Two days, two losses for the Red and Blue.
The Penn men's basketball team's second game of a weekend back-to-back was against the Yale Bulldogs— who entered the Saturday game with a 5-0 record in Ivy League Play. With two players scoring at least 20, the Bulldogs remained perfect after a 90-61 blowout win at the Palestra.
It was quite the start for Yale (13-6, 6-0 Ivy) — holding Penn to no points in the first 4:32 to take a 9-0 early lead.
The run was capped by senior forward Nick Spinoso fouling Bulldogs senior guard John Poulakidas on a three to send the game into its first media timeout. Poulakidas would make all three free throws.
In the first eight minutes, Yale scored 20 on 6-8 shooting compared to Penn’s (6-13, 2-4 Ivy) 4 points on 2-14 shooting from the field. However, Penn started to make buckets — with three straight makes going into and after the 3rd media timeout. That, along with 3 bulldog turnovers in two minutes, allowed Penn to climb within just seven. The seven-point mark would turn out to be the closest Penn could get to staying with the Bulldogs.
But soon came an 8-0 Yale run, capped off by a step-back jumper by Poulakidas to increase his first-half point total to 13. An away-from-the-play foul on Polonowski following the shot gave Yale another possession, culminating in a Poulakidas layup falling away from the basket despite being smothered by Quaker defenders.
Senior guard George Smith hit a late three-pointer as time expired, but Poulakidas’ 17 points in the opening frame along with the Bulldogs collectively going 12-12 from the charity stripe, had amassed a 16-point margin into the halftime locker room—leading 48-32.
“It's tough to guard us, and defense was basically one on one, and it's tough to guard Nick Townsend one on one at the basket,” Yale coach James Jones said. “And John [Poulakidas] is such an unbelievable offensive threat, he was able to get opportunities … driving to the basket and on the jump shot, he gets fouled most of the time because.”
In the first half, the Quakers were out-rebounded 19-9, and that would hold true in the second as the Bulldogs won the battle of the boards 41-30 on the evening.
Well into the second half, Yale went over three minutes without a score, allowing Penn to go on a 6-0 run in just under a minute. This would inch Penn closer — trailing the Bulldogs by only 10.
A pull-up jumper from Sam Brown seemed to give the Quakers an ounce of life 17 minutes into the second half, but senior guard Bez Mbeng had other ideas. The reigning Ivy League defensive player of the year followed it up with a three of his own. Mbeng had 19 points on 7-14 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. He spent most of the game guarding junior guard Ethan Roberts who led the Quakers with 19 as well.
Junior forward Nick Townsend led the way for Yale in what would turn out to be a resounding victory, ending the night with 23 points — 10 of which came in the second half.
“Townsend has risen this game over this year like nobody I've seen in a long time,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said. “I think that's the difference. That's an advantage for them because he's so effective on the offensive end.”
Penn will continue its push to earn a spot in the Ivy League tournament with a date versus Princeton this Friday.
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