Anika Arora Seth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Yale men’s basketball team (19-7, 12-1 Ivy) saw the nation’s longest winning streak come to an end Saturday afternoon, snapping a 13-game run in a 74-69 loss to Harvard (11-15, 6-7 Ivy).

The loss is the Bulldogs’ first since Dec. 21. Heading into Saturday, Yale was the only team in the nation still undefeated in conference play. 

After beating Dartmouth (14-12, 8-5 Ivy) 72-61 on Friday night, Yale had a chance to tie the program record for most wins in a season — set in 2016 when Yale finished Ivy play at 13-1. They can still tie that record with a win over Brown (14-12, 6-7 Ivy) next Saturday, the final game of the regular season. Still, the Elis have already secured the top seed in the Ivy League tournament and clinched the regular season title after key wins over Cornell (15-10, 7-5 Ivy) and Columbia (12-14, 1-12 Ivy) last week. 

“We were not at our best,” Yale head coach James Jones said of the loss. “Hopefully we can take this as a learning tool so we can be better with our last game of the year and going into the Ivy tournament.”

Yale head coach James Jones looks at his bench while trailing in the second half against Harvard.
Photo: Anika Arora Seth

The winner of the four-team Ivy tournament earns an automatic bid to March Madness. 

Against the Crimson, the Bulldogs got out to a 9-4 lead, but fell behind 12-9 in the game’s opening five minutes. Harvard widened its lead to 38-27 by halftime. Sharpshooter John Poulakidas ’25 had a quieter first half than usual, scoring seven points. He is averaging 19.2 points per game this season.

The Bulldogs closed the gap over the course of the second half. A two-pointer by Nick Townsend ’26 cut the lead to nine with 14:07 remaining, and a couple big buckets by Bez Mbeng ’25 narrowed the gap to five. 

Down 72-67 with 21 seconds remaining, the Bulldogs came within three after an Mbeng layup, but two Harvard free throws brought the gap back to five. Mbeng and Poulakidas both tried for threes but fell short. 

Yale forward John Poulakidas ’25 (4) attempts a jump shot with Yale trailing by seven in the second half.
Photo: Anika Arora Seth

Overall, Mbeng scored a game-high 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Townsend was close behind with 18 points on 7-of-13. Poulakidas added 12 and Casey Simmons ’26 added 11. 

The Bulldogs will travel to Providence this Saturday to play Brown and will then look ahead to Ivy Madness, which starts on March 15 and is also in Providence.

ANIKA ARORA SETH
Anika Arora Seth was the 146th Editor in Chief and President of the Yale Daily News from April 2023 until May 2024. Previously, Anika covered STEM at Yale as well as admissions, alumni and financial aid. She also laid out the weekly print edition of the News as a Production & Design editor and was one of the inaugural Diversity, Equity & Inclusion co-chairs. Anika is pursuing a double major in statistics & data science and women's, gender & sexuality studies.