There was a distinct sense of disappointment by Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones as the NBA draft progressed on Thursday night.

Although Bulldogs star center Greg Mangano was a bit of a long shot to get drafted, when Jones saw the end of the second round progress — loaded with post players, most of whom were foreigners or deemed projects — Jones wondered why his guy wasn’t selected.

Yale basketball player sets sights on NBA: wtnh.com

“I really felt that Greg was just as good if not better than a lot of the players picked (at the end of the second round),” Jones said.

Of the final 13 picks in the draft, NBA teams opted for seven foreign players, using their method called “draft and stash” where they select a player and then let him play overseas for a couple of years and hope they mature into the next Dirk Nowitzki. Most of them are very raw skill-wise.

Mangano worked out for several teams and Jones said the 6-foot-10 shot-blocker from Orange will most likely hook up with a team in the NBA Summer League. Then it will be up to Mangano to see if he gets a good deal overseas or plays in the NBA Developmental League.

Yale’s Reggie Willhite may also go that route. Jones said Willhite is cut from the same cloth as Oklahoma City’s Thabo Sefolosha. “He’s working to show teams that his jump shot is there and he’s already a great defender,” Jones said.

Penn's Zach Rosen

Another Ivy Leaguer who did not get selected in the draft was Penn’s Zach Rosen.

“He was the best point guard we’ve played against in several years,” Jones said. “I’m sure he has pro aspirations, but I don’t know what his plans are.”

It looks like Jeremy Lin’s success did little to quell any Ivy League stigmas that may exist. But after watching that trio play for four years, I believe Mangano would have been the starting center at UConn (and Andre Drummond was drafted ninth), Reggie Willhite is one of the best ball defenders I’ve ever seen and Rosen will not only play in the NBA one day, but he will make an impact.

‰Congratulations to former Cheshire Academy star Johannah Leedham, who will be on the Great Britain women’s basketball Olympic team.

In a story I wrote about Leedham and her sister while the two were playing together in high school, I quoted their former coach as saying Hartford coach Jen Rizzotti watched them play on one occasion with great interest.

Rizzotti refuted that fact, saying she had never seen them. I then emailed Rizzotti to tell her that if she in fact hadn’t seen Johannah Leedham play, then she should hurry down and check her out. I don’t know if she ever did, but somehow both of the Leedhams ended up at Franklin Pierce where Johannah became the best Division II player in the country.

Now she’s an Olympian. Someone missed the boat.

As for Cheshire Academy, I sent my son there last year and it was an awesome experience.

‰After a thrilling Stanley Cup finals, it is disheartening to hear the NHL is once again facing labor issues. Then I learned that Donald Fehr is the new chief of the players’ association.

All I can say is, “Uh, oh.”

‰Earlier in the week the college football hierarchy announced that in 2014 there will be a four-team playoff system to determine the national champion.

A day later they announced Alabama and USC were already two of the finalists.

‰The very first inning the day after Kevin Youkilis was traded from the Red Sox to the White Sox, Will Middlebrooks booted a ball and the fans greeted him with jeers of: “Youuukk.”

Of course Boston had to find a way to get Middlebrooks into its lineup daily, but bringing back a utility player with less ability than Nick Punto and a 25-year-old pitcher who had already been traded four times was not the way to go about it.

Boston should have held onto Youkilis until close to the trade deadline and then unloaded him. The White Sox were already desperate and the way players have been dropping lately, you could have guaranteed the Red Sox would have gotten a better deal. And if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have cost them anything extra as they’re already paying most of Youkilis’ remaining contract.

It just exemplifies what a dismal start Ben Cherington is off to since taking over for Theo Epstein. First he botched the Epstein compensation pact and then he picked up Marlon Byrd, who has since been released and found to have been using performance-enhancing drugs.

In baseball terms, Youkilis is already his third strike.

‰One of the most popular reality shows on cable TV is “Storage Wars,” where a group of businessmen and collectors buy abandoned storage units from facilities on the West Coast.

Whether those TV auctions are staged or not is anyone’s guess, but such auctions are fairly common. You can go online to get a schedule of auctions in every state in New England. There were over 30 auctions in Connecticut in June alone.

Get ready. Yuuup.

‰The phantom catch by the Yankees’ Dewayne Wise on Tuesday night just reemphasized the need for instant replay in baseball. Wise made a gallant effort leaping into the stands in foul territory trying to snare a pop-up hit by Cleveland’s Jack Hannahan.

