DARTMOUTH AT YALE


Where: Lee Amphitheater
When: Friday, 7 p.m.
Video: yalebulldogs.com
Records: Dartmouth (6-16, 2-6 Ivy); Yale (10-15, 4-4)

What to look for
Scouting Dartmouth: The Big Green sit in a tie for last in the Ivy League but are dangerous. Dartmouth has 13 freshmen or sophomores on the roster and led Harvard in the second half in their two meetings earlier in the season but lost them both. They also beat Yale in their only meeting. Gabas Maldunas (10.7 ppg.) and Alex Mitola (10.1 ppg.) lead the team in scoring. Paul Cormier is now in the third season of his second stint as the head coach of the Big Green. He also guided Dartmouth from 1984 to 1991.

Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs have won 13 straight games against the Big Green at home but can't afford past tonight's opponent with rival Harvard on deck Saturday. Yale dropped its first meeting to Dartmouth earlier in the season 71-62. Gabas Maldunas was 8-of-10 from the field and finished with 16 points to lead Dartmouth to a victory on Feb. 2. Yale got a career-high 16 points from Matt Townsend, but shot just 35 percent from the field. Austin Morgan added 20 points for the Bulldogs. The Big Green was 19-of-20 from the foul line in the second half and shot 51.1 percent from the field for the game.

-- Bill Cloutier

MEN'S BASKETBALL GAMEDAYS


COLUMBIA AT YALE

Where: Lee Amphitheater

When: 7 p.m.

Video: yalebulldogs.com

Records: Columbia (10-10 2-4 Ivy); Yale (9-14, 3-3)

What to look for

Scouting Columbia: The Lions who played at Brown on Friday snapped a four-game losing streak and handed Harvard its first Ivy League loss of the season last weekend. Steve Frankoski’s 27 points paced the Lions’ attack. Columbia shot over 50 percent from the floor and 9-of-17 from 3-point range. The Lions average just 10.1 turnovers per game, which is the fifth fewest in the nation. Brian Barbour (13.0 ppg.) leads the team in scoring, while Mark Cisco (5.9 rpg.) is the top rebounder. Columbia has five players averaging at least 9.8 points per game.

Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs have won seven straight against the Lions, four of them at home but they still trail the all-time series 122-110. The teams have met at least once every year since 1902, which ties the series with Yale-Princeton as the oldest continuous series in Division I. Freshman Justin Sears returned to the Yale lineup last weekend helping the Bulldogs to a sweep of Penn and Princeton. Sears leads the team in rebounding and ranks second in the Ivy League in the department.

-- Bill Cloutier

YALE AT PENN, PRINCETON

Friday vs. Penn,
Where: The Palestra, Philadelphia
When: 7 p.m.
Video: pennathletics.com

Saturday at Princeton
Where: Jadwin Gym, Princeton, N.J.
When: 6 p.m.
Video: goprincetontigers.com

Records: Yale (7-14, 1-3 Ivy), Penn (4-16, 1-2), Princeton (10-7, 3-0)

What to look for

Scouting Penn: The Quakers are coming off a split with Columbia and Cornell
last weekend. Miles Cartwright scored Penn's last eight points in a hard-fought 62-58 victory over Columbia. The next night, Cornell rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to edge the Quakers 71-69. Fran Dougherty (13.8 ppg.) and Cartwright (13.7 ppg.) lead the team in scoring. Dougherty also averages 8.1 rebounds, while Cartwright has a team-best 66 assists. Jerome Allen is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Quakers.

Scouting Princeton: The Tigers, who host Brown on Friday, have won five straight games overall and have a 20-game winning streak in Ivy League games at Jadwin Gym. Ian Hummer
is second in the league in scoring (15.9 ppg.) and fourth in rebounding (6.7 rpg.). Hummer was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the fi fth time this season after averaging 19.0 points in a sweep of Cornell and Columbia last week. Princeton (10-7, 3-0 Ivy) is No. 1 in the Ivy League and No. 14 in the nation (through Feb. 3) in scoring defense, now at 57.5 ppg. allowed. Mitch Henderson is in his second season as the head coach of the Tigers.

