I missed the Yale game on Saturday but here's Dan Nowak's story on the contest and another big effort by Greg Mangano


NEW HAVEN – Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones has been waiting, yearning for the kind of dominating first half the Bulldogs played against Vermont on Saturday at the Lee Amphitheater.

The Bulldogs built up a double-digit lead with just under 11 minutes left in the half. They had 16 rebounds, four blocks, two steals, five three-pointers, shot 87.5 percent at the free throw line and had a 54.2 field-goal percent age in the first half.

When the final second ticked off the clock in the second half, Greg Mangano of Orange had 22 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks and Jeremiah Kreisberg and Austin Morgan added 14 points each to lead Yale to a 68-52 win over Vermont in front of a crowd of 1,205. Mangano and Kreisberg led all scorers with 11 points each at halftime.

"Yes, that was one of our better first halves in a few years," Jones said. "We did a great job on the defensive end and with our rebounding. That was the key, not only in the first half but the whole game.

"We always talk about being solid and playing a complete game. Sometimes we do that, sometimes we don’t. This team has the potential to be very special. That first half is a good example and hopefully we can build on that."

Yale (5-2), coming off a three-game road trip, has won three in a row and four of its last five games.

"It felt great to be back home and it felt good playing on our home court," Mangano said. "We had a great crowd for a Saturday afternoon. Whenever we were making a run it was pretty loud and that pumped us all up."

In the first half, Yale took a 4-2 lead and never looked back, dominating in every phase of the game. The Bulldogs were even hot from 3-point range with five treys in nine attempts.

A Kreisberg 10-foot jump shot gave the Bulldogs a 22-9 lead with 10:40 to go in the half.

Vermont worked the score down to single digits when Four McGlynn made two free throws to cut the Bulldogs lead to 29-20 with 5:32 left in the half.

The Bulldogs responded by closing the first half on a 9-0 run. Morgan’s third 3-pointer of the game gave the Bulldogs a 34-30 lead with 3:25 to go. Brandon Sherrod’s layup with 45 seconds to go capped the run to make it 38-20 at halftime.

"They were quick but I’m not surprised by their speed," Vermont coach John Becker said. "Yale beat us the full 40 minutes. We didn’t have it from the jump tonight."

The Catamounts (4-4) came out more aggressive in the second half, possesssed the ball more and actually outscored the Bulldogs 32-30. But Vermont couldn’t overcome the first-half deficit.

The closest Vermont could get was 55-43 when Luke Apfeld made a layup with 5:10 left in the game.