As New Haven prepares for up to 2 feet of snow this weekend, the men’s basketball team will head out of town to try to rebound from a disappointing two games last weekend.
The Elis are certainly no strangers to playing on the road this season: The team has played 12 away games this year, double its number of home games. Yet while the Bulldogs have posted a 4-2 record at home, the team has been unable to establish itself on the road as evidenced by its 2–10 record in away games. The team is also 1–2 on a neutral floor.
The Elis (7–14, 1–3 Ivy) will try to turn that weakness around this weekend as they visit Penn (4–16, 1–2) on Friday and Princeton (10–7, 3–0) on Saturday.
“[Playing on the road] is not the best right now,” captain Sam Martin ‘13 said. “We’re much more comfortable at home.”
Martin added that the team had a good week of practice and feels confident going into this weekend’s games.
Last week featured heartbreak for the Eli faithful in two different forms. On Friday, the team faced conference-leading — and nemesis — Harvard. Despite trailing for the majority of the game, the Bulldogs made a furious comeback during the second half, only to eventually fall 67–64. On Saturday, the squad met perennial conference laughing stock Dartmouth. Prior to last weekend’s match-up, the Big Green had won a single conference game over the past three years. Yet the Elis went down early against the Big Green and could not recover, losing 71–62.
Just as the Bulldogs did last weekend, when they faced off against conference-leader Harvard and bottom-feeder Dartmouth, they will square off against squads on opposite ends of the Ivy League standings.
“It’s always tough to play the two P’s,” guard Austin Morgan ‘13 said.
The Bulldogs’ game against Penn tonight figures to be one in which the team can rally coming off a difficult weekend. The Quakers have amassed only four wins on the season including, like the Elis, a single conference victory. Penn, which has no seniors on its roster, relies heavily on the scoring production of guard Miles Cartwright and forward Fran Dougherty. Overall, the Quakers rank second-to-last in Ivy scoring per game.
On Saturday, Yale figures to face a much steeper challenge. The Tigers are tied with Harvard for the conference lead. The key match-up to watch in that contest will be the Eli offense against the Tiger defense — while the Elis rank second in the Ivy League in points per game, the Tigers lead the conference in points allowed per game. The Tigers’ top scorer is standout forward Ian Hummer, who scores 15.9 points per game.
The Bulldogs will tip-off against Penn at 7 p.m. tonight at the Palestra and will square off against Princeton at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Jadwin Gym.