Scouting Yale: The lost a hard-fought game at Harvard last week and then were upset at Dartmouth dropping them to 1-3 in the league. Yale played both games without freshman star center Justin Sears due to an ankle injury. The Bulldogs appear to be getting healthy as both Brandon Sherrod and Jesse Pritchard have returned but only Sherrod played last week and in limited fashion. This is traditionally the toughest trip of the season for the Bulldogs but if they can't manage a split their Ivy League hopes appear to be in grave shape. After this weekend Yale plays four straight games at home.

- Bill Cloutier

MEN’S BASKETBALL GAMEDAY
Yale at Harvard
Where: Lavietes Pavilion, Cambridge, Mass.
When: Today, 7 p.m.
Records: Yale 7-12 (1-1 Ivy league); Harvard 10-6 (2-0)
Video: gocrimson.com
WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Scouting Harvard: The Crimson opened Ivy play by sweeping Dartmouth but it didn’t come easy. In the first meeting in Hanover, N.H., Harvard trailed 43-42 at halftime but shot a blistering 60 percent from the field in the second half to escape with a 75-65 win. Two weeks later in Boston, the Crimson rallied from a seven-point deficit with 1:10 remaining in the second half to force overtime and then outscored the Big Green 20-15 in the extra period to win 82-77. Wesley Saunders (16.3 ppg.) leads the Crimson in scoring. Harvard leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (69.9 ppg.), field goal percentage (.478) and three-point field goal percentage (.403).
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs begin a four-game Ivy League road trip after defeating Brown in overtime last week. Ten
players all saw at least 12 minutes of action in the game in Yale’s 76-64 win to rebound from a loss at Brown the week before. Austin Morgan (11.5 ppg.) continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring. He was named the Ivy League co-player of the week after scoring 16 points in Saturday’s win. Freshman Justin Sears earned co-rookie of the week honors after leading Yale with 18 points and eight rebounds against the Bears. The Bulldogs lead the Ivy League in rebounding margin (+3.8) and offensive rebounds (13.0 per game) and are second in scoring offense (66.4). Harvard swept the season series last year. The Crimson has won three straight at Lavietes Pavilion. Yale’s last win there was an 87-66 decision in 2009.

Here is my recap of Yale's Ivy League men's basketball season-opening loss at Brown.
The two teams play again this Saturday at New Haven.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — After struggling offensively at the beginning of the season, the Yale men’s basketball team seemed to have things straightened out heading into Saturday’s Ivy League opener.
Not so fast.
Sean McGonagill led four Brown players in double figures with 20 points and the Bears cruised to a 65-51 win at the Pizzitola Center. The Bulldogs, who scored just 35 points in their second game of the season and only 47 in a game a week later, looked like they were back to square one. Greg Kelley led Yale (6-12) with 11 points and no one else scored in double figures for the Bulldogs, who shot just 33 percent for the game.
“(The offense) was stale and stagnant. Not enough energy,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We didn’t do a good job of moving. When you don’t move and you don’t set good screens you don’t run a good offense. We had tough shots all night and it’s hard to make tough shots.
Yale entered the game averaging 77 points over its last seven contests and twice topped 100 in the stretch. But nothing worked on Saturday.
“I’m extremely disappointed with our offense,” Jones said. “Brown packs it in on defense, so it wasn’t like they were denying us. We just failed to have enough energy to play the way we should.”
The most telling stat of all in Saturday’s debacle was that Yale didn’t record an assist for the game’s first 28 minutes, finishing with just four.
“It’s always tough to win a game when you don’t have an assist,” Yale senior guard Austin Morgan said. “We have to work on spreading the court and trying to look for each other. Ivy League basketball is different. You have to execute at a much higher level when the league starts.

