NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Isaac Celiscar notched the game-winner, and five Bulldogs scored double figures as the Yale men's basketball team picked up its ninth straight win with a 72-71 victory over Penn on Friday night. Yale improves to 15-6 overall, and 8-0 in Ivy action.
 
Turning Point
After Casey Simmons made a layup with 7:09 to go to extend the Yale lead to 67-59, Penn countered with nine straight points to pull ahead at 68-67. John Poulakidas put the Bulldogs on top (69-68) with a jumper at the 3:14 mark, but the Quakers responded with a three to take a 71-69 lead with 1:48 to go. Celiscar, however, scored the next three points, capped by a game-winning layup with eight seconds remaining. He then secured the victory by stealing the ball from Penn with four seconds left, putting the game out of reach for good.
 
Notable Performances

• Bez Mbeng tallied a team-high 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting with four rebounds and two assists.
• Nick Townsend recorded 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting along with four rebounds and four assists.
• Samson Aletan notched 11 points on perfect 4-of-4 performance, grabbing five rebounds and a team-high two blocks.
• Casey Simmons had 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting with a team-high seven rebounds.
• Poulakidas added 10 points.
• Celiscar chipped in with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting with five rebounds and a team-high three steals.
• Yale tallied 40 of its points in the paint.
• The Bulldogs capitalized on Penn turnovers, scoring 12 points of those miscues.

 
Bulldog Notes

• Townsend has recorded double figures in his past 16 games.
• Poulakidas has notched double figures in 17 games this season, including his past seven.
• Mbeng has tallied double figures in eight straight games.
• Yale improves to 8-0 at home.
• Yale's 8-0 record in Ivy League play matches last season's start and stands as the program's best since the 2015-16 season.

 
Hear from Coach Jones
"In practice all week, we have worked on close situations where we play games with the score tied with four minutes to go, three minutes go, because I knew it was coming; I knew we aren't going to beat everybody by 15 points, something was going to be tight and we were going to need to make the right plays to be successful. We were fortunate to just make enough plays tonight to do that."
 
Looking Ahead
The Bulldogs will face Princeton for an ESPNU-televised clash on Saturday, Feb. 15. Tip is slated for 8 p.m.