Replays showed the ball clearly bounced out of his glove, but umpire Mike DiMuro ruled that Wise caught it without ever asking the outfielder to show him the baseball. DiMuro later admitted he made a mistake, although Yankee radio announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman still contend it was one of the greatest catches they ever saw. (What game does Sterling watch?)

The most absurd view of the play, however, had to come from former Cincinnati Reds general manager Jim Bowden. He said Wise should have fessed up to dropping the ball in the name of sportsmanship and told the umpire to rule it a foul ball.

No wonder the Reds haven’t been any good in decades.

‰I find it hard to believe the PGA is considering banning long putters on the tour. Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open using a long putter. Keegan Bradley used it to win the PGA Championship.

When I took up the game of golf I found that the hardest thing to do was to snap a 3-iron out of the rough and try to get it to the green 180 yards away. Now, all you have to do is drop a hybrid on the ball and you’re there.

The premise of the complaint against the long putters is that when the putter is anchored against the belly, it is a third contact point with the body, thus giving it more control.

I don’t buy it. First ban titanium and oversized drivers and then we’ll worry about putters.

Bill Cloutier can be reached at bcloutier@nhregister.com. Follow Bill on Twitter @BillCloutier. To receive breaking news first, simply text the word nhsports to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates May Apply.

With the NBA draft approaching on June 28, a pair of Bulldogs are working to boost their professional resumes.

Mangano, a 6-10 post player with a deft outside touch, is regarded as a possible second-round selection. He has appeared on some mock drafts.

But Jones feels that if Mangano isn’t selected, it could be the best thing for him.

Reggie Willhite/Yale photo

“If he doesn’t get picked he becomes a free agent and then he has the pick-and-choose option where he can decide where he feels he has the best chance of making a roster,” Jones said.

Jones said that Mangano has already worked out in a couple of NBA camps. He has workouts planned with the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and the Boston Celtics beginning on June 17. He is also scheduled to work out for the Bucks and the Jazz.

If Mangano doesn’t get selected, he could reach a free-agent deal immediately after the draft is concluded.

“I’ve called the Celtics and the Sixers to set up things for Greg,” Jones said. “None of the general managers have called me, but I believe they don’t do that because they know that all they’d hear is someone trying to sell their player. They’ve probably called (other Ivy League coaches) to talk to them about Greg.”

Willhite, a 6-4, first-team All-Ivy selection, worked out for the Celtics on June 1, and Jones was told that his former swingman posted the second-best conditioning score in the history of the team. Willhite is certainly a candidate for the NBA D-League which produced Jeremy Lin last season. He is an explosive leaper and defensive wizard.

COLUMBIA AT YALE
When: Today at 7 p.m.
Where: Lee Amphitheater, New Haven
Records: Columbia (14-12, 3-7 Ivy League); Yale (17-7, 7-3 Ivy)
TV: YES
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs are 9-1 at home and sit in third place in the Ivy League after losing at Harvard last weekend. Yale rallied from 21 points down in the second half to defeat Columbia two weeks ago for its sixth straight win in the series. Reggie Willhite had 24 points and seven steals in the game to lead the comeback and also hit the game-winning shot. Yale trails Penn by a half-game for second place in the Ivy League and the Quakers play at Harvard on Saturday.
Scouting Columbia: The Lions dropped a 61-59 decision in overtime last time out at Penn. Meiko Lyles led Columbia with 17 points in the game. Columbia has lost three straight games and six of its seven losses in the league losses have been by five points or fewer. The Lions are 25th in the nation and first in the Ivy in scoring defense allowing just over 60 ppg.
Probable starters
Yale
Name, Ht, Year, Pos, Ppg.
Jeremiah Kreisberg, 6-10, So., F, 7.9
Greg Mangano, 6-10, Sr, C, 18.4
Reggie Willhite, 6-4, Sr, F, 12.5
Austin Morgan, 5-10, Jr, G, 12.2
Michael Grace, 6-0, Jr., G, 5.9
Columbia
Alex Rosenberg, 6-7, Fr., F, 6.9
John Daniels, 6-8, Jr., F, 2.9
Mark Cisco, 6-9, Jr., C, 9.8
Brian Barbour, 6-1, Jr., G, 15.2
Meiko Lyles, 6-3, So., G, 10.5

Off the bench: Yale: Brandon Sherrod, 6-6, Fr., F, 3.8; Jesse Pritchard,6-5, So., G, 1.6. Columbia: Blaise Staab, 6-5, Sr., F, 4.0; Chris Crockett, 5-10, Sr., G, 5.6.