“We were ready, but this is not what we envisioned.”
Yale’s offensive woes were so bad in the beginning of the second half that Jones could barely watch. He strolled to the end of the bench, then stood off the court with his arms folded in disbelief.
“I thought our guys came out a little tight,” Jones said. “One of the things about playing so many games on the road, you’d figure that our guys would have experienced it.”
Brown got 13 points from Matt Sullivan and 11 from Stephen Albrecht in beating Yale for the first time in the last six meetings.
“This is big for us,” McGonagill said. “It’s always huge to start the Ivy League with a win and we haven’t done that, so that made this game very important.”
Yale led only in the game’s opening minutes. Then Jones went to his second unit and they were outscored 11-4 as the Bears took a 17-13 lead. Brown never trailed again.
The Bears took a 33-24 lead into the half and then opened up a 21-point lead with 14:25 left to play. That’s the only time the Bulldogs showed some life. Kelley scored seven straight points in a 14-0 Yale run to cut the deficit to 49-42 with 9:50 to play.
But Yale couldn’t get the ball inbounds on its next possession and McGonagill ended the comeback bid with a difficult, fade-away 3-pointer in front of the Brown bench.
“You’re not going to hold them scoreless forever,” Jones said. “You want to make sure you can weather the storm and we didn’t do that.”
“That was a turning point in the game,” Morgan said. “He’s a great shooter and that was the biggest play of the game.”
Said Brown coach Mike Martin: “I expect that from Sean. He’s one of, if not the best guard in the league. I have all the faith in the world in McGonagill.”
Yale never got closer than eight the rest of the way and Albrecht put the game out of reach with back-to-back 3-pointers soon after. Brown hit 8 of 20 from beyond the arc while Yale finished 4-for-22.
The two teams meet again next week at the Lee Amphitheater. Brown, which has finished near the bottom of the league for the past several years, seems poised for a better finish. The Bears (7-8) have won three straight and beat Providence earlier in the season.

MEN'S BASKETBALL GAMEDAYS


QUINNIPIAC AT ROBERT MORRIS

Where: Sewall Center, Moon Township, Pa.

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Records: Quinnipiac (6-11, 2-3 Northeast Conference); Robert Morris (11-7, 3-2)

Radio: WQUN-1220 AM

Internet: www.QuinnipiacBobcats.com

Video: NEC Front Row

What to look for

Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats' snapped a three-game slide with an overtime win at St. Francis (Pa.) on Thursday. Despite needing the extra session to knock off the Red Flash, who entered the game just 1-15, the win was desperately needed. Ike Azotam led all scorers with 22 points as the Bobcats played without starters Dave Johnson and Garvey Young. Saint Francis forced the overtime period with a 6-0 run in the final two minutes of regulation; but Quinnipiac was quick to answer in overtime. Zaid Hearst collected the first two points and the Bobcats went on a 14-4 run over the next four minutes of play. Quinnipiac's defense was terrific, holding SFU to just one field goal (1-6) in the added five minutes.

Scouting Robert Morris: The Colonials defeated Sacred Heart 66-62 on Thursday despite playing without two of its top scorers Velton Jones and Karvel Anderson due to injury. One of the conference's preseason favorites, RMU has won three straight after opening the NEC campaign with losses at Central Connecticut and Bryant. Jones suffered a head injury on a flagrant foul in last week's game at Monmouth and is questionable. Mike McFadden and Lucky Jones both scored 15 in Thursday's win.

YALE AT BROWN

Where: Pizzitola Center, Providence, R.I.

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Records: Yale 6-11, Brown 4-9

Video: brownbears.com

What to look for

Scouting Brown: The Bears (6-8) are playing well under the direction of fi rst-year head coach Mike Martin. Brown has won two straight and three of its last five, including wins over Providence and Niagara. The Bears feature the Ivy League's top two rebounders in Rafael Maia (8.4 rpg.) and Cedric Kuakumensah (8.1 rpg.) and two of the top four scorers - Matthew Sullivan (3rd, 15.0 ppg.) and Sean McGonagill (4th, 14.6 ppg.). Brown is second in the league in field goal percentage defense (.420).

Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs open the Ivy League schedule winners of two of their last three games. The Bulldogs have finished fourth or better in the Ivy League in each of the last 12 years. That didn't earn Yale much respect in the preseason Ivy League media poll, which projected a sixth-place finish for the Bulldogs. Yale, though, has a history of proving the prognosticators wrong. In five of the last seven years, the Bulldogs have finished higher than projected.

-- Bill Cloutier

Yale fans all across the country will have two opportunities to catch the Bulldogs this season thanks to the Ivy League television package. Yale’s home game with Florida on Sunday, Jan. 6 will be televised live on the NBC Sports Network at 5:30 p.m. A little more than a month later, on Saturday, Feb. 23, the CBS Sports Network will come to the historic John J. Lee Amphitheater for the Yale-Harvard game at 8 p.m.

Yale and Florida are playing for the second straight year. Last December in Gainesville, the Bulldogs scored the first nine points of the game, before the Gators, ranked No. 10 in the nation at the time, rallied for a 90-70 victory. Both teams put on a shooting display from three-point range. Yale finished 11-of-21 from beyond the arc, while Florida was 12-of-21. The Gators return three starters from a squad that went 26-11 and fell one game shy of the Final Four last year.

Last year’s Yale-Harvard game at Lee Amphitheater was one of the most anticipated Ivy games in recent Yale history. It was sold out well in advance, and the 2,532 fans that packed the Amphitheater saw Harvard escape with a 65-35 victory. The Crimson went on to capture the Ivy League title.

The two games are part of an 11-game television package that includes 10 games on the NBC Sports Network and one on the CBS Sports Network and features all eight schools.

The 11-game package comes on the heels of the Ivy League and the NBC Sports Group announcing a two-year renewal of their national television rights agreement for football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse games last June.

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.

On Thursday, the Ivy League announced today that its directors of athletics have decided not to move forward with proposals for postseason tournaments in men's and women's basketball.
"After careful consideration of these proposals, the athletics directors decided that our current method of determining the Ivy League Champion and our automatic bid recipient to the NCAA Championship is the best model moving forward," said Robin Harris, Ivy League Executive Director.
In men's and women's basketball, the Ivy League plays a 14-game, double round-robin schedule where each team plays each other home and away. The team with the best conference record in each sport is awarded the Ivy title and the League's NCAA Tournament automatic bid.
The Ivy League athletics directors discussed the proposals at their annual meetings, which concluded Thursday afternoon in Red Bank, N.J.
The Ivy League Office will not comment further on this matter.

NEW HAVEN – Sam Martin, one of Yale’s top three-point shooters, has been elected captain of the 2012-13 Yale men’s basketball team. The announcement came at Wednesday night’s post-season banquet following a team vote.
“I’m honored and humbled to be elected captain of the team,” said Martin, a West Warwick, R.I., native. “Being a captain at Yale is becoming part of a long tradition, and I feel very fortunate to be included in it.”

Martin has played in 70 games in his career. As a junior this year, he came off the bench in all 29 games and tied for sixth on the team with 12 three-pointers. His top performance came against Lyndon State when he was 6-of-8 from the field, including 5-of-7 from three-point range, en route to scoring a career-high 17 points.
“Sam is a vocal leader who will do a tremendous job of keeping everyone on the same page,” said coach James Jones.
Martin will be one of three seniors on next year’s roster – joining Michael Grace and Austin Morgan.
“Austin and Mike will be the most important determining factor of whether I am a good captain or not,” Martin said. “I can’t do it without them, and they know that. The more leaders we have on our team the better. I think every returning player should look to lead in some way because that is the only way we will win a championship.”
Martin inherits the captaincy from his close friend and roommate Reggie Willhite.
“I have learned so much from Reggie,” Martin said. “The biggest thing he has taught me about leading is that you have to live what you preach. You can’t yell at guys for not working hard if you aren’t. Reggie is definitely a lead-by-example kind of guy and I really admire and respect that about him.”
The Bulldogs will return two starters and nine letterwinners next season. Yale won 19 games in 2011-12 and reached the postseason for only the fifth time in school history, falling to Fairfield in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

