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The Bulldogs are back on top of the Ivy League. 

Yale (17–6, 7–3 Ivy) took care of business Saturday night against the Columbia University Lions (6–19, 1–9 Ivy), cruising to a 99-68 win and moving into a first-place tie in the conference standings. 

It was a tale of two halves as the Lions — whose one win this season came against Yale in the season opener — came out swinging in the opening minutes, building an early 9–4 lead. The heavily favored Blue and White flexed their muscle as the half continued, going ahead by as many as 12 points. 

“We got contributions from everyone,” head coach James Jones told the News. “The way their defense is set up, it gave us opportunities at the rim, especially when our post men rolled to the basket.”

The Lions fought back, bringing the score back within five points as Yale took just a 41–36 lead into the halftime break. However, Yale seemed to find their groove coming out of the locker room, dicing the Lions’ defense on each possession en route to a 58-point second-half bloodbath. 

Forward Matt Knowling ’24 led all scorers with 22 points on 9–10 shooting from the field. Forward EJ Jarvis ’23 added 17 points and five rebounds. 

Knowling — whose acrobatic dunks landed earned him a place on SportsCenter’s top 10 last week — once again lit up the John Lee Amphitheater with multiple high-flying finishes and was awarded Ivy League Player of the Week for his efforts. 

“I felt good out there tonight, but we’ve got to keep looking ahead of us,” Knowling said. “We all know how important this time of year is, and we’re gonna build on this momentum in practice ahead of Penn and Princeton next week.”

13 different Yale players scored throughout the game. Guard John Poulakidas ’25 continued his recent stretch of solid play with 13 points, while fellow sophomore guard Bez Mbeng ’25 scored nine points and added six assists. 

The Elis did most of their work in the paint, shooting 56.7 percent from the field while attempting just 11 three-pointers to Columbia’s 27. August Mahoney ’24, the Bulldogs’ sharpshooting guard, attempted just one shot from behind the arc all game. 

“The good thing for us is we can win games in different ways,” Jones said in reference to the lack of three-point shooting. “We certainly focus on how to do that, and we’re gonna need to do that with the parity in the league this year.” 

The Bulldogs, who started conference play 0–2 after surprising losses to Columbia and Dartmouth College, are not the only team to have suffered multiple upsets this season. Princeton University — last year’s first-place finishers — suffered a 72–70 loss to Brown University earlier this year, and then lost to Dartmouth 83–76 on Saturday. Cornell University got out to a 4–1 start to conference play and were once at the top of the standings, but have now lost three straight and sit in fifth place, which would leave them out of Ivy Madness. 

After their two key road matchups next weekend, the Blue and White will return to John Lee Amphitheater for senior night on Feb. 25 against Cornell. 

Jarvis, who will be playing his final home game that Saturday, said he is more focused on the present. 

“Everybody knows I love playing in JLA, so of course I am excited for senior night, but we do have a really, really big weekend coming up so I’m focused on that right now,” he said. 

This Friday, the Elis will face off against Jordan Dingle and the Quakers in Philadelphia, and then will continue their road trip in Princeton, New Jersey, for a battle against the Tigers — a game in which the Bulldogs could likely clinch first place with a win. 

The Blue and White are looking to make a repeat appearance in the NCAA tournament this season.