NEW HAVEN – Last weekend is already a blur to Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones. His Bulldogs lost an overtime heart-breaker at Cornell and then rallied from 21 points down in the second half to defeat Columbia.
The weekend split left Yale (16-6, 6-2 Ivy League) in exactly the same place it was before it started,in second place and a game behind Harvard in the Ivy League standings. Yale visits Dartmouth (4-20, 0-8) on Friday night before playing at the Crimson (21-3, 7-1) on Saturday at Cambridge, Mass., in another crucial weekend of league play.
“The entire weekend is a complete blur,” Jones said of last week’s split. “You think about playing those games so close together. A four-hour bus ride. We got little sleep and the fact that you play overtime one night and then play the next night.
“We didn’t even get a chance to digest the Cornell game (an 85-84 loss) fully and they’re throwing the ball up for another game. I’m not sure what to take from the comeback in the Columbia game but I know that this team is resilient and they never give up.”
Yale forward Reggie Willhite took over the game against the Lions scoring 24 points including the game-winner in the 59-58 victory. Jones said it might have been the best game he’s ever played at Yale.
“He did what he was capable of doing,” Jones said. “There are very few people in the league that can stay in front of him. We were able to isolate him a little and he was able to do some stuff on his own.”
Said Willhite: “A lot of people were probably writing the season off during the Columbia game. It shows your true colors when your back is against the wall. The loss to Cornell definitely stung. Being down 21 points and staring the end of the season in your face, we had to find something that worked. We played our hearts and were able to get back into it.”
Yale defeated Dartmouth 62-52 getting a game-high 16 points from Willhite. They’re certainly not looking past the Big Green tonight.
“You do exactly what you’ve always done to prepare,” Jones said. “Last week we spent a lot more time on Cornell because they play differently than any other team in the league. This week we spent as much time working on ourselves as we did Harvard or Dartmouth.
“Dartmouth is always tough, especially up there. They’ve played everybody tough. Last week Penn’s Zach Rosen had to bury a 3-pointer from over 30 feet away to beat them. They’re dangerous. We’re very good inside and if we go in there we have a distinct advantage.”
Should the Bulldogs beat Dartmouth it has a short turnaround to get ready for nationally-ranked Harvard.
“It’s the curse of the Ivy League,” Willhite said. “Playing back-to-back nights is always tough but it’s even tougher when you have a huge rivalry game on the second night.”
Yale was embarrassed by Harvard 65-35 earlier in the season. The Bulldogs were never in the contest but Jones feels that his team can truly compete with the Crimson.
“Even in that game, Harvard only scored 65 points,” he said. “So our defense wasn’t that bad, we just couldn’t make a basket.”
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NEW HAVEN — Long before Jeremy Lin became a pop culture phenom and burgeoning NBA superstar, Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones began looking into recruiting the current New York Knicks’ guard.