YALE AT CORNELL
When: Today at 7 p.m.
Where: Newman Arena, Ithaca, N.Y.
Records: Yale (15-5, 5-1 Ivy); Cornell (8-12, 3-3)
Video: cornellbigred.com
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs hit the road for another crucial weekend. Yale sits in second place in the Ivy League, a game behind Harvard who plays tough road games this weeked at Penn and Princeton. The Bulldogs have won three straight and are off to their best start since 2006-07. Yale’s defense was the key last weekend limiting both opponents under 40 percent shooting and Greg Mangano averaged 21.5 ppg in a pair of game to earn Ivy Player of the Week honors.
Scouting Cornell: The Big Red are 7-2 at home this season and are always in close games. In its last 18 Division I games, 16 have been decided by single digits. Drew Ferry leads the balanced Cornell scoring at 11.7 ppg and the Big Red feature the top freshman in the league in rugged forward Shonn Miller. Chris Wroblewski recently cracked the 1,000-point mark.
Probable starters
Yale
Name,Ht,Year,Pos,PPg.
Jeremiah Kreisberg,6-10,So.,F,7.6
Greg Mangano,6-10,Sr,C,19.0
Reggie Willhite,6-4,Sr,F,12.3
Austin Morgan,5-10,Jr,G,12.0
Michael Grace,6-0,Jr.,G,6.3
Cornell
Drew Ferry,6-2,Sr.,G,11.7
Chris Wroblewski,6-6,Sr.,G,10.1
Shonn Miller,6-7,Fr.,F,9.5
Jonathan Gray,6-3,Jr.,G,6.9
Eitan Chimerewski,6-8,Fr.,F,6.6

Off the bench: Yale: Brandon Sherrod, 6-6, Fr., F, 3.7; Jesse Pritchard,6-5, So., G, 1.5. Cornell: Dwight Tarwater, 6-6, So., F, 2.9; Galal Cancer, 6-2, Fr., G, 6.6; Josh Figini, 6-9, Jr., F, 5.3.

Yale's split against Harvard and Dartmouth certainly didn't seal its fate in the Ivy League but it made this weekend very important.
The Bulldogs welcome Penn into town on Friday night and then have to turn around and meet Princeton.
While Princeton also has the quick turnaround, playing Brown the previous night, it frankly isn't as difficult as getting ready to play Penn.
Brown is 1-3 in the league and actually is quite similar to Yale.
The difference between preparing for Penn and Princeton is night and day.
Chatted with Greg Mangano's dad the other day and he said his son is tired.
It certainly hasn't hindered his play but think about Mangano's grueling schedule in the past year.
Twice he went to China, the first time playing exhibitions with his teammates. Then he tried out for the World University Games and earned a spot on Team USA.
You know how hard he had to work to make that team.
Now he's the focal point of opposing defenses every night of the season at Yale.
After the season is over he'll get little time off as you can be sure he'll be headed to every NBA camp he can to get more exposure.

Here is some video of the disappointing night at the Lee Amphitheater as Harvard pounded Yale 65-35.
The 3-pointer in the video hit by Greg Mangano was his 1,000th point of his career.

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
There are 17 players on the Yale men’s basketball team, the most coach James Jones has had in his 13 years at the school. And on a 12-4 team brimming with talent escaping the back end of the bench can be extremely difficult.

