Yale: 2024-25 Ivy Men's Basketball Champions

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- John Poulakidas knocked down five 3-pointers in the second half as regular-season champion Yale added the Ivy League tournament championship with a 90-84 win over Cornell on Sunday to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

The senior guard got off to a slow start, scoring just two points in the first half and missing all four 3-point attempts as Yale took a 37-32 advantage into intermission. That changed to start the second half when he erupted for eight points during a 90-second span, burying two 3s and a jumper to push the Bulldogs' lead to 16 points, 50-34 with under 16 minutes to play.

Cornell clawed back. Guy Ragland Jr., Adam Hinton and Nazir Williams each hit 3-pointers in the span of just over a minute to get within seven and Ragland hit two more 3s to make it 60-58 with 9:18 left. Bez Mbeng answered with a 3 for Yale and Poulakidas hit from deep to make it 66-60, but Cornell got a three-point play from AK Okereke to make it a three-point game. Trevor Mullin and Poulakidas each hit a 3 and Nick Townsend scored twice during a 10-4 run for a76-68 lead with five minutes left.

Poulakidas finished 8 of 14 from the floor, including 5-for-9 from distance, while going 4-for-4 from the line. Townsend finished with 19 points with four assists and two steals, Mbeng contributed 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Casey Simmons added 13 points.

Okereke led Cornell (18-11) with 22 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. Williams was 8-for-8 from the line and scored 20 points. Ragland hit 4 of 6 from deep to add 16 points with seven rebounds and Jake Fiegen contributed 11 points.

Yale: 2023-24 Ivy Men's Basketball Champions

 

NEW YORK — Matt Knowling hit a jumper at the buzzer and Yale closed the game on an 8-1 run to beat Brown 62-61 in the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament at Francis S. Levien Gymnasium on Sunday, sending the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time.

Kino Lilly Jr. sank two free throws to give the fourth-seeded Bears (13-18) a 60-54 lead with 27 seconds remaining. Bez Mbeng answered with a three-point play for No. 2 seed Yale (22-9) to make it a one-possession game. Nana Owusu-Anane hit the second of two free throws for Brown, but John Poulakidas buried a 3-pointer and the Bulldogs trailed 61-60 with 14 seconds left.

Poulakidas fouled Malachi Ndur, who missed two foul shots to set the stage for Knowling.

“I just wanted to put myself by the basket in case of any misses,” Knowling said. “We were trying to get a play for someone else but they found me. I didn’t think I was going to be that open. I work on that shot everyday. I didn’t overthink it, I just let it go and it went in.”

It was a tough finish for the Bears, who beat Yale 84-81 in the final game of the regular season. Brown won six in a row to end the season and grab the tourney’s fourth and final berth. The Bears beat top-seeded Princeton 90-81 in the semifinals in search of their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1986. Their only other trip to the Big Dance came in 1939.

Yale, which knocked off No. 3 seed Cornell 69-57 to reach the final, last appeared in the NCAA tourney in 2022. The Bulldogs have won 3 of 5 championships since the Ivy began playing a four-team league tournament.

“When I first got in the league we didn’t have one of the better teams, and I fought like hell to get an Ivy league Tournament,” Yale coach James Jones said. “And now that we are a better team I don’t like it so much, but I wouldn’t take away this opportunity from our guys. This was a great experience for them and it’s something that they’ll never forget.”

Knowling and August Mahoney scored seven points apiece to guide Yale to a 26-22 advantage at halftime. Lilly had seven at the break for Brown.

Yale stayed in front until back-to-back baskets by Ndur and Kalu Anya gave Brown a 46-44 lead with 8:22 left to play. The Bears never trailed from there until the final shot.

Poulakidas led the Bulldogs with 18 points, sinking 4 of 9 from 3-point range. Mahoney added 15 points and five rebounds. Knowling totaled 11 points, five rebounds and five assists. Danny Wolf had 13 rebounds to go with nine points.

Lilly made three 3-pointers and scored 21 to lead Brown. Anya had 12 points and seven rebounds. Ndur pitched in with 12 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks off the bench.

Yale: 2021-22 Ivy Men's Basketball Champions

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- — Azar Swain scored 23 points and Yale held on for a 66-64 victory over Princeton to win the Ivy League tournament on Sunday.

