Season Concludes With Trip To Dartmouth, Harvard :: Bulldogs Seek .500 Finish In Ivy Play

March 6, 2008

at DARTMOUTH
Fri., Mar. 7, 2008 - 7 p.m.
Leede Arena (2,100)
Hanover, N.H.
Radio: WYBC 1340 AM, wybc.com
Video: dartmouthsports.com

at HARVARD
Sat., Mar. 8, 2008 - 7 p.m.
Lavietes Pavilion (2,050)
Cambridge, Mass
Audio: WYBC 1340 AM, wybc.com
Video: gocrimson.com

YALE TALE
The 113th season of Yale basketball comes to a conclusion when the Bulldogs (11-15, 5-7 Ivy) visit Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend. A pair of victories would give Yale its eighth straight year with a .500 or better record in Ivy play. Senior Eric Flato still has a couple of milestones within reach before his outstanding career comes to an end. He enters the weekend with 1,176 points, which is tied with Paul Maley for 13th in school history and needs 42 to pass Dean Campbell to move into 12th place. Flato also has 134 career steals, the fifth most at Yale, but needs only three more to move into third place. Senior Caleb Holmes is also ending his career with a bang. He is averaging 12.7 points in the last three games and has made 14 straight free throws dating back to the game at Princeton on Feb. 15. Juniors Travis Pinick and Ross Morin showed that the future is still bright for Yale. The two combined for 23 points and 16 rebounds in last Saturday's 67-59 win over Princeton. Pinick is averaging 7.6 rebounds in Ivy games, which is second in the league, while Morin is shooting a league-best .635 in conference games.

2008-09 SCHEDULE TAKING SHAPE
Stanford, currently ranked seventh, is scheduled to visit the John J. Lee Amphitheater in the 2008-09 season opener on Nov. 14. The Cardinal is 24-4, including a 72-61 win over the Bulldogs in Palo Alto, Calif., on Nov. 20. Holy Cross, Hartford and MIT are the other non-league opponents scheduled to visit New Haven. Prior to Thanksgiving, Yale will play at Portland and Oregon State, and after Christmas will visit Alabama and Hampton. Trips to Vermont, Sacred Heart, Wagner, Boston University, NJIT and Bryant round out the non-league schedule.

HISTORY LESSONS
The Bulldogs are 5-2 in their last seven trips to Leede Arena, including a 71-64 victory last year. Yale is trying to sweep the season series from the Big Green for the second straight year. Matt Kyle scored 19 points on 9 of 10 shooting from the field in a 97-58 victory in the first meeting on Feb. 9. James Jones is 14-3 at Yale against the Big Green, and the Bulldogs lead the all-time series 98-93.

The Bulldogs also have won five of the last seven games in Cambridge, including an 88-78 victory last year. Yale is trying to sweep the season series from the Crimson for the third straight year. Alex Zampier scored a career-high 18 points, and Caleb Holmes added 16 in the first meeting, an 83-70 win. The Bulldogs have 112 victories against Harvard, the most against any opponent, and lead the all-time series 112-65. Jones is 14-3 against Harvard as well.

SCOUTING DARTMOUTH
The Big Green (10-16, 3-9 Ivy) is coming off an impressive 63-48 victory at Columbia last Saturday. With two wins this weekend, Dartmouth would finish with its most overall victories since the 1998-99 team went 14-12. Alex Barnett, who had 19 points and seven rebounds in the victory over the Lions, leads the Ivy League in rebounding (7.1 rpg.) and is third in scoring (15.8 ppg.). The Big Green has used 16 different starting lineups this season.

SCOUTING HARVARD
The Crimson (8-20, 3-9 Ivy) is 7-4 in Lavietes Pavilion. In its last home Ivy weekend, Harvard swept Princeton and Penn for the first time since the 1986-87 season. The Crimson is second in the Ivy League in scoring offense (68.9 ppg.). Jeremy Lin leads the league in steals (51) and is eighth in scoring (12.5 ppg.). Evan Harris tops the team in rebounding (5.6 rpg.), which is seventh in the league.