Jones, however, used his connections in upstate N.Y. to land high school star Alex Zampier. Lin, a 6-3 point guard from Palo Alto, Calif., ended up at rival Harvard.
“We got some information on Jeremy Lin late,” Jones said. “Alex had a better high school career. Jeremy was a good college player but he’s much better now but I don’t think he ever scored over 20 points in six straight college games.”
Jones’ team went 5-3 against the Crimson in Lin’s four years. He never would believe he was watching a future NBA legend.
“What he did in college has nothing to do with what he’s doing in the NBA,” Jones said. “He’s playing like an NBA all-star now.
“That would be like LeBron James playing against us and he didn’t play like LeBron James when he was at Harvard. He didn’t dominate the league like he’s doing in the NBA. What’s he done is nothing short of unbelievable.”
“No one in any stretch of the imagination can tell you they saw this in him. He’s excelling at a level that is for rare air. No one is doing what he is doing. The Knicks have tried a bunch of different point guards over the past few years and none of them have done what he’s doing.”
Lin has led the Knicks to seven straight wins. He hit the game-winning 3-pointer in the final second against Toronto on Tuesday night and entered Wednesday night’s game against Sacramento averaging 26.8 points and eight assists since getting the chance to play extended time on Feb. 4
As a senior at Harvard in 2009-10, Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.4 steals.
Current Yale senior Reggie Willhite spent some time guarding Lin in Willhite’s sophomore season.
“Knowing what he was like back then and the type of player he is now you can tell how hard he’s worked,” Willhite said. “He just looks like he’s got an iron-clad work ethic. He’s developed into a very good player.
“I’m aware that we play mid-major Division I basketball but you can’t rule out someone that works that hard. If you have talent and that work ethic anything’s possible.”
Lin is not the first Ivy League athlete to make an impact in pro sports. Princeton’s Bill Bradley was an NBA legend in the seventies. Last NFL season, former Princeton quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had a splendid first half of he season with the Buffalo Bills.
But they are rare indeed. Jerome Allen (Pennsylvania) is the last Ivy Leaguer to be drafted in the NBA in 1995.
Lin’s quick ascent to stardom is as unlikely as that of former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner who came out of the Arena Football League to win the Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams. Lin came out of the NBA Developmental League, and was just a few days away from getting cut by his third NBA team before catching the world on the fire.
“We have people in our league right now that may end up on an NBA roster if they work hard enough,” Willhite said.
Zampier also went on to play in the D-League upon his graduation in 2010 but played little and did not return this season.
Willhite said that at first he was a bit hesitant to root for a Harvard grad.
“Getting caught up in all the media attention and the hoopla, you know the story that you can’t help but root for him,” Willhite said. “I root for the underdog and he’s definitely the underdog.”
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Greg Mangano had another big week for the Yale men’s basketball team, and it has resulted in a pair of honors for the 6-10 center. Mangano, who averaged 21.5 points and 11.0 rebounds in Yale’s weekend sweep of Penn and Princeton, earned Ivy League and CollegeSportsMadness National Mid-Major Player of the Week honors.
Mangano was recognized by the Ivy League for the eighth time in his career, which ties for the second most in league history. Only Brown’s Earl Hunt (9 – 2000-03) has more.
In Yale’s 60-53 victory over Penn, Mangano hit a big three-pointer and had two huge offensive rebounds off of missed free throws in the last three minutes as the Bulldogs’ scored the final 10 points of the game. He finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
He followed that up by scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in the 58-54 win over Princeton.
Mangano leads the Ivy League in scoring (19.0 ppg.), rebounding (10.1 rpg.) and blocks (49).

Reggie Willhite, who scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win over Princeton, was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll.

The Bulldogs have a pair of road games this weekend. They play at Cornell on Friday and then are at Columbia on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN -- Yale’s loss to Harvard a week ago made this weekend’s games imperative. The Bulldogs’ men’s basketball team had to sweep powerhouses Penn and Princeton if they were to truly contend for an Ivy League crown.
Mission accomplished.

Reggie Willhite and Greg Mangano both scored 20 points and Yale held off a late rally to defeat Princeton 58-54 before 2,175 fans at the Lee Amphitheater Saturday night. The win, Yale’s third straight, moves them to 15-5 overall and 5-1 in the Ivy League. Harvard leads the league at 6-0 and both teams have eight games left.
“It feels amazing,” Yale captain Reggie Willhite said. “Coach told us before the game how Princeton had beaten us five straight times. We knew how important it was to get a Penn-Princeton sweep. It’s always one of the most difficult parts of the season and to win both of them at home feels great.”
Princeton, one of the preseason favorites in the league, fell to 11-10 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy. The Tigers were led by Ian Hummer with 18 points. Mack Darrow had 11 and Patrick Saunders had 10.
Yale was fantastic in the first half. The Bulldogs took a 32-23 lead into the break despite shooting 2-for-10 from 3-point range. The rest of their game, however, was precise led by Willhite, who had 13 points at the break. Yale’s defense held Princeton without a point for nearly 10 minutes.
“We re-geared after Harvard,” Willhite said. “Everybody understood what this weekend meant, myself included, and we played pretty well.”
The Bulldogs opened up the advantage to a dozen early in the second half but it seemed like they wanted to put the game away from the 3-point line. Yale missed five straight shots from long range in a scoreless span of nearly five minutes.
While the stretch didn’t hurt them much on the scoreboard, Jones said the offense went stagnant and Princeton finally began to chip away. Hummer led the charge scoring 10 straight Tiger points and Princeton eventually closed the gap to 53-51 on a putback by Darrow with 1:08 to play.
“I still felt pretty good,” Jones said. “We maintained the lead for the most part. I just felt we took some ill-advised shots but what’s anchored us all weekend was our defense.”
Yale didn’t buckle and Jeremiah Kreisberg made two free throws on the next trip to extend the lead to four. Princeton, which missed several open 3-pointers in the second half, never got closer than three points in the final minute and never had the ball with a chance to tie the game. The Tigers shot 33 percent from the field in the game.
“Our guys did a good job of staying focused and we did all that was necessary to win the game,” Jones said. “We got a little tight in the second half and we stopped trying to win the game and instead tried to manage it.
“We haven’t been in that situation in games, to manage the lead.”
Kreisberg played his best game in weeks for the Bulldogs. The sophomore forward from Berkeley, Calif., scored nine points and two took charges.
“I texted him last night and told him I have great confidence in him and he was going to have a good game today,” Jones said. “He’s been in a little bit of a haze but he got himself out of it. He knows he’s a good player. He just needs to make sure he has the confidence.”
It was the fifth time in Jones’ tenure at Yale that he’s swept the weekend series against Penn and Princeton. The Bulldogs, who are 9-1 at home, now play four straight games on the road capped by a Feb. 18 trip to first-place Harvard.
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By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN – The sigh of relief could be heard all the way to the campus of Harvard in Cambridge, Mass.

