INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Yale traveled to one of the most iconic arenas in all of college basketball on Tuesday night and put forth a strong effort against a team that isn't threatened on its home floor very often. Butler, though, got off to a fast start and hit some big shots down the stretch to win the battle of the Bulldogs 71-61 before a big crowd of 7,042 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Manny Bates scored 22 points, and Simon Lukosius added 14, including two big three-pointers in the final minutes, to lead Butler, which has now won 70 of its last 72 non-conference home games.
EJ Jarvis and
Bez Mbeng each had 14 points to pace Yale, which lost for only the second time this season.
August Mahoney scored nine points and
Matt Knowling grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds.
By midway through the first half, Butler had built a 22-7 lead. Yale made a couple of strong pushes, but Butler had an answer each time.
"It was a hard-fought game. Our guys didn't go away," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "Those first 10 minutes we did a poor job of taking care of the ball and it led to offense for them."
Yale (8-2) was within eight and seemed to have the momentum on its side when Mbeng drove to the basket and scored with 3:24 left.
Lukosius, though, answered with a three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to push the lead to 11. After
Isaiah Kelly scored for Yale, Lukosius nailed another long three to put Butler ahead by 12 with 2:10 remaining.
"Obviously that killed us," Jones said. "We had some momentum going, and he bangs two threes, late shot clock from deep. We needed to make him put the ball on the floor."
Butler (7-3) shot 50 percent from the field overall and also was 7-of-14 from three-point range in the game.
Yale's defense did force 10 turnovers which led to 17 points, many coming on the break.
"We felt it would help us to get out in transition, and we tried to do that as best we could," Jones said.
Despite the outcome, the opportunity to play in the historic arena was special for the Bulldogs.
"It was marvelous," Jones said. "I appreciate this building, what it represents and the history of it all. It's an iconic facility and a great place to play."
The Bulldogs visit another of college basketball's famed arenas when they play Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
Jones hopes facing back-to-back storied programs will help his team down the road.
"We play these games to find out what we have to work on to win our conference," he said.
