Freshman Hughes Keys Yale Win Over M. Hoops

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The Yale men’s basketball team used a little local flavoring in handing Harvard a decisive defeat in New Haven on Friday night.

Led by 10 key points off the bench from freshman guard and New Haven native Casey Hughes, the Bulldogs (10-14, 5-6 Ivy) easily put away Harvard 80-62 at the Payne-Whitney Gymnasium, avenging their earlier loss to the Crimson (4-20, 3-8) in Cambridge.

Harvard stayed with the Bulldogs for most of the first half, and trailed by only 26-25 with 6:12 remaining. But Yale found the spark that it needed when Hughes came off the bench to hit a three off a feed from junior guard Edwin Draughan, added a steal and a breakaway layup on the next possession and followed with a two handed dunk off a Harvard turnover that put the Bulldogs up 33-26.

These buckets from Yale’s newfound sixth man—part of a 23-8 Bulldogs run to close the first half—brought the crowd to a frenzied pitch and opened up a convincing lead that the Bulldogs would never relinquish.

“[Hughes and Draughan] are a good combination; they bring a lot of energy to the floor,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We were able to get out in transition and get some easy baskets.”

Yale’s transition game was a result of 23 Harvard turnovers—including 11 in the last 10 minutes of the first half—that led to 29 Yale points, and keyed the huge Bulldogs run that put the Crimson in a 44-31 hole at halftime.

“Turnovers continued to haunt us...at critical points of the game” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said.  “[Yale] converted [those turnovers] and cashed them in as quickly as anyone has this season.”

The Bulldogs widened their lead to 60-42 with just over nine minutes remaining in the second half after Hughes rolled off a pick and buried another trey from the top of the key.

Harvard put together a quick 14-5 burst to close the gap to 65-56 with under five minutes to play on sophomore forward Matt Stehle’s drive and short jumper.

But two more Harvard turnovers—and five quick fast-break points from the slashing Draughan—led to 10 unanswered Yale points, as the Bulldogs put the game out of reach.

Harvard opened the game playing well and found itself ahead 17-12 with 12:26 left in the first half after a driving layup from junior guard David Giovacchini, who was forced into the starting role after sophomore point guard tore his MCL in practice on Thursday.

But Yale then went to a full-court defense which forced the inexperienced Crimson into making several mistakes.

The quick hands of Bulldog guard Alex Gamboa, who had four steals, and Draughan, who added three to go along with his game-high 17 points, quickly led to a shift in momentum that Harvard was powerless to counter.

Giovacchini scored a team-high 15 points for Harvard, playing 32 minutes due to the Crimson’s thin bench.

“Mike [Beal] certainly would have helped us in our transition defense” Sullivan said.  “[Yale’s] depth really got them over the top.”

Center Dominick Martin added 13 points for the Bulldogs on perfect 6-for-6 shooting despite being on the floor for just 19 minutes due to foul trouble.

The 6’10 transfer from Princeton was nearly unstoppable in the low post, scoring Yale’s first six points of the second half on a put-back, a layup and a short hook—single-handedly keeping Harvard from creeping closer.

“Did [Martin] break a sweat tonight?” Jones asked.  “I don’t know that he needs to [break a sweat] to go six-for-six in a game like this.  I’ll never recruit another kid that can score on the block like Dominick can.”

Junior guard Kevin Rogus nailed three trifectas in the second half—but by the time he started to find his range, the Crimson was already down by 16, and well on the way toward its 20th defeat of the season.

Stehle led the Crimson in rebounds with nine, and his 14 points marked the 11th straight game in which he has reached double figures in scoring.

Junior captain Jason Norman and Rogus each added 10 points for Harvard.