CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Yale men's basketball team has a lot of weapons. Saturday at Harvard, it was strong shooting that was on full display. Guards
August Mahoney and
John Poulakidas each scored 22 points as the Bulldogs won their sixth straight game, knocking off the Crimson 78-65 before a sold-out crowd at Lavietes Pavilion.
Yale (13-6 overall) is 4-0 in Ivy League play and tied with Cornell for first place. Harvard (10-7) saw its Ivy mark drop to 1-3.
STATISTICAL LEADERS
Mahoney (6-of-10, all three-pointers) and Poulakidas (8-of-13 overall, 4-of-7 on three-pointers) combined to shoot 61 percent from the field.
Matt Knowling added 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Yale's leading scorer
Danny Wolf was held to four points but had six rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Bez Mbeng contributed four assists and a steal.
Malik Mack scored 20 points to lead the Crimson.
STRONG BENCH PLAY
Nick Townsend contributed 11 points and three rebounds off the bench, while
Yassine Gharram had four rebounds and an assist in 16 minutes.
Casey Simmons scored two points as Yale's bench outscored Harvard's reserves 13-8.
TURNING POINT
The Bulldogs trailed 29-19 with 3:33 left in the first half but outscored the Crimson 14-2 before the break and had a 33-31 halftime lead. Mahoney hit a pair of treys in the run. The hot shooting continued early in the second half as Mahoney and Poulakidas made back-to-back triples as the Bulldogs quickly extended the lead to 12, 50-38, just five minutes in. Harvard never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
KEY STATS
Yale outrebounded the Crimson 37-26, including grabbing 12 offensive rebounds which led to 16 second-chance points.
The Bulldogs were 12-of-23 (52.2 percent) from three-point range in the game.
QUOTING JONES
"It took us awhile to get adjusted to the way they were playing defense, but once we did and got into our offense, we were pretty good," said
James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "The fact that Danny and Bez didn't have their best offensive games and we were still able to win by double digits speaks volumes to our depth. John and August were tremendous, and they got a lot of help from our bench."
NOTES:
• Mahoney's 22 points were a career high. He had scored 20 against Brown last season. His seven rebounds also were a career high, and his six three-pointers matched his career best. He also made six in the win over Howard at Lee Amphitheater last year.
• Poulakidas entered the game fifth in the nation in three-point field goal percentage and could climb.
• All four of Yale's Ivy League wins have come by double digits.
• The Bulldogs have now won five straight games over Harvard, including the last three at Lavietes Pavilion. The teams meet again on Mar. 2 at Lee Amphitheater.
• Yale (4-0), Cornell (4-0) and Princeton (3-1) are the top three teams in the Ivy League. The five other teams all sit at 1-3.
WHAT'S AHEAD
After playing three of their first four Ivy games on the road, the Bulldogs have their next three at home. First up is Princeton next Friday. Penn visits on Saturday and then Yale hosts Cornell on Feb. 10.