Jones, however, always keeps an open mind and his eyes even wider. If you can help his team in some way you will get a chance.
Jesse Pritchard got that opportunity on Saturday and he made the most of it. Pritchard, a defensive whiz with a fine jump shot, came off the bench to score nine crucial points, all in the second half, and played stifling defense as Yale knocked off Brown 73-60 to move to 2-0 in the Ivy League.
Pritchard’s success could give Jones and the Bulldogs another wrinkle as they prepare to play rival Harvard (16-2) Friday night at the Lee Amphitheater.
Pritchard, a 6-5 sophomore swingman from Ames, Iowa, admits it was hard to adjust to life as a role player. He plays behind Yale captain Reggie Willhite, who is perhaps the league’s top defensive player and the team’s third-leading scorer. Willhite is a spectacular athlete, one whose talents are seen in leagues like the Big East.
Pritchard spells Willhite when in foul trouble or need of a rest. He’s played in 15 games averaging eight minutes of action. With Willhite saddled with foul trouble throughout Saturday’s game, Pritchard played a season-high 21 minutes and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds.
“We’re fortunate to have a veteran team that’s playing really well,” Jones said. “We think a lot about Jesse. He’s played pretty hard at practice. It’s so hard (to get him minutes) because Reggie is such a dominant player it’s hard to take him off the court.”
“(Saturday) was the most minutes he played all year and that’s a credit to him that he was ready. Jesse does it in a different way than Reggie. Jesse’s a better shooter than Reggie and more of a physical defender as opposed to an athletic defender like Reggie is.”
Said Pritchard : “Everyone on the team was a star in high school so adjusting to limited playing time and having to be ready every minute to do your best definitely took some time. Coach always says that you can’t control whether you make a shot or not but you can control how hard you play.
“My goal is whenever I get my name called in to go into the game to play as hard as I can and the rest will take care of itself. It helps that I can play defense and I can help out that way, but I’m also a shooter and when I come in it can be nerve-wracking to come in make a shot.”
But Pritchard doesn’t lack for confidence. On Saturday, his 3-pointer helped give Yale a double-digit lead for the first time in the game.
“My dad used to tell me that basketball is 90 percent confidence and the other 10 percent is confidence,” he said. “You have to believe in yourself and I do but to be able to go in there (against Brown) and help the team out was a big boost. It also gets some confidence in my teammates in what I can do. I think I proved myself and the next time I come in if I’m open they’ll give me the ball and know that I can knock it down.”
Pritchard said that the chemistry on this team is one of the keys to its early-season success.
“You look at our bench and someone scores or if I come in they’re all hoping that I do well,” he said. “We love each other on and off the court. Everyone wants to get off the bench and get some playing time but if we don’t it’s a team win.”
Pritchard played a year of prep basketball at Blair Academy (Warren County, N.J.), the same school that produced NBA stars Luol Deng and Charlie Villanueva. He is excited for Friday’s contest.
“We all expect to win,” he said. “It’s a matter of protecting our homecourt. We don’t like Harvard. We know we’re as good as they are and the way people have been talking about them, I kind of feel disrespected in a way.
“It kind of feels like they’re going to walk away with the (Ivy League title) and there’s a lot of basketball to be played.”
Follow Bill on Twitter @BillCloutier. To receive breaking news first, simply text the word nhsports to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.

Yale hosts Harvard on Friday night. The game is a sell-out.
I will have a feature and advance during the week and a gameday capsule.
If you don't have tickets for Friday night's game the Bulldogs play Dartmouth in a classic letdown game on Saturday.
They also host Penn and Princeton the following week so things aren't getting any easier.

Check back soon for my previews of Friday night's contest.

NEW HAVEN — Is it possible to have a double-double by halftime and actually be playing poorly? Those are the lofty standards that Yale’s Greg Mangano has set for himself.
In fact Mangano didn’t think he played that well at all in Sunday’s 101-86 win over St. Joseph’s (Long Island) at the Lee Amphitheater.
But take a step back and appreciate his final numbers, the type of statistics that are reserved for the most elite players.
Mangano finished Sunday’s game with 35 points and 22 rebounds, both career highs. He had also had three blocked shots and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds.

