Michael Garman, Staff Photographer

With the shot clock winding down on Yale’s final possession of the first half, forward EJ Jarvis ’23 gathered the ball, half-spun away from his defender and hoisted up a high-arcing, deep corner jump shot off his back foot that swooshed perfectly through the net.

It was just that kind of night for Jarvis, who scored 34 points on 13–18 shooting while leading the Bulldogs (19–7, 9–4 Ivy) to a 76–58 rout of the Cornell University Big Red (16–10, 6–7 Ivy) on senior night — the final game of the season on Yale’s home court in John J. Lee Amphitheater. 

“Tonight was my last game in JLA,” Jarvis said. “It feels like home to me, and I wanted to honor that.” 

The high-scoring performance nearly doubled Jarvis’ previous career high of 18 points and was also the most points scored in a game by a Yale player since Azar Swain ’21 scored 37 on Jan. 25, 2022. The Ivy League also named him their “player of the week.” 

Jarvis’ success also meant that the shorthanded Elis stayed ahead of the Big Red by a comfortable margin for most of the night, despite playing without forwards Matt Knowling ’24 and Danny Wolf ’26 — who were injured and ill respectively.  

Cornell started the game strong, going up 9–4 in the opening three minutes, but the Blue and White scored the next seven, with guard John Poulakidas ’25’s jumper with 14:12 remaining giving them a lead they would never relinquish. 

Poulakidas, who became Yale’s first 30-point scorer of the season in last week’s comeback victory against Princeton University, added 14 points, while fellow sharpshooting guard August Mahoney ’24 scored 12. 

The Big Red — down by more than 20 at times in the second half — threatened a late-game comeback as they went on a 14–3 run to make it 61–50 with 6:40 remaining. However, Jarvis got a layup out of a timeout and made an and-one layup a few possessions later to put the game back out of reach. 

“I talked about our depth in the locker room after the game,” head coach James Jones said. “We had a lot of guys come in and contribute, and we had EJ have an out-of-body experience to have a great game to lead us. We needed somebody to step up, and it was him. Against Princeton last Saturday, it was John [Poulakidas]. We have a lot of guys that are capable of that.”

Jarvis did most of his damage in the paint, toasting Cornell defenders with a variety of nifty post moves and athletic finishes, but he also showed his ability to score from the perimeter, knocking down three of his four three-point attempts. On the season, Jarvis is now shooting 43.3 percent from deep. 

Jarvis wasn’t the only Bulldog to record a milestone on Saturday night. With the win, Jones became just the second head coach in Ivy League history to reach 200 conference wins, the first being Princeton’s Pete Carril. 

Jones, though, emphasized the importance of staying focused on the season rather than accolades. 

“To be honest, not really,” Jones said when asked if the achievement meant anything to him. “I heard them say something about coach Jones on the speaker. I thought maybe I left my car running or something, and then I looked up and saw it was my 200th win. So I hadn’t really thought about it. What’s more special is sharing it with this guy [Jarvis].”

With the victory, the Elis kept themselves even atop the Ivy League standings at 9–4 alongside the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, who also won on Saturday. Yale has already clinched a berth in the Ivy League tournament, but still has a lot to play for this Saturday against Brown University in their final regular-season game on the schedule. With a win, the Bulldogs would earn the number one seed in the four-team tournament, meaning they would play the number four seed in the first round.  

Penn (17–11, 9–4) and Princeton (18–8, 9–4) have also clinched tournament appearances, and the fourth seed will go to either Cornell or Brown (14–12, 7–6). If Brown defeats Yale next week, they will be guaranteed the fourth seed. 

The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center.

BEN RAAB
Ben Raab covers faculty and academics at Yale and writes about the Yale men's basketball team. Originally from New York City, Ben is a sophomore in Pierson college pursuing a double major in history and political science.