CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The momentum from a big second half last Saturday sure carried over for the Yale men's basketball team. The Bulldogs shot 52 percent from the field and 56 percent from three-point range in building a 42-25 halftime lead on their way to a 68-57 victory over Harvard at a sold out Lavietes Pavilion.
In last weekend's 87-65 victory over Princeton, Yale shot 72 percent from the field and scored 52 points over the final 20 minutes.
Friday's first half against the Crimson was a clinic at both ends of the floor. The Bulldogs limited Harvard to 28 percent shooting and held them without a field goal for more than seven minutes in one stretch.
"It was a great team win," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "It is always difficult to win a league road game, but our guys stayed together and put in a tremendous effort defensively for 40 minutes."
The victory was the fourth straight for Yale, which improved to 15-6 overall and 5-3 in Ivy play. Harvard is 12-10, 3-5.
Matt Knowling scored 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting to lead three Bulldogs in double figures.
John Poulakidas added 13 points and
EJ Jarvis contributed 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks.
Bez Mbeng had eight points, six rebounds and four assists, while
Isaiah Kelly (nine points) and
August Mahoney (eight points) had strong games off the bench.
Yale held Harvard's leading scorer Chris Ledlum to 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
The game was tied at 7-7 five minutes in, but the Bulldogs took control with a 10-4 run, capped by a Kelly layup. The lead grew to 19 when Jarvis hit a three-pointer with 1:11 remaining before the intermission.
The Crimson chipped away at the lead in the second half but never got closer than five.
Yale, which beat Harvard 58-54 in New Haven on Jan. 7, swept the regular season series from the Crimson for the second straight year.
The Bulldogs travel to Dartmouth on Saturday. Tipoff at Leede Arena is slated for 6 p.m. The Big Green fell to Brown 73-61 on Friday.
