PRINCETON, N.J. – Yale took its second-half success to another level Saturday at Princeton. Trailing by 19 points with eight minutes remaining, the Bulldogs rallied to force overtime and then outscored the Tigers 23-13 in the extra period to earn a thrilling 93-83 victory before a stunned crowd of 2,629 at Jadwin Gym.
Over the final eight minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime Yale outscored Princeton 49-20.
"That was one of the most incredible, gutsy, tough wins I can remember," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "With so much on the line, and so much working against our team, our young men were resilient and played with a never say die attitude. It was a brilliant effort."
Yale was without leading scorer
Matt Knowling, who suffered an injury in Friday's game at Penn.
John Poulakidas helped Yale overcome Knowling's absence by scoring a career-high 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field.
Bez Mbeng added 21 points, including a driving layup in the final seconds that forced overtime.
EJ Jarvis had 18 points and three blocks and
August Mahoney scored 14 points and was 10-of-10 from the free throw line.
Isaiah Kelly grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, and
Danny Wolf (six points),
Yassine Gharram and
Jack Molloy contributed off the bench.
The victory moves the Bulldogs into a three-way tie for first place in the Ivy League. Yale, Princeton and Penn are all 8-4 in Ivy play.
The Bulldogs (18-7 overall) have now won their last four games at Jadwin. This one was the certainly the most improbable. The Tigers shot 62 percent from the field and 75 percent from three-point range in building a 34-26 halftime lead.
Princeton continued to increase the advantage in the second half, and when Xaivian Lee hit a jumper with 7:59 left, the Tigers' lead was 63-44.
That's when Yale started to chip away at the lead. Still, the Bulldogs trailed by 14, 65-51, with five minutes left.
Poulakidas then hit a three-pointer to start a big final push. Two minutes later, a Mahoney jumper pulled Yale within 66-60. Two free throws from Mbeng cut the deficit to 69-68 with 11 seconds left.
After Matt Allocco hit one of two free throws, Mbeng raced up court, drove to the basket and hit the tying layup.
Yale then dominated the overtime. A Poulakidas three-pointer two minutes in gave the Bulldogs the lead for good, 77-74. Mbeng scored Yale's next five points, including a dagger three that increased the advantage to 82-75 with 1:50 left.
Princeton never got closer than five the rest of the way.
Despite the big deficit, Yale's belief never wavered.
"Our confidence comes from the work we put in every single day in practice," said Poulakidas, who is the first Bulldog to score 30 points in a game since
Jalen Gabbidon '22 had 32 last February against Penn. "We work on late game situations all the time. Once we got in that position, we just stuck together as a team."
The Bulldogs, who finished 30-of-37 from the free throw line, committed just five turnovers in the game.
Tosan Evbuomwan scored 22 points to lead Princeton.
The Bulldogs are back at Lee Amphitheater Saturday, hosting Cornell in their home finale. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.