YALE 67, PRINCETON 59
It was Senior Night last Saturday at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, and the four Yale players making their final appearance made sure it was memorable. Eric Flato, Matt Kyle, Caleb Holmes and Nick Holmes combined for 39 points and nine rebounds as the Bulldogs topped Princeton. Flato and the Holmes twins each had 11 points, while Kyle contributed six points in the victory. Junior Travis Pinick also had a big night for the Bulldogs, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Ross Morin added eight points, six rebounds and a career-high five assists. The Bulldogs led by 14, 50-36, with 8:30 left before Princeton rallied. Jason Briggs' three-pointer cut the deficit to three, 62-59, with 52 seconds remaining, but Porter Braswell answered with a driving layup with the shot clock winding down. After Kareem Maddox missed a three-pointer, Flato sealed the victory by making two free throws with 15 seconds left. With the win, the Bulldogs completed a season sweep of the Tigers for the second straight year. It is the first time since the official start of Ivy play in 1956-57 that Yale has swept Princeton in back-to-back years and only the fourth time overall.

PENN 70, YALE 63
Jack Eggleston scored 18 points and Tyler Bernardini added 16 as Penn earned a 70-63 Ivy League victory over Yale. Eggleston was 10-for-10 from the foul line and had five rebounds and four assists. Ross Morin and Caleb Holmes paced the Bulldogs with 16 points apiece. The Quakers led 50-32 with 11:50 left before Yale staged a ferocious comeback. Eric Flato's three-pointer cut the deficit to eight with 7:51 left, and when Caleb Holmes made two free throws with 2:41 remaining, the Bulldogs were within two, 60-58. Eggleston, though, hit two free throws to push the lead back to four. After a Yale turnover, Bernardini scored on a layup. Flato's jumper cut it to four, but the Quakers made enough free throws down the stretch to seal the victory. Yale got some big contributions from its bench during the comeback. Jordan Gibson had four points and two rebounds in seven minutes, Nick Holmes scored six points, Michael Sands contributed two points and four rebounds, and Porter Braswell had two assists.

JONES SERVES AS ASSISTANT COACH FOR TEAM USA
James Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball at Yale, served as an assistant coach for the 2007 USA Basketball Men's Pan American Games team. Villanova's Jay Wright was the head coach and Jones was joined as an assistant coach by Alabama's Mark Gottfried. The team, which featured Georgetown's Roy Hibbert, Michigan State's Drew Neitzel and Indiana's D.J. White, finished fifth in the Games, held in Rio. The 2007 Pan American Games assignment was Jones' second coaching experience with USA Basketball. He previously served as a court coach for the 2006 USA Men's U18 National Team Trials.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE
Seven teams that reached the postseason last year, including Final Four participant UCLA, highlighted the 2007-08 Yale schedule. The Bulldogs played the Bruins on Nov. 23 for only the second time and made their first appearance in Pauley Pavilion. Yale visited another of college basketball's historic venues, Allen Fieldhouse, for the game against Kansas. The Jayhawks lost to UCLA in the Elite Eight last year. Other 2006-07 NCAA participants on the schedule included Stanford (Nov. 20), Holy Cross (Nov. 28) and defending Ivy League champion Penn (Feb. 16, Feb. 29). In addition, the Bulldogs played at UMass (Nov. 14) and hosted Vermont (Dec. 8), both of whom played in the NIT last year.

FREE VIDEO STREAMS ON YALEBULLDOGS.COM
Free live video was available for 12 of Yale's 13 home games. Fans accessed the games at yalebulldogs.com by clicking on the Yale All*Access logo in the top right corner. An e-mail address and password are required to subscribe to the service. WYBC (1340 AM) provides audio.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Seniors Caleb and Nick Holmes are the first set of twins in the history of Yale basketball... James Jones' younger brother Joe is the head coach at Columbia. The Jones brothers are one of only two active brother duos coaching at the Division I level. Seth and Brad Greenberg are the head coaches at Virginia Tech and Radford.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity