Bulldogs Knock Off First-Place Penn, 78-60
Feb. 19, 2005
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Edwin Draughan led four players in double figures with 19 points as Yale completed an impressive weekend sweep with a 78-60 victory over first-place Penn before a near-capacity crowd at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Bulldogs, who beat Princeton on Friday night, snapped the Quakers' 11-game winning streak and handed Penn its first Ivy League loss of the season.
Yale, which has won four straight games and five of its last six, swept the Princeton-Penn home weekend for only the fifth time since the start of official Ivy play in 1957. The last time it happened was in 2001-02 and the other times were the 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1987-88 seasons.
"It was an amazing game. Every single person contributed in one way or another," Draughan said. "Even the people who got in there in the last minute. Their energy contributes to our overall confidence. We are all extremely happy. There's a lot of shouting and rejoicing in the locker room."
Draughan also was a key factor defensively, helping to hold Penn's leading scorer, Tim Begley, scoreless. Begley entered the game averaging 14.6 points.
"It takes a team effort to keep a guy scoreless," Draughan said. "His main plays where he gets shots off are dribble hand offs and in transition. We tried to stop that and stay with him.."
"As good as Draughan was on offense, he was even better on defense," Penn head coach Fran Dunphy said. "I've always respected Edwin's game. He's one of the best players in our league."
The Bulldogs also got a strong game from Sam Kaplan, who scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds, only one shy of his career high.
"Penn is a real physical team and we just had to match their intensity and their toughness," Kaplan said. "I didn't play that much last night. Coach was trying to rest me because Penn's much stronger on the inside. I just tried to chase the balls down on the offensive glass."
Yale (9-12, 5-3 Ivy) outrebounded the Quakers 42-33. Senior Alex Gamboa and freshman Nick Holmes both had career highs in rebounds. Gamboa grabbed eight, while Holmes had seven.
"The rebound margin is the tell tale sign of the game," said Yale head coach James Jones. "You turn that margin around, and it would have been difficult for us to win the game."
Penn (15-8, 8-1 Ivy) led 16-9 after six minutes, but the Bulldogs slowly chipped away. Nick Holmes' free throw with 5:55 left in the first half gave Yale a 24-23 lead. Eric Flato then gave Yale a 35-30 lead when he intercepted a Begley pass and scored on a layup just before the halftime buzzer.
The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the second half, but the Quakers pulled to within 41-39 on a Mark Zoller layup with 15:25 left. Yale answered with an 11-3 run, capped by a Kaplan free throw with 10:03 remaining that made it 52-42. Penn never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
Zoller led the Quakers with 22 points and six rebounds. Ibrahim Jaaber added 16 points and Steve Danley scored 10.
Gamboa and Dominick Martin each had 11 points for the Bulldogs, who are back in action on Tuesday when they host Brown at 7 p.m. in the Amphitheater. The game was originally scheduled for Jan. 22 but was postponed because of snow.
