Yale at Cornell
Sat., Feb. 26 – 2 p.m.
Ithaca, N.Y.
ESPN+ Video | Live Stats | Game Notes
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Yale men's basketball team has already secured a spot in the Ivy League Tournament. The Bulldogs, though, still have much to play for as they travel to Cornell on Saturday for the final road game of the regular season. Tipoff at Newman Arena is slated for 2 p.m. ESPN+ will stream the game live.
 
Yale, winners of eight of its last nine games, is still very much in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the tournament and a regular season Ivy title. The Bulldogs (10-2) left for Ithaca with a half-game lead over second-place Princeton (9-2). The Tigers host Harvard on Friday night before meeting the Crimson in Cambridge on Sunday. Penn (9-3) also is in the hunt for the top spot in the league. The Quakers are at Dartmouth on Saturday before hosting Princeton in the regular season finale next Saturday. The Bulldogs close out the regular season by hosting Brown.
 
Yale has won four straight Ivy road games, including a 66-61 victory at Dartmouth on Tuesday. Azar Swain scored 21 points, and Isaiah Kelly added 12 points and six rebounds in the win over the Big Green. The Bulldogs had the lead for nearly 38 minutes in the game.
 
The victory was No. 190 in league games for James Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs, which tied him with former Penn coach Fran Dunphy for the second most in Ivy League history. Jones can move past Dunphy with a win on Saturday and earn the 350th overall victory of his outstanding career. Jones already is the second winningest coach in league history, trailing only Pete Carril, the former Princeton coach who won 514 games overall and 310 in Ivy play.
 
Jones is currently presiding over the most successful era in the long history of the program.  Over the last 6+ seasons, the Bulldogs have a remarkable 73-23 Ivy record. During that stretch, they have won four league titles and earned three NCAA Tournament berths, including notching the first NCAA victory in school history.
 
Defense has spearheaded this year's success. Yale leads the Ivy League in field goal percentage defense (.421) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.312). Cornell will test that defense. The Big Red is the second highest scoring team in the league (79.9 ppg.) and also is second in field goal percentage (.469).
 
Offensively, Swain leads the Bulldogs in scoring at 19.0 ppg., which is second in the league. Swain also is the team leader with 44 assists and is second in rebounding (4.2 rpg.). Jalen Gabbidon (11.9 ppg.) averages double figures in scoring as well.
 
HISTORY LESSONS
 
The Bulldogs have won the last 16 meetings with the Big Red, including a 96-69 victory back on Jan. 15. Yale shot 54.2 percent from the field, outrebounded the Big Red 41-25 and had 20 assists on 32 field goals. Isaiah Kelly scored a career-high 18 points, one of five Bulldogs in double figures, to lead the way. Matt Knowling also had a strong afternoon, finishing with 17 points and eight rebounds. Jalen Gabbidon (13 points), Azar Swain (12) and Matthue Cotton (10) scored in double figures as well. In their last trip to Ithaca, August Mahoney's layup with two seconds left in double overtime was the winning basket in an 81-80 win in 2020. Yale has won the last eight games at Newman Arena. Overall, Yale leads the all-time series 119-110. The first meeting came in 1899.
 
SCOUTING CORNELL
 
The Big Red (13-10, 5-7 Ivy) is fighting for the fourth and final spot in the Ivy League Tournament. Cornell is currently in fifth place, a half-game behind fourth-place Harvard. The Crimson play at Princeton on Friday night. The Big Red ranks 18^th in the nation in scoring offense and features a balanced attack. Not one Big Red player is among the Ivy League's top-15 scorers. Chris Manon (10.4 ppg.), Jordan Jones (10.3 ppg.) and Dean Noll (10.2 ppg.) all average double figures in scoring. The Big Red is eighth nationally in assists at 17.5 per game.