Yale, down by as many as 11 points and trailing virtually the entire game, finished the game on a 13-3 run to defeat Brown 68-64 in the Ivy League opener for both teams before a crowd of 1,832 at the Lee Amphitheater Saturday.
Yale, picked second in the preseason league poll, entered the game a 13-point favorite and after posting a 10-4 pre-league record, its best since 1991, its title aspirations were high.
A loss to Brown was frankly unacceptable if the Bulldogs had any chance of taking the Ivy League title from heavyweights such as Harvard..
“They’re all big wins,” Yale coach James Jones said. “You don’t ever want to lose a league game especially at home. You don’t want to start off 0-1. I thought our kids did a really good job of keeping their composure but I can’t tell you that I felt like we were going to pull this one out the whole time because I didn’t.
Austin Morgan led Yale with 18 points seven in the decisive run. Greg Mangano had a quiet 15 points and just four rebounds, well below his league-leading average of 10.7.
And Reggie Willhite finished with 12 points and three steals, two of which changed the game.
“It took the last five minutes of the game to ratchet things up a little bit, especially on the defensive end and make some plays give ourselves the opportunity to win,” Jones said.
Trailing 61-58 with 1:35 to play, Willhite picked the pocket of Brown star Sean McGonahill and turned it into a thunderous dunk. On the very next trip down the court Willhite did it again.
After the second steal Yale took a timeout and then Willhite buried a jumpshot with 59 seconds to play to give Yale its first lead, 62-61, since it led 7-3 in the game’s first minutes.
McGonagill finished with a game-high 23 points but couldn’t beat Willhite when the game was on the line. Regarded as the league’s best defender, Jones never opted to have Willhite defend the high-scoring Brown guard until the game’s final minutes.
“(Entering the game) we didn’t feel we needed to,” Jones said. “We thought our trio of guards would give him enough trouble. But you have to give McGonagill credit. He had a great game. He made a lot of tough shots and I don’t know if he’s going to make those shots night after night.
“Not taking anything away from Reggie but McGonagill played 40 minutes and he may not make those steals if he wasn’t that tired.”
Said Willhite: “Even before I switched on McGonagill they had been stalling. They were playing not to lose, not necessarily to win. I knew I didn’t have many fouls and I knew we weren’t going to get many more possessions so I went for it and it worked out.
“I ended up getting a couple of steals and we got the win.”
.After Willhite’s jumper Brown had a chance to regain the lead but Matt Sullivan (16 points) missed a wide open 3-pointer in the corner.
Yale got the rebound and Michael Grace hit two free throws and later Morgan sank four more free throws to ice it.
“You’d have to be crazy not to (breathe a sigh of relief) after this one,” Willhite said. “We’re happy this one is behind us. We have to keep our destiny in our own hands and we lose the ones that we have the advantage in.”
Brown got just the start it needed. Entering the contest on a four-game losing streak the Bears fell behind 7-3 but got a boost of confidence scoring the next 10 points as Yale went ice cold from the floor and appeared a bit rattled.
Brown knocked down six 3-pointers in the first nine minutes of the game, three from Stephen Albrecht and it finished with nine trifectas (9-for-15) in the first half to take a 38-31 lead into intermission.
It could have been worse for the Bulldogs but McGonagill, who had 16 points at the break was fouled two separate times on 3-point attempts but the 78 percent free throw shooter only made one of six attempts.
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Men’s basketball gameday
ST. JOSEPH (L.I.) AT YALE

