Courtesy of Yale Athletics

In two games this weekend, the Yale (2–1, 0–0 Ivy) men’s basketball defense allowed more 40-point first halves than it did the entirety of last season.

The Bulldogs struggled to keep up with No. 11 Gonzaga’s (1–0, 0–0 WCC) breakneck speed on offense in an 86–71 Friday night loss. But they managed to hold pace with Loyola-Marymount University (1–1, 0–0 WCC) on Sunday evening in an 83–80 bounce-back win.

“Defensively, we have to be more physical,” Coach James Jones wrote the News. “We were poor in transition and didn’t guard penetration well.”

Yale made six of its first seven shots against Gonzaga, managing a 16–6 lead in the game’s opening four minutes. Guard John Poulakidas ’25 had the hot hand for much of the night, finishing with 18 points on 7-11 from the floor and 4-5 shooting from deep. Fellow guards August Mahoney ’24 and Bez Mbeng ’25 added 12 and 10 points, respectively, while forward Matt Knowling ’24 scored nine and led the team in rebounding with seven. 

After their slow start, the Zags soon got rolling, with first-year forward Braden Huff knocking down multiple threes and guard Ryan Nembhard pushing the ball in transition. Nembhard tied the score at 18–18 with a driving layup at the 12:26 mark amid a 12–2 Gonzaga run.

Bulldog guard Yassine Gharram ’25 stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer on the next possession, and the game remained a back-and-forth affair until Huff put the Zags ahead 36–33 with a three at the 3:47 mark. The Bulldogs were unable to reclaim their lead after that.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few praised Yale for their play after the game.

“I think our guys were totally shocked to the system,” he told Gonzaga beat reporters after the game. “Just how hard they played and how tough they were. They were really taking the game to us by that first media timeout, but our guys did a nice job of adjusting and we settled down.”

On Sunday, Yale and LMU traded baskets for most of the game, with no team holding a lead of more than six points. With the game tied at 78 in the final two minutes, Gharram converted on an and-one layup. LMU knocked down two free throws to make it a one-point game with thirty seconds left, but Mbeng made a floater with nine seconds remaining to put Yale up 83–80. On the final possession, the two-way star also blocked a last second three-point shot to secure the win.

Mbeng also led Yale in scoring with a dominant 28-point performance, off of 10-15 shooting from the field. Knowling added 18 points to go with an all-around four rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

“Both games were great experiences for us,” Mahoney, the team captain, wrote. “The WCC conference is a stacked mid-major conference with great teams so to give Gonzaga a competitive game and then beat LMU on the road, we feel pretty good about the weekend.”

Roles reversed

The only team to score more than 40 points in a half against the Bulldogs last season — which Gonzaga and LMU both did — was Cornell in a Jan. 13 game. 

Last year’s team also had just two games in which they surrendered more than 80 points, one against Cornell and the other against Princeton in an overtime game on Feb. 18. 

The weekend’s lackluster defensive effort is surprising given that defense was Yale’s strength last season. As a team, they ranked top 50 nationally according to kenpom.com’s defensive efficiency metric, and boasts Mbeng, the Ivy Defensive Player of the Year. 

While Gonzaga’s high scoring may have been more expected — their offense has led the nation in points five years in a row — LMU is not a particularly offensive-minded team, ranking 93rd in the country last year in offensive efficiency. The final score also far surpassed the Vegas line for the game’s total, which was set at 146.5.

But the Elis managed to put together uncharacteristically strong offensive performances to account for their defensive shortcomings. Last year, they ranked 86th in KenPom’s offensive efficiency metric, but now sit at 42nd following the weekend’s performance.

Missing Jarvis and Kelly

The slow defensive start may signify that the void left by last year’s forward duo, EJ Jarvis ’23 and Isaiah Kelly ’23, is larger than anticipated.

Jarvis, who led the team in rebounds and was a second team all Ivy awardee, and Kelly, a rock-solid presence in the starting lineup, anchored the Eli defense last season.

Though this year’s team has a host of exciting young options in the backcourt, including seven-foot sophomore Danny Wolf ’26, offseason standout Nick Townsend ’26 and top recruit Samson Aletan ’27, it may take time for Yale to fully gel as an elite defense as the youngsters get their first real taste of significant minutes. 

The team, whose motto is “defend, rebound, share” and has historically been stout on the boards, struggled in that regard against Gonzaga, grabbing just 28 rebounds to the Zags 42.

“The seniors were just that — seniors,” Jones wrote. “So all their knowledge and experience were lost to the program. We have some younger talented players who just have to learn on the job.”

Looking ahead

Despite the up-and-down weekend, Yale rose four spots in their KenPom ranking. This is likely due to the win against LMU, a tough mid-major team that entered the matchup as a one-point favorite.

Now, the Elis will spend the week preparing for another weekend on the road. They’ll head to New Brunswick, Canada, to participate in the Atlantic Slam tournament, where they’ll face Colgate, Weber State and Gardner-Webb University on back-to-back-to-back days.

Mahoney reported that the team is “excited” for the tournament and also wished Yale’s football team the best ahead of their title-deciding home game against Harvard this Saturday.

“We’re going to be supporting the football team from Canada and pulling for them to take the title home,” he said.

Friday’s game against Colgate will tip off at 6 p.m. Eastern time.