Columbia at Yale
Sat., Feb. 11 – 7 p.m.
John J. Lee Amphitheater
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's basketball team looks for its sixth straight victory when Columbia visits the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.
 
The winning streak has moved the Bulldogs (6-3 Ivy) into second place in the tight Ivy League standings where the top six teams are separated by just three games. Princeton is first at 7-2, while Cornell, Brown and Penn all sit one game behind Yale at 5-4. Dartmouth is 4-5 and in sixth place. The top four finishers in the regular season advance to the Ivy League Tournament at Princeton on Mar. 11-12.
 
The Bulldogs (16-6 overall) are coming off an impressive road sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend. In the two games, Yale shot 47 percent from the field, while limiting its opponents to 38 percent, including 23 percent from three-point range. Yale led the Crimson by as many 19 points and had a 23-point advantage in the second half against the Big Green.
 
Matt Knowling, who was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll on Monday, was 14-of-19 (73.7 percent) from the field and averaged 16.0 points in the two victories. Knowling is second in the league and 18^th in the nation in field goal percentage at .614. He also leads the team and is fourth in the league in scoring at 14.5 ppg.
 
Knowling had plenty of support last weekend as six Bulldogs averaged at least nine points in the sweep. Balance has been a key to Yale's success throughout the season. Nine different Bulldogs have scored in double figures at least once, seven have led the team in scoring and 12 have led the team in rebounding.
 
John Poulakidas (14.5 ppg.), EJ Jarvis (10.4 ppg.) and August Mahoney (10.3 ppg.) join Knowling as double figure scorers. Jarvis also is third in the league with 33 blocked shots, while Mahoney is second in three-point field goal percentage (.477).
 
Yale has been among the nation's top defensive teams throughout the season. The Bulldogs are 11th nationally in scoring defense (61.0 ppg.) and 16th in field goal percentage defense (.394). In addition, Yale is 10th in scoring margin (+14.0) and 11th in rebound margin (+7.7).
 
In the Ivy League, the Bulldogs commit the fewest turnovers per game (11.5), lead the league in blocks (4.1 per game), are second in field goal percentage (.478) and third in scoring offense (75.0 ppg.).
 
Yale is 11-0 on the season when it commits fewer turnovers than its opponents and 13-4 when it outrebounds it opponents.
 
After Saturday, the Bulldogs play three of their final four regular season games on the road, starting with a trip to Penn and Princeton next weekend. The final home game is Feb. 25 vs. Cornell.
 
HISTORY LESSONS
 
Yale has won 11 of the last 13 meetings with Columbia at Lee Amphitheater, including an 83-72 victory last year. Azar Swain '22 scored 37 points, the most by a Bulldog in James Jones' tenure as head coach, to lead the way. The Lions, though, won the first meeting this season, 62-60 on New Year's Eve at Levien Gym. Avery Brown scored seven of his team-high 16 points in the final 2:10 as Columbia held off a Yale comeback to escape with the win. The Bulldogs trailed 34-20 at halftime. August Mahoney scored 17 points and Matt Knowling added 16 to lead Yale. Columbia leads the all-time series 127-115. The first meeting came in 1902, a 48-3 Yale victory in New Haven.
 
SCOUTING COLUMBIA
 
The Lions (6-18, 1-8 Ivy) are playing their fifth straight road game but have three of their final four regular season games at Levien Gym. Columbia leads the Ivy League with 263 offensive rebounds on the season. The Lions boast one of the youngest rosters in the country with four first years averaging over 15 minutes per game. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa, who posted his second double-double of the season last Saturday at Princeton, leads the team and is ninth in the league in scoring at 13.4 ppg. He also is the league's top free throw shooter at .896. There is a familiar face on the Columbia bench. Assistant coach Tobe Carberry spent three seasons on James Jones' staff at Yale, helping guide the Bulldogs to a 30-12 Ivy record and a pair of NCAA Tournament berths.
 
PROMOTIONS
 
Yale's Team IMPACT fellows are hosting a Toy Drive on Saturday at benefit Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. It is also Yale's Equality and Inclusion game. Yale coaches will wear all black on the sideline to display unity and an equal sign lapel pin to symbolize equality. Equality and Inclusion Games is a national campaign throughout college basketball, whose purpose is to keep the fight for equality in the national spotlight. It is sponsored by The Rising Coaches DEI Alliance.