Ben Raab, Contributing Photographer
Follow along for live updates as Yale plays Brown in New York City for this year’s Ivy League championship — the victor of which earns an automatic bid to March Madness.
The Bulldogs narrowly defeated the Brown Bears, 62-61, in a nail-biting Ivy League Championship, earning Yale the Ivy men’s basketball conference title and sending the Bulldogs to March Madness.
Yale maintained a solid lead throughout the first half, but the second half had both Bears and Bulldogs fans on the edge of their seats. Matt Knowling ‘24 scored a buzzer-beating layup with no time left on the clock to win the game. The Bulldogs are now guaranteed a spot in March Madness and will find out their matchup at 6 p.m. tonight on CBS.
Boola Boola!
— Ben Raab ‘26, Staff Reporter, and Anika Arora Seth ’25, Editor-in-Chief & President
Second half, 6.1 seconds remaining | Yale 62, Brown 61
With a shot from Knowling YALE WINS
Second half, 6.1 seconds remaining | Yale 60, Brown 61
Brown’s Malachi Ndur misses both free throws.
Yale has the opportunity to win.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 14.2 seconds remaining | Yale 60, Brown 61
John Poulakidas makes a quick three. Yale will have to foul Brown on their next possession.
Bears ball.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 20.8 seconds remaining | Yale 57, Brown 61
Brown’s Nana Owusu-Anane makes one of two free throws.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 22.3 seconds remaining | Yale 57, Brown 60
Lilly hits two free throws to put the game close to out of reach, but Mbeng responds with an and-one layup.
Brown ball.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 59.9 seconds remaining | Yale 54, Brown 58
Mahoney drills his second three in a row but Brown’s Lilly answers with a fadeaway jumper.
Yale ball. This could be the last minute of their season.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 2:15 remaining | Yale 48, Brown 54
Brown’s Anya brings the score up by two for Brown.
Second half, 3:48 remaining | Yale 48, Brown 52
Yale trails by four as they’ve struggled to make space offensively over the last few minutes of play.
Danny Wolf was frustrated that there was no foul call on his missed layup attempt.
Brown ball.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 6:51 remaining | Yale 46, Brown 48
Knowling ties it momentarily for the Bulldogs, but Brown’s Kalu Anya answers with a layup in traffic.
Both teams’ fans are on their feet. Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium is getting loud.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 8:15 remaining | Yale 44 Brown 46
Brown fans are on their feet as the Bears take their first lead of the second half. Jones calls timeout.
The Bulldogs missed the defensive impact of Danny Wolf on those last few possessions, as the Bears scored several buckets inside on Nick Townsend.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 10:45 remaining | Yale 41 Brown 37
The pace of the game is speeding up, with both teams trading buckets.
Brown’s Kino Lilly Jr. is getting hot, with 15 points on the day. But Poulakidas continues to be the answer for Yale, draining another three at the 11:40 mark.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Second half, 15:11 remaining | Yale 35, Brown 29
The Bulldogs grabbed three offensive rebounds in the second half’s opening minutes. Yale will take any second-chance opportunities they can get against a great Brown rebounding team. Danny Wolf is already at 10 rebounds on the day.
John Poulakidas is also starting to put his fingerprints on this game. The sophomore knocked down a three and a baseline jumper to put Yale up six.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
HALFTIME | Yale 26, Brown 22
At the half, the Ivy League final is still anyone’s game.
Yale looks as stout as they’ve been all season on the defensive end, holding Brown’s Kino Lilly Jr. to seven points on 2-6 shooting while rejecting five shot attempts at the rim. The Elis have also forced the Bears into multiple shot clock violations.
Offensively, the Bulldogs are shooting 1-10 from three-point range. They’ll need more from sharpshooting duo August Mahoney and John Poulakidas, who are shooting a combined 42 percent from three on the season but have combined for just one triple today.
In the rebounding category, Yale is slightly leading Brown with 21 boards to the Bears’ 20. Both these teams are among the nation’s top rebounding teams and have been tenacious on the glass thus far.
Yale, who entered the game as eight point favorites, will have to remain focused against the Bears, who have come back from behind against them before. Last Saturday on Yale’s home court, Brown came back from a ten point deficit with five minutes remaining and won in overtime.
With a trip to March Madness on the line, Jones’s squad cannot afford to let that happen again.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
First half, 2:18 remaining | Yale 24, Brown 20
It’s been a defensive battle thus far, with the two teams combined for just 5-21 from three point range.
Yale’s Danny Wolf has just two points offensively, but has already blocked three shots and grabbed eight boards on the defensive end.
August Mahoney has been Yale’s best weapon offensively thus far, with 7 points on 2-5 shooting. The captain has had a great tournament, scoring 16 in Yale’s win over Cornell yesterday.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
First half, 10:44 remaining | Yale 11, Brown 8
Yale went on a 7–2 run, but Brown’s Kino Lilly Jr. has brought the Bears back into it with a deep three.
Lilly is Brown’s leading scorer, averaging just over 18 points per game. He’s being guarded by Yale’s Mbeng, the two-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. A matchup to watch for the rest of the game.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
First half, 15:57 remaining | Yale 4, Brown 3
The Bulldogs look good defensively, forcing back-to-back shot clock violations and making it hard for the Bears to find clean looks.
Offensively, Yale is playing through star forward Danny Wolf. The 7-foot forward scored his first points on a layup.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
First half, 20:00 remaining | Yale 0, Brown 0
Bez Mbeng ’25, August Mahoney ’24, John Poulakidas ’25, Matt Knowling ’24 and Danny Wolf ’26 are Yale’s starting five.
Head Coach James Jones is going with the same starting lineup as usual ahead of the Ivy final.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter
Game day, 8:00 a.m.
NEW YORK CITY — The Yale men’s basketball team faces off today against Brown in today’s Ivy League tournament finals. The winner earns the conference title and an automatic bid to March Madness.
The No. 2 seeded Bulldogs (21–9, 12–3 Ivy) knocked off No. 3 Cornell (22–7, 11–4 Ivy) 69–57 in the tournament’s semifinal game on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, No. 4 Brown (13–17, 8–6) pulled off a 90–81 upset victory of No. 1 Princeton (24–4, 12–3 Ivy) to book their spot in the final.
Led by head coach James Jones, Yale is seeking its seventh-ever NCAA tournament bid and fourth since 2016. Jones’ squad is playing in the Ivy Tournament’s championship for a fourth straight season. The Bulldogs won in 2019 and 2022 but lost to Princeton last season.
Yale split their regular season series against Brown, beating them 80–70 on Jan. 9 but falling 84–81 in their final regular season game. The Bears –– playing in the tournament for the first time since the Ivy League introduced it in 2017 –– are currently riding a seven-game winning streak.
The game is set to tip-off from Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium at 12 p.m. You can follow along here for in-game updates and analysis.
– Ben Raab, Staff Reporter