NEW HAVEN, Conn. –
EJ Jarvis sure made the most of his final regular season game at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. Jarvis scored a career-high 34 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Bulldogs cruised to a 76-58 victory over Cornell on Senior Night.
"It was my last game in JLA. It feels like home to me, and I wanted to honor that," Jarvis said.
Jarvis was 13-of-18 from the field, including 3-of-4 three-point range, as Yale remained in a three-way tie for first place in the Ivy League. The Bulldogs, Penn and Princeton are all 9-4 with one game remaining before the Ivy Tournament.
Yale was without two of its rotation regulars but still managed to post a convincing, 18-point victory.
"I talked about our depth in the locker room after the game," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We had a lot of guys come in and contribute, and we had EJ have an out-of-body experience to have a great game to lead us. We needed somebody to step up, and it was him. Against Princeton last Saturday, it was John [Poulakidas]. We have a lot of guys that are capable of that."
Poulakidas (14 points) and
August Mahoney (12 points) joined Jarvis in double figures.
Bez Mbeng added seven points and five assists, while
Jack Molloy (5 points, 4 rebounds) and
Yassine Gharram (6 assists) excelled off the bench.
Jarvis made his presence felt right from the start, scoring 18 first-half points as Yale built a 34-28 lead after 20 minutes.
The lead grew to 15, 48-33, when Molloy completed a three-point play seven minutes into the second half. The Big Red never got closer than 11 the remainder of the way.
The Bulldogs held Cornell nearly 25 points below its league-leading scoring average. The Big Red shot just 39 percent from the field. Yale shot 62.5 percent in the second half and 55 percent for the game.
Yale, which has won eight of its last nine games, avenged an earlier loss at Cornell. The Bulldogs have now won nine straight over the Big Red at Lee Amphitheater.
Yale finishes the regular season with a 10-1 home record.
It was also a milestone night for Jones, who becomes just the second coach to record 200 Ivy League regular season wins, joining Princeton's Pete Carril, who led the Tigers to 310 league victories. Jones, in his 24th season at Yale, now has a 200-121 record in Ivy games.
Jones' focus, though, remains on helping the Bulldogs earn another Ivy League title. Yale will clinch a share of the crown with a win at Brown next Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. Then, the Bulldogs will turn their attention to the Ivy League Tournament on Mar. 11-12 at Princeton.
"I have a lot of confidence going into next weekend and the Ivy League Tournament," Jones said.
Seniors Jarvis,
Isaiah Kelly, Michael Feinberg and
Matthue Cotton were honored prior to the opening tip.
