Yale sees season come to an end with NIT loss to UNCW

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — When the final buzzer sounded inside Newman Arena up on the campus of Cornell on Sunday, the realization had hit Yale.

It had failed to finish the job.

Third-seeded Penn, behind an otherworldly 44 points from TJ Power, upset the top-seeded Bulldogs and punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament, halting Yale’s chance at going to the big dance for a third straight year.

Fortunately for the Bulldogs, more basketball was on the horizon. Late Sunday night, the NIT bracket was announced and featured Yale as the No. 3 seed in the Winston-Salem region, hosting UNC Wilmington at Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

In a high-energy environment on Tuesday, Yale couldn’t get the job done and lost to UNCW, 68-67, in a nail-biting finish. Despite 23 points and 12 rebounds from Isaac Celiscar and 16 from Casey Simmons, the Bulldogs closed out the year on a sour note in the postseason.

“I don’t want to be negative, but it was just very difficult circumstances that we had to play under,” head coach James Jones said. “I think if we had another day of preparation, it might have been a different outcome for us. It was very difficult for our guys to play three games in four days, where our opponents didn’t have to do that.”

The Bulldogs started out the game dominant on both ends of the ball, taking a 9-0 lead into the first media timeout after forcing three turnovers and grabbing four offensive rebounds. Celiscar led the early charge and kept it up the rest of the half, finishing with a game-high 15 points and seven rebounds at the break.

“It was tough,” Celiscar said after a third game in four days. “Honestly, everybody on the team’s bodies were hurting. Even this morning, we had team breakfast and I didn’t make it. My body was hurting.”

Despite going down big early, Takayo Siddle’s group didn’t back down, and played competitive basketball the rest of the first half. Once Yale reached its largest lead of the first 20 minutes after a three-point play from Celiscar put the Bulldogs up 28-18, the Seahawks responded with an 8-2 run with a pair of threes from Christian May to cut it back down to four. UNCW had momentum, holding the ball for the last shot before a missed jumper turned into a quick run out before halftime for Yale. Celiscar cleaned up a wild miss in transition right before the buzzer to steal some momentum back.

“It’s a pretty special moment,” Celiscar said. “We talked about it before the game, that it’s the first time we ever had an NIT home game played here, which is special. And as a team, I felt like we really wanted to win.”

Celiscar would open the second-half scoring with a triple, and after a Seahawk shot rimmed out, Simmons threw down a transition slam to get the lead back to its new high point of 11. Simmons would score the next basket as well, then draw a foul and split a pair at the line. Yale’s 8-0 start to the first half would be silenced by a floater from Greedy Williams, but the Bulldogs still took a 40-28 lead into the under-16 media timeout.

As they did in the first half, the Seahawks responded and trimmed it down to four, at 45-41, after a three from Noah Ross. Jordan Brathwaite would answer with a tough finish on the other end, but he got a technical during his celebration and Nolan Hodge hit both free throws to get it back to four. A Madison Durr three would get it to one, but back-to-back emphatic slams from Samson Aletan ignited the crowd and pushed the lead back to five.

UNCW would score the next four right back, trailing 51-50 entering the under-8 media timeout. From there, the shot making reached an elite level. Four straight possessions featured made threes, two on each side. Hodge knocked down both for the Seahawks, while Trevor Mullin and Celiscar hit for the Bulldogs. After UNCW finally ended the streak with a miss, Nick Townsend scored the next five to put Yale up, 62-58.

“Isaac kind of led the way with his energy and effort,” Jones said. “He was tremendous on both sides of the ball, doing everything he could to possibly win.”

Inside of two minutes remaining in regulation, with UNCW leading, 65-64, Townsend missed a pair of free throws after a hard foul underneath. It was an uncharacteristic night at the line for Yale, finishing 9-for-22 at the line as a unit. Still down by one with under a minute remaining, Mullin knocked down a massive go-ahead trey to put Yale up 67-65 with 56 seconds remaining. After a timeout from Siddle, May knocked down a go-ahead three himself off an offensive rebound to go up 68-67. Jones didn’t call timeout, electing to have his squad play on, and Celiscar was called for an offensive foul while posting up with 20.4 seconds to play.

On the ensuing inbounds play, Yale forced a crucial turnover and got the ball back with 18.1 seconds to go. After Jones drew something up, Townsend got fouled and was sent to the line. If you haven’t seen where this has been trending, he unfathomably missed both free throws again.

“We missed as many free throws (as we did), it's just tough to see the execution there, but the level of energy and effort was certainly there,” Jones said.

Yale would have two more opportunities after UNCW missed some free throws as well, squandering both, including a good look at a heave from Celiscar at the final buzzer, but they couldn’t get the job done, losing 68-67.

“UNC Wilmington is a very good basketball program,” Jones said. “They did a great job at running their league. And, you know, we felt like we were a better team, we just didn't finish the game off.”

The Bulldogs end their season with a 24-7 record, the most wins in a single season for the program since they had 30 in 1906-07. Despite a heartbreaking past few days, it was still a memorable season in New Haven with lots to be proud of.

“We have grown expectations so high here that the expectation is that we're going to win every year,” Jones said. “And the thing is, it's really hard to win every year. We've had a target on our back every time we walk in the gym, every time that somebody beats us, it's a freaking Super Bowl for them.”