The Yale men’s basketball team dropped games to UIC and Purdue while handily defeating Emerson in their second week of play.
Spencer King
Staff Reporter
Yale Athletics
Four games into their season, the Yale men’s basketball team (2–2, 0–0 Ivy) has seen mixed results in their non-conference schedule, currently standing at .500.
Early on, the story of this Yale team has been the brilliance of John Poulakidas ’25, who averages 20.3 points per game and is shooting over 40 percent from three. The senior guard is quickly building on his end to last season in which he scored 28 points in Yale’s upset of Auburn in March Madness to become Yale’s top scorer this year.
Yale vs UIC
The University of Illinois Chicago (2–1, 0–0 MVC) came out and used their depth in their 91-79 win over the Bulldogs. The UIC bench poured in 43 points, while the Yale star guard pairing of Poulakidas and Bez Mbeng ’25 couldn’t quite keep up despite dropping a combined 37 points.
Yale started off strong in the first half as both teams were battling it out. They ended the half leading 41-34, edging out UIC after having held the lead for the entire half. However the second half was a different story. UIC came out hot, putting up 10 points in the first three minutes and Yale just couldn’t keep up. The team looked a little tired and made some simple errors that resulted in turnovers early on.
The Bulldogs were able to stay within 10 points for most of the game after they lost the lead, but they were never able to gain it back. The game ended with UIC up 11 points, with the Bulldogs looking defeated.
Yale vs Purdue
Facing off against the No. 13 ranked Purdue Boilermakers (3–0, 0–0 B1G) the Bulldogs had a tall task in front of them and nearly pulled it off, falling eventually by eight points 92-84. The Bulldogs had a strong second half powered by Poulakidas’ 15 points in the half, and outscored the Boilermakers 50-47 but came up short to climb out of their first half 11-point deficit.
Another player that proved himself against the strong Big Ten opponent was center Samson Aletan ’27. Playing against a physical and talented Purdue frontcourt, the 6’10” Aletan held his own, posting career highs, with 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Bulldogs’ two games on the road are connected with a common, if unfortunate, theme. The team puts together one strong half, but the other lets them down. This is promising for the Bulldogs as we’ve seen they can come up with big plays against strong opponents, however at the end of the day, what matters is the numbers on the scoreboard. If they want to make a run like they did last season, the Bulldogs are going to have to figure out how to put two halves of strong basketball together and play a complete winning game.
Yale vs Emerson
Emerson came into this game as a severe underdog being a Division III program and Yale took care of business, shooting a season best 60 percent from the field and 46 percent from three point range. The 100-46 win pushed the Bulldogs to a 2–2 overall record and got them back in the win column after a difficult road trip. This was the morale booster the team needed to propel them into this weekend’s game against the University of Minnesota Gophers.
There’s not much to learn from the game, as Emerson was clearly outmatched. However, the main thing to note from the Wednesday night matchup was the absence of Mbeng. The defensive star picked up a knee injury against Purdue and it was unclear whether he would have played had the Wednesday game been more competitive.
The Bulldogs will hit the road again this weekend for their match against Minnesota, occurring on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. EST.
