HANOVER, N.H. – The Yale men's basketball team made a strong statement to start the second half of Ivy League play.
Matt Knowling scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field to lead a balanced attack as the Bulldogs completed a road weekend sweep with a 72-53 victory over Dartmouth at Leede Arena.
Yale beat Harvard 68-57 in Cambridge on Friday. The Bulldogs have won five straight games and sit at 6-3 in Ivy play.
Knowling was one of four Bulldogs in double figures.
Bez Mbeng had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while
August Mahoney and
Isaiah Kelly each scored 10. In addition,
EJ Jarvis had nine points,
John Poulakidas contributed eight and
Danny Wolf scored five.
Yale (16-6 overall) scored the final 13 points of the first half to turn a close game into a 33-22 advantage at the break. The Bulldogs held Dartmouth without a field goal over the final seven minutes of the opening 20 minutes.
The Big Green never got closer than 10 in the second half. Yale's largest lead was 23.
"Our defense led the way tonight," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We were able to put some stops together to end the first half, which gave us momentum coming out of halftime. Outside of a five-minute stretch offensively in the first half, we played perfectly."
The Bulldogs shot 53 percent from the field and 56 percent (5-of-9) from three-point range in the second half.
Yale outrebounded Dartmouth 33-26.
Dame Adelekun scored 13 points to pace the Big Green.
The Bulldogs are back home to host Columbia next Saturday. Tipoff at the John J. Lee Amphitheater is slated for 7 p.m.