“The guys were doing a good job of getting me the ball, but I had some good opportunities that I missed,” Mangano said. “I was a little more successful in the second half, but I don’t think I played that well.”
Mangano’s performance left Yale coach James Jones a bit speechless. He grabbed the most rebounds for Yale since Chris Dudley pulled down 22 against Harvard in 1987.
“I really don’t know what to say about it,” Jones said. “Offensively he’s as good as you can get. He missed free throws, but I don’t know how much you want him to score. At halftime he had 15 points and 11 rebounds and I was mad at him.”
Take away any of the his contributions and Yale could have been set up for a major embarrassment. The Bulldogs (10-4) raced out to a 29-4 lead in the game’s opening minutes but then got complacent and watched the Golden Eagles close the gap to 46-43 at the half.
“I didn’t think we did a great job of finishing off the first half,” Jones said. “We took the foot off the pedal. They missed some shots early and were a little nervous, but we didn’t do a good job of defending all night.
“They’re a pretty good basketball team. They can shoot. At halftime there was a bit of everything.”
Sure St. Joseph’s is a Division III school, but it’s not just any D-III program. Starting five seniors, the Golden Eagles won 22 games last season and never got rattled when Yale threatened to turn the game into a laugher. It was the first time in the program’s history that it played a Division I school.
“It was kind of fool’s gold in the beginning,” said Mangano, who continually took advantage of his 4-inch height advantage over the St. Joseph’s front-court players. “We knew they could shoot the ball and once they settled in and starting making their shots we found ourselves in a little bit of trouble.
“I think the general consensus in the locker room is that we played pretty poorly.”
In the end, guard Chris Jiminez finished with 22 points and Olivier Laurent added 18. The Golden Eagles, who entered the game averaging 86 points a game, missed their first seven 3-pointers of the game but finished 11 for 27 from behind the arc to make a game of it.
Yale never really put the game away until under four minutes were left to play when they pushed a 10-point lead back up to 17.
“We kept our composure and pulled away at the end,” Jones said.
Will Childs-Klein, who put the Bulldogs over the century mark earlier in the season against Lindon State, did it again with a dunk on Sunday for the final margin.
“We shot 52 percent for the game and scored 101 points and won,” Jones said. “I don’t know how many more points you want to score, but I don’t know the last time we gave up 86 points. We didn’t give up that much to Seton Hall. I wouldn’t suspect that they’re as good as Holy Cross and we didn’t give up 86 to them. It’s disappointing that we didn’t do a good job against them.”
It was the final non-league game of the season for the Bulldogs who open up Ivy League play on Saturday against Brown.
Follow Bill on Twitter @BillCloutier. To receive breaking news first, simply text the word nhsports to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.

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.
Follow Bill on Twitter @BillCloutier. To receive breaking news first, simply text the word nhsports to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN — Yale coach James Jones is counting down the days until the Ivy League campaign begins. He’s got nine more practices to get the Bulldogs battle-tested.
Tonight is a classic dress rehearsal as Yale hosts Holy Cross (6-7) at the Lee Amphitheater at 7 p.m.