When: Sunday, 4 p.m.
Where: Lee Amphitheater, New Haven
Records: St. Joseph’s (9-1); Yale (9-4)
KEEP AN EYE ON
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs play their last game before beginning Ivy League play for the final 14 games of the season. This should serve as a final chance for coach James Jones’ bench players to show they deserve playing time once the league play begins against Brown on Saturday. Greg Mangano continues to lead the Bulldogs and is nearing 1,000 points for his stellar career.
Scouting St. Joseph’s: This the first time the Golden Eagles, a Division III school, have ever played a Division I opponent. They start five seniors and average 85 points a game so expect and end-to-end matchup. They were picked second in the Skyline Conference preseason poll and went 22-7 last season.
PROBABLE STARTERS
YALE
Player Ht. Yr. Pos. PPG
Greg Mangano 6-10 Sr. F 18.7
Reggie Willhite 6-4 Sr. F 12.1
Austin Morgan 5-11 Jr. G 13.3
Jeremiah Kreisberg 6-1 So. F 8.2
Michael Grace 6-0 Jr.. G 6.5
ST. JOSEPH'S
Chris Jiminez 6-0 Sr. G 15.3
Olivier Laurent 6-2 So. G 15.3
Vincent Russo 6-4 Sr. F 7.6
Trey Black 6-2 Sr. G 16.0
Steve Velazquez 6-4 Sr. F 12.1
OFF THE BENCH
Yale — Isaiah Salafia, 6-3, So., G, 3.3 ppg.; Brandon Sherrod, 6-6, Fr., F, 3.3; St. Joseph’s — Shahab Syez, 6-6, Sr., C, 9.9; Cody Lohsen, 6-4, So., F, 4.8.
— Bill Cloutier

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN – Things probably came too easy for the Yale men’s basketball team on Tuesday.
Returning home after playing national powers Wake Forest and 13th-ranked Florida, the Bulldogs raced out to an early 20-point lead against Holy Cross. Then they put things on cruise control and had to hang on for an 82-67 victory in front of 1,326 anxious fans at the Lee Amphitheater.

Greg Mangano, who scored 26 points in his last outing, a nationally-televised contest against the Gators continued his dominating play. Mangano led all scorers with 27 points for Yale including all seven Bulldog points in a 7-2 run after the Crusaders had cut Yale’s whopping deficit to 63-59 with eight minutes left in the game.
“I wasn’t upset (with their comeback),” Yale coach James Jones said. “I always had a good feeling that we were in control. If it got out of control I might have been a little upset but I think that Holy Cross is a very good basketball team and very good teams make runs.
“If you’re going to be a good team you have to combat them.”
Magano scored on a reverse layup, buried a foul line jumper and then topped the run off with a power drive to the hoop which he converted into a three-point play to give the Bulldogs breathing room. Sam Martin then came off the bench and hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the game out of reach.
“That was definitely a tough game for us,” Holy Cross coach Milan Brown said. “It was great to see us fight back in the second half but we played against a really good team and the caught us early and we ran out of gas but we weren’t going to able to come all the way back.
“You can’t put yourself in a hole that deep against a team as good as they are.”
The Crusaders’ one-two punch of R.J. Evans and Devin Brown led the comeback. Evans, a junior from Salem, Conn., whom the Bulldogs recruited heavily while playing at Norwich Free Academy, led Holy Cross (6-8) with 24 points. He turned two steals of Holy Cross’ six steals in the second half into thunderous dunks.
His sidekick, Holy Cross leading-scorer Devin Brown, chipped in with 22 points on 8-for-15 shooting.
But the Crusaders got little else and they never could stop Mangano.
“Greg’s a very good player and when it’s one-on-one in the post I expect him to score,” Jones said. “He was 11-for-14 from the floor without the 3-pointers he missed.”
Said Milan Brown: “(Mangano’s) really good. He was one of the guys we tried to convey to everybody to give him more resistance and I thought he did a good job of making plays over us when we were there. Once he got going you can’t give a player with that caliber of skills and let him get going.
“Can you imagine Mangano and (Harvard’s) Keith Wright in the same league?”
Mangano also had a game-high 13 rebounds and blocked four more shots to add to his school record total of 178. Against the Crusaders he dominated from the start, registering a quick nine points as Yale led 13-9 in the game’s early stages. The Bulldogs then scored the next 11 points to take a 24-9 lead. It could have been bigger as Yale’s Isaiah Salafia picked off a pass but he flubbed on his attempt at a highlight-reel, 360 dunk.
The Crusaders, however, couldn’t seize the momentum and Yale capped a 22-4 run a pair of free throws by Salafia.
Holy Cross, which saw its two-game winning streak snapped, finally got things going late in the first half led by Evans, who scored eight points in a 15-4 run as the Crusaders got back in the game and trailed 41-28 at the half.
“I don’t think (we were looking past Yale),” Milan Brown said. “We were trying to play aggressive but they got some easy looks early and it got them going. You can’t do that on the road.
“You have to be mentally and physically ready. I told them the only way we were going to get back into it was if we played together and I thought we did that in the second half.”
Yale (9-4) has won the past three games in the series. The Bulldogs outrebounded Holy Cross 44-25 and outscored them 40-22 in the paint.
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On Sunday Yale's men's basketball won its sixth straight game, a wild affiar against URI.
The details come from the Yale Website.