The Bulldogs will play in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time. Yale last went to the NCAAs in 2019 and was to be the league representative for the cancelled 2020 event. The Ivy League cancelled its 2020-21 season.

Second-seeded Yale, which led nearly the entire game, was up by nine with a minute left. But Ethan Wright hit a 3-pointer and Jaelin Llewellyn added two more, the final one with 24 seconds remaining, to get the top-seeded Tigers within two after Yale's Bez Mbeng had made a pair of free throws for Yale.

After Yale's Isaiah Kelly missed two free throws with 14.4 seconds to go, Llewellyn drove inside but his effort to kick out a pass went off the bottom of the backboard and struck him as he went out of bounds with 1.5 left. Yale, which had two five-second violations in the final minutes, threw a long inbounds pass that Llewellyn intercepted but his desperation heave wasn't close.

Swain shot 9 of 21 with three 3-pointers. Mbeng added 13 points and 11 rebounds plus three steals and Matt Knowling had 12 points and five assists for the Bulldogs (19-11), who split with Princeton during the regular season but finished a game back of the first-place Tigers.

Tosan Evbuomwan scored 20 points with 11 rebounds and five assists for Princeton (23-6), which came in on an eight-game win streak. Llewellyn added 18 points and Wright 15. Princeton, ranked in the top 10 nationally in field-goal (49.05) and 3-point percentage (38.99) and eighth in scoring offense (80.4), shot 41%, made 10 of 30 from the arc and tied their season low for points.

Yale took a 7-4 lead on a Bbeng 3-pointer and led the rest of the way, holding a 32-25 halftime advantage. The Bulldogs led by as many as 11 in the second half, holding off several Princeton charges.

Yale shot 46%, made 6 of 17 from the arc and was plus-nine on the boards.

Yale: 2018-19 Ivy League Men's Basketball Champions

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Two thoughts kept running through Alex Copeland's mind as his Yale team prepared to take on Harvard for the Ivy League championship and an NCAA berth.

First, he couldn't stop thinking about how hard he would cry if the Bulldogs lost on their home floor to their archrival in front of friends and family. Second, he couldn't stop thinking about how hard he would cry if they won.

The tears turned out to be happy ones.

Copeland scored a season-high 25 points and Yale beat the Crimson 97-85 on Sunday for its second NCAA Tournament trip in four seasons.

Yale (22-7), which lost to Harvard (18-11) twice in the regular season, used a 15-0 burst in the second half to take control. The Bulldogs celebrated with their fans who poured onto the floor when it was over.

"Visualizing those moments ... it's been going on for so, so long that to actually be here and to be talking about it sitting next to these guys feels so surreal and it just feels amazing," Copeland said.

The Bulldogs will return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since a memorable run that saw them beat Baylor in 2016. After that opening win, Yale then played Duke tough in a 71-64 loss.

"It was nice to go as freshmen, but at the end of the day we realized we were just minor pieces in that," senior Trey Phills said. "We really wanted to carry and lead a team, give these other guys the experience we had."

Bryce Aiken scored 38 points for Harvard and Noah Kirkwood added 19.

Copeland was chosen the Ivy tournament's most outstanding player. The senior guard, who had seven assists, scored eight points during Yale's big run that turned a 59-58 deficit into a 73-59 lead.

"He's had a tremendous career and he stepped up big time for us tonight," Yale coach James Jones said.

Miye Oni, the Ivy League's player of the year, spent most of the game in foul trouble, but added 17 points for Yale. Azar Swain had 15.

Yale hit four of its first six shots and jumped out to an 8-2 lead on a spinning layup by Jordan Brunner. The Bulldogs stretched that to double-digits when Brunner found Blake Reynolds (14 points) underneath for a layup that made it 29-19.

But Aiken kept Harvard in the game. He hit six of his 10 shots in the first half and his three free throws gave the Crimson their first lead at 38-37.

Yale, which shot 61 percent over the first 20 minutes, led 43-42 at halftime.

Harvard came out strong after intermission and led 52-45 after a dunk by Kirkwood.

"It's a game of runs and we weren't able theirs going down the stretch and ultimately that led them to get the victory," Aiken said.

Yale scored the next eight points, capped by a jumper from Oni, who picked up his fourth foul with more than 14 minutes left and played just 10 minutes after intermission.

