It is the first NCAA tourney win in Yale’s history.
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“It’s obviously great, right?” “I don’t think it has really hit us how big this is yet”.
Mason ultimately bought into Jones’ vision, but Besser-with an opportunity to walk on at Duke and trips to Ivy League camps and talks with Yale coaches also under his belt-chose to be a Blue Devil. Stopping in front a cheering throng of Yale fans, he slammed both hands down on the scorer’s table before lifting his arms high.
Kalani Brown scored 10 points with eight rebounds, Niya Johnson dished out 16 assists and Kristy Wallace scored 11 of her 13 points in the first quarter as Baylor erupted for a 30-9 lead through the first buzzer to grab a comfy lead early in the contest. Duke looked strong in the second half against UNC Wilmington in the opening round, they finished the game by eclipsing the 90-point plateau.
It’s a lesson he hopes he’s passed along to a Bulldogs’ team trying to become the first Ivy League school since Cornell in 2010 to reach the Sweet 16.
The West Region’s No. 4 seed, Duke led by as many as 27 points before seeing that dwindle to just three with less than a minute to play.
And Yale senior Nick Victor, not one to normally seek out the spotlight, is just fine with that.
“We’ve won 17 of 18 games, something ridiculous like that”, he said.
“We knew of Makai and his background”.
“How did Yale outrebound Baylor?” the reporter asked.
“Geno better be looking out”, Newlee said of top-ranked UConn’s head coach, “because I feel like the Bears are coming after them….” I think we’re well able, too.
Baylor (22-12) lost its tournament opener last season on a last-second 3-pointer in Georgia State’s memorable victory. The Lady Bears hit six 3-pointers in the quarter, the start of a 9-for-22 day from the perimeter.
We’ll note that Prince, who scored 28 points in the game, did not mention the time-honored practice of using one’s body to establish position around the basket – the “boxing out” of one’s opponents, as he might have said.
Johnathan Motley added 15 points and seven rebounds for Baylor, which shot 44 percent from the field. That tells you just how well the Seahawks played to stay in that game.
The Eli advantage swelled to as many as 13 in the second half, but the Bears cut the lead all the way down to four points with 1:21 remaining on the clock, capped by a three-pointer from Prince.
Victor connected on the first, but air balled the second attempt.
“Well, it got dicey there when Justin [Sears] turned the ball over out of bounds”, Jones said.
“It’s easy for him to move on, which I definitely understand”, Mason said.
But Duke got a career-high 23 points from Marshall Plumlee in the 93-85 win – after he was held to four points in the first half. The Yale Bulldogs are 2-0 on neutral courts this season. The Duke Blue Devils are averaging 81.8 points on 46.1 percent shooting and allowing 72.4 points on 44.5 percent shooting.
Friday also marked 36 years since Krzyzewski joined Duke, leaving Army as a young coach to take over an ACC program.
The 13th-seeded Seahawks led by seven points in the first half and 43-40 at the break before succumbing to the fourth-seeded Blue Devils’ superior talent.
“That was kind of a statement from the go that we were going to start the game playing hard”, Baker said. You had a couple of years in a row where we played pretty well. “I know we’re all big-time competitors and we all hate to lose, but the effort that these guys have given me all year long is unbelievable”.
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“There have been a lot of naysayers that said we don’t have any depth”, Sherrod said.