“Holy Cross is a league game,” Jones said. “Holy Cross is like every other team in our league. It’s like any Ivy League team coming in here it just doesn’t have as much on the line.”
The Bulldogs (8-4) will try to snap a two-game skid against the Crusaders. After winning six straight Yale is coming off losses at Wake Forest and No. 10 ranked Florida.
Despite the setbacks it was a big week for Yale’s Greg Mangano. Mangano broke a long-standing school record and averaged 23 points and 13.5 rebounds in games against Wake Forest and Florida. On Monday he was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the second time this season.
Against Wake Forest, a 72-71 loss, Mangano poured in 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. In addition, he recorded the 173rd block of his career, breaking the Yale record established by Chris Dudley in 1987.
“We knew it was going to be tough going on the road against a good ACC team and an SEC team,” Mangano said. “We kind of let the one at Wake slip away. We got down by 19 in the second half and then we went on a run. If we would have played them a little tighter in the second half we leave there with a win and that would have bee a real good win for our program.”
Yale lost at Florida 90-70 on New Year’s Eve and Mangano’s numbers were even more impressive. He scored 26 points and had 15 rebounds as the Bulldogs stayed with the Gators for much of the game. He was 11-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-6 from three-point range. Fifteen of his points came in the second half.
“I felt good the whole road trip,” Mangano said. “Those 10 days off were not really 10 days off for me. Me and coach were working out the whole time. Those type of games are easy to get up for. Nationally televised, we only get a couple of those a year so its gives us a chance as a team and myself individually to show much we’ve improved.”
Mangano buried shots from all over the court against the Gators drawing praise from players and coach Billy Donovan alike.
“I hope to see Greg play that hard and that well against everybody,” Jones said. “If he can play that well against Florida, obviously you’re not going to shoot the ball that well every night, but you can get 16 rebounds every night.”
A year ago, Jones handed Mangano a copy of Dudley’s stats from his senior year at Yale.
“Dudley got 15 rebounds every night,” Jones said. “If Greg can dominate like he should he should we’ll be much better for it.”
Both Jones and Mangano agree that the non-league portion of the schedule has proven that the Bulldogs can make a run at the Ivy League crown no matter how well teams like Harvard, ranked 22nd in the nation and Princeton, with wins over Florida State and Rutgers, have performed.
“I wouldn’t say we took a step back (losing to Wake Forest and Florida),” Mangano said. “It’s a building block for us. We still feel good and can start a winning streak tomorrow. We know how well Harvard is doing but we still feel like we can match up with them.”
Jones said playing the nation’s best team helps identify his team’s weaknesses as the league schedule approaches.
“Playing against Florida showed we have to work on our transition defense,” he said. “They exploit your weaknesses like you won’t get exploited by anybody else. They’ll show a crack and against those teams it’s a flood.”
Follow Bill on Twitter @BillCloutier. To receive breaking news first, simply text the word nhsports to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates

Men’s basketball gameday
Yale at Florida
When: Today, 2 p.m.
Where: Joel Coliseum, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Records: Yale (8-3); Florida (10-3)
TV: ESPNU
KEEP AN EYE ON
Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs rallied from 18 points down in the second half but dropped a 72-71 decision at Wake Forest on Thursday. They shot just 5-of-23 from 3-point range hindering their chances. Greg Mangano led the Bulldogs with 20 points and 12 rebounds and broke Chris Dudley’s all-time blocked shot mark at Yale with three more rejections giving the senior from Orange 174 for his career. The loss snapped a six-game winning streak.
Scouting Florida: The 10th-ranked Gators dropped a gut-wrenching 85-83 decision in double overtime at Rutgers on Thursday to snap a four-game winning streak. Florida features talented guards in Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker. Walker missed a chance to send Thursday's game into another overtime missing a shot at the buzzer. Erik Murphy is the son of Jay Murhpy who grew up in Meriden and played at Maloney before starring at Boston College and playing in the NBA
PROBABLE STARTERS
YALE
Player Ht. Yr. Pos. PPG
Greg Mangano 6-10 Sr. F 15.1
Reggie Willhite 6-4 Sr. F 13.8
Austin Morgan 5-11 Jr. G 13.6
Jeremiah Kreisberg 6-1 So. F 9.4
Michael Grace 6-0 Jr.. G 6.3
WAKE FOREST
Kenny Boynton 6-2 Jr. G 18.3
Erik Murphy 6-10 Jr. F 9.6
Mike Rosario 6-3 Jr. G 9.4
Bradley Beal 6-3 Fr. G 15.5
Erving Walker 5-8 Sr. G 14.2
OFF THE BENCH
Yale — Isaiah Salafia, 6-3, So., G, 14 ppg.; Brandon Sherrod, 6-6, Fr., F, 2.2; Florida — Patric Young, 6-9, So. C, 11.3; Scottie Wilbekin, 6-2, So., G, 2.6.
— Bill Cloutier