final year of eligibility to play for the Buffalos. Tip off is slated for 3 p.m. EST.
