No Poulakidas, no problem as Yale’s big second half stops Vermont

Trevor Mullin made first career start in place of injured John Poulakidas as Yale overcame Vermont. (Photo by Yale Men’s Basketball)

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Non-conference play for mid-major programs can be looked at in a multitude of ways.

In one light, it could just be seen as a time to schedule filler games to fill the calendar before league play begins in the winter. In another light, it can be used by coaches to schedule challenging games to really test their teams and see what they have.

Yale and James Jones are doing the latter. From hosting MAAC favorite Quinnipiac on opening night to road trips to a pair of Big Ten schools in Purdue and Minnesota, to even taking on the surprisingly unbeaten Rhode Island Rams in Kingston, Jones has ensured that the Bulldogs are as prepared as they can be for Ivy League play in January.

That tough schedule didn’t get any easier Saturday, as Yale hosted America East favorite Vermont. The Bulldogs used a big second half to pull away and defeat the Catamounts, 65-50, to pick up their fifth win of the season.

“I thought it was a gritty win by the team,” Jones said. “We needed one that way.”

Notably absent from the Bulldogs’ big win was star guard John Poulakidas. The senior came into the day averaging 21.1 points per game and is the focal point of the Yale offensive attack. Poulakidas is day-to-day with what Jones called turf toe.

“He’s day-to-day,” Jones said. “We’ve got two weeks before our next game and he’ll be in the lineup then.”

In Poulakidas’ absence, the Bulldogs had a collective scoring effort led by Casey Simmons and Nick Townsend. The duo combined to score 31 points, 18 from Simmons and 13 from Townsend. For Simmons, those 18 were a new career high for the junior.

“I kind of just let the game come to me,” Simmons said on his new scoring benchmark. “That’s how it happened.”

The physicality from both the Bulldogs and Catamounts was evident from the opening tip. It was a battle down low for either side to get into great positioning with its big men, which led to some frustration offensively and a low scoring first half.

“We knew this was going to be a physical battle,” Townsend said. “I thought we did a good job executing.”

The game was a true tale of two halves for the Bulldogs. In the first 20 minutes, they turned the ball over 13 times—six by veteran point guard Bez Mbeng—and looked completely out of sorts in the second half. Something clicked after the break though, as they only had one turnover as a team with zero from Mbeng.

“In the second half, we only turned it over one time and stopped trying to force the actions,” Jones said. “We played a little bit better together.”

Overall, Mbeng had a solid game minus the first half turnovers. He finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and found numerous teammates in transition for easy buckets. One of those transition buckets led to a Simmons corner three to push the lead to double digits for the first time at 45-35.

With nine points from Isaac Celiscar and seven from Trevor Mullin, the role players stepped up too to provide an added benefit. The sophomore Mullin made his first collegiate start in place of Poulakidas.

“You’re not going to have everybody in every game,” Jones said. “It’s always got to be next man up.”

A point of emphasis for Jones was to have his team improve its half-court defense. It was emphasized all week in practice, and the result was getting Vermont to shoot 7-of-27 from three, just 2-for-19 if you take out TJ Hurley and his 5-of-8 effort that gave him a game-high 21 points.

“It was good for us, before we played Vermont, to work on our defense in the half-court,” Jones said. “We spent a lot of time working on it and some simple fundamentals.”

Yale vs. Vermont has been a rivalry for a number of years now. In fact, the two schedule one another every year, alternating home and away venues. Last season up in Burlington, the Bulldogs lost by one at the buzzer when TJ Long converted a four-point play with six-tenths of a second left on the clock. Losing in such dramatic fashion last year only motivated Yale and the returners this time around.

“Out of all the losses last year, that one hurt so much,” Simmons said. “It was definitely in the memory of the returning guys from last year.”

As mentioned, the Bulldogs don’t have another game for two weeks or so, until they take on Akron in the Don Haskins Basketball Invitational in El Paso. While a near two-week hiatus seems odd at this point in the season, there is another thing to consider at the Ivy League institution. 

“The guys are in finals, so you have to think about that,” Jones said. “We have to hopefully utilize our practice as a study break for them.”

Having to balance classes and playing basketball at Yale of all places must be really challenging, but at least the Bulldogs head into the most difficult part of the semester coming off a strong win over a quality opponent.