Bulldogs Extend Winning Streak To Six With Dramatic Victory

KINGSTON, R.I. – Yale extended its winning streak to six straight games, but it sure didn't come easy. The Bulldogs needed a five-point play with 18 seconds left to help knock off Rhode Island 68-65 before a stunned crowd of 3,355 at the Thomas Ryan Center.

With Yale down by two, 63-61, Austin Morgan hit a three-pointer from just right of the top of the key with 18 seconds left. URI's Rayvon Harris was hit with a foul trying to fight through a screen on the play. Morgan's basket counted, and Jeremiah Kreisberg added a pair of free throws to make it 66-63.

"Our first option was to go to Greg [Mangano]down low to try and tie it. Austin was on the same side, and he was the second option," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "Austin did a great job knocking down the shot, and Jeremiah set a great screen."

Still, the Runnin' Rams had a chance to tie in the final seconds. Mike Powell's driving layup pulled URI within one, 66-65, with nine seconds left. After a timeout, Yale inbounded the ball to Michael Grace, who was quickly fouled. He made both free throws with seven seconds remaining.

Rhode Island's Jonathan Holton missed a contested three-pointer from the wing as time expired.

Morgan finished with 19 points to pace the Bulldogs. All five of his field goals were three-pointers, and he was 4-of-4 from the foul line. Kreisberg and Mangano each added 15 points, and Grace scored seven.

At 8-2 overall, Yale is off to its best start since the 1991-92 team won 10 of its first 12 games. The six-game winning streak is the longest for the Bulldogs since 2001-02.

Three times during the winning streak, Yale has trailed at the half, and that was the case again against the Rams.

Perhaps showing the effects of a 10-day layoff for exams, the Bulldogs started slowly. URI (1-10) led by 13, 32-19, with three minutes left in the first half. The Bulldogs, though, closed the half with an 11-4 run to pull within 36-30 at the intermission.

The momentum carried over into the second half. Just seven minutes in, Yale had the lead and it grew to 10, 61-51, on a Mangano layup with 6:13 left.

The Bulldogs, though, didn't score again until Morgan's dramatic three-pointer.

"It feels good to get this win," Jones said. "We squandered a lead, but were able to come back. I think we showed a lot of resiliency."

Yale made nine three-pointers in the game and was 7-of-13 from beyond the arc in the second half.

"They switched to a zone, and we knocked down some shots," Jones said. "We did a poor job handling their pressure in the first half."

Isaiah Salafia hit two big three-pointers in the second half to account for his six points.

Nikola Malesevic led Rhode Island with 25 points.

NOTES: Yale was 19-of-22 from the foul line in the game… During the six-game winning streak, the Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 127-75 at the free throw line… Mangano had two blocked shots, giving him 171 for his career, one behind Chris Dudley's school record… Reggie Willhite had four assists in the game, including one on Morgan's dramatic three-pointer… The players will now head home for the holiday before getting back together in North Carolina on Dec. 27. The Bulldogs play at Wake Forest on Dec. 29 before heading to Gainesville, Fla., for a New Year's Eve matchup with Florida.

Dave Borges was on the scene as Yale edges Sacred Heart in a state battle of men's basketball teams

Yale defeats Hartford 74-69