"I looked at the clock and I looked at the rest of the guys on the court and I said, `We've got to do it without him. We've got to hold it down until he can get back in the game," Copeland said.

The Bulldogs kept the Crimson at bay after their big run and cut down the nets on their home court after winning basketball's version of The Game.

CHARITY AT HOME

Yale hit 28 of its 30 foul shots in the game (93.3 percent) and Oni was 10 of 10 from the line. Harvard made 19 of 24 free throws.

MOVING UP

The win gives Jones 310 at Yale, tying him with Fran Dunphy (Penn) for second all-time in the Ivy League. He would need another 204 to catch former Princeton great Pete Carril.

BIG PICTURE

Yale: The Bulldogs and Crimson were both 10-4 during the regular season, but the Bulldogs were playing as visitors on their home floor because of their two losses to Harvard during the regular season. .

Harvard: Harvard came into the game 7-0 versus Ivy League Tournament teams this season, including that 2-0 record against Yale, the tiebreaker which earned the Crimson the top seed in the tournament. It also guarantees them a spot in the NIT.

"I mentioned that to our kids," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. "There's still basketball for our program to participate in a national tournament. We're proud of that."

UP NEXT

Yale: The Bulldogs await their opponent and site in the NCAA tourney.

Harvard: The Crimson await an NIT bid.

Yale: 2015-16 Ivy League Men's Basketball Champions

NEW YORK -- Yale finally ended its long NCAA tournament drought.

Makai Mason scored 22 points and Brandon Sherrod added 13 to lead Yale to a 71-55 victory over Columbia on Saturday night, clinching the Bulldogs' first NCAA bid since 1962.

The Bulldogs shared the Ivy championship last year with Harvard, but lost the playoff game with the Crimson.

"It's amazing," Sherrod said. "You look up in the gym and see the last time we got to tournament was 1962, it really motivates you to win. Every college basketball player wants to go to the big dance. It's unbelievable, great time for our school, great opportunity for our team. It's surreal."

Saturday's win ended the second longest NCAA drought of any team that has made the tournament previously, according to STATS. Only Dartmouth has gone longer without making it, not dancing since 1959. Tennessee Tech has the second-longest drought (1963), followed by Bowling Green and Columbia, who haven't made the tourney since '68.

Yale won without its captain Jack Montague, who left the team last month. The school has declined to detail why he left. Montague's family didn't return messages left by The Associated Press, but his father told the New Haven Register on Friday that his son was expelled.

"It's not something we talk about," Yale coach James Jones said. "We coach basketball and play basketball, deal with guys that are in the room and do the best we can."

The team did FaceTime with Montague before the game.

The Ivy League remains the only conference not to have a postseason tournament, so the regular-season champion goes to the NCAAs.

The Bulldogs (22-6, 13-1 Ivy) jumped out to a 17-3 lead as Columbia missed nine of its first 10 shots. Consecutive 3-pointers by Anthony Dallier capped the opening run 6:38 into the game.

Yale extended the advantage to 27-10 before Maodo Lo scored 10 straight points for the Lions, who used a 15-4 burst to close to within six with 4:31 left in the half. But that's as close as they'd get. Mason scored seven straight points during a 10-2 spurt to close the half and give the Bulldogs a 41-27 lead at the break.

Columbia rallied within 49-45 with 9:12 left, but consecutive 3-pointers by Mason and Khaliq Ghani restored the double-digit lead with 7:17 left. Columbia could only get within six the rest of the way.

As the final seconds ran down, Yale started to celebrate the end of 54 years of frustration with coach James Jones hugging his players.

Lo scored 21 points to lead Columbia (21-10, 10-4). The Lions are in the midst of one of the most successful seasons in school history. They already have the most regular season wins in program history since the 1950-51 season when Columbia won 23 games. The Lions were trying to win 11 league games for the first time since 1978.

They honored seniors Lo, Alex Rosenberg, Isaac Cohen and Grant Mullins before the game. The quartet is the winningest class for Columbia since 1953.

"I love our team, these guys were once young guys in the locker room," Columbia coach Kyle Smith said. "These four seniors logged a lot of minutes, won more than most and set a number of records. You go back 45-50 years to some of the accomplishments they made. They'll be missed for sure."