Here's a preview of Yale's weekend series with Dartmouth and Harvard with a look at senior Alfonso Costa.



DARTMOUTH, HARVARD AT YALE
When: Friday vs. Dartmouth, 7 p.m.; Saturday vs. Harvard, 6 p.m.
Where: Lee Amphitheater, New Haven
Records: Yale (12-12, 5-5 Ivy); Dartmouth (5-19, 1-9); Harvard (20-4, 9-1)
Audio: www.wybc.com

KEEP AN EYE ON

Scouting Dartmouth: After beating Cornell, the Big Green has lost seven straight league games and falling into last place. They rank near the bottom in the NCAA in most offensive categories including scoring at 58.5 ppg. Yale got 30 points and 11 rebounds from Greg Mangano beating Dartmouth 69-60 at Hanover, N.H., earlier in the season.
Scouting Harvard: The Crimson play at Brown on Friday and will battle Princeton for the league title. Harvard trimmed Yale 78-75 earlier in the season at Cambridge, Mass. Harvard has won six straight to take a half-game lead over Princeton for first place in the league. Junior forward Keith Wright leads the team in rebounding and scoring and has become one of the best players in the league.
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs were swept at home last week, losing a pair of tight contests against Princeton and Penn. Saturday will be Senior Day as Porter Braswell, Raffi Mantilla and Alfonso Costa will be honored. Braswell has had his best season at Yale averaging 11 points and 3.5 rebounds a game and has scored in double figures seven of his last eight games.

Albertus Magnus loses in the semis
Falcons coach Mitch Oliver told his team they'd have to play better defensively to defeat Johnson & Wales in the semifinals of the GNAC Tournament.
It didn't happen.
The Johnson & Wales University men’s basketball team advanced to the 2011 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship with a commanding 128-107 victory against Albertus Magnus in the semifinals at the Harborside Recreation Center on Thursday evening at Providence, R.I.
It marks the first time the Wildcats will be appearing in the GNAC Finals since the 2003-04 campaign when they captured the conference crown en route to the school’s only NCAA appearance.
The 128 points scored by JWU is the most scored by a team in the history of the GNAC while the 75.4% shooting percentage from the field is a new tournament record. The Wildcats had all five starters in double figures in the victory.
Johnson & Wales junior Lamonte Thomas (Providence, R.I.), the 2011 GNAC Player of the Year, scored 40 points and added a GNAC record 20 assists. Senior Louis Ferreras (Providence, R.I.) added 20 points, four rebounds and three assists while junior James Folk (Salem, N.H.) and junior Calvin Jones (Providence, R.I.) each had 18 points in the victory. Senior Darren Faust (Queens, N.Y.) rounded out the double-figure scorers with 17 points in the victory.
Albertus Magnus was led by senior Walden St. Juste (Hartford, Conn.) with 37 points and six rebounds while freshman Darius Watson (New Britain, Conn.) narrowly missed a double-double with 24 points and nine boards in the setback for the Falcons.
Johnson & Wales raced out to the early lead and led 11-3 on a layup by Jones with 16:10 left in the first half. The Wildcats took their first double-figure lead of the game when a pair of free throws by Faust gave the squad the 35-25 advantage with 8:23 remaining on the clock. Albertus responded, however and used a 13-6 run over the next four minutes to cut the lead to 41-38 on a three pointer by St. Juste with 4:39 left in the half. That would be as close as the Falcons would get as the Wildcats took the 59-55 lead into the locker room at halftime. JWU shot an astounding 74.1% from the field in the first half.
The Wildcats pushed their lead to 20 points in the early stages of the second half and led by 20 points after a three-point play by Ferreras gave the team the 97-77 lead with 9:07 left in the game. JWU would then cruise to the 128-107 victory.
With the win Johnson & Wales is now 19-8 overall while Albertus Magnus falls to 17-10 for the season. The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday, February 26th when they travel to St. Joseph’s of Maine for the GNAC Championship game at 2:00 p.m.