Feb. 26, 2006
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Eric Flato scored a career-high 22 points as Yale rallied from a six-point halftime deficit to defeat Columbia 71-65 before a crowd of 2,391 at Levien Gym. Dominick Martin added 18 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for the Bulldogs, who assured themselves of a winning overall record for the third time in the last five years and a .500 or better Ivy mark for the sixth straight year.
Yale (15-12, 7-5 Ivy) trailed 40-34 at halftime but scored the first seven points of the second half. The score was tied at 54 with 8:08 remaining, but the Bulldogs seized control with a 7-0 run, capped by a Sam Kaplan jumper. The Lions pulled to within 61-58 on a Justin Armstrong layup with 2:57 left, but Martin scored Yale's next five points, including a driving layup off a nice feed from Kaplan. Martin was fouled on the play and made the free throw to give the Bulldogs a 66-59 lead with 51 seconds left.
Flato missed his first three shots, but finished 7 of 13 from the field, made four three-pointers and all four his free throws, including two with 40 seconds left.
"I just told myself to keep shooting," said Flato, who is averaging 14.6 points in his last five games. "I got a few open looks and just made sure I got my feet set."
"Once Eric gets going, he's hard to stop," added Martin, who was 8 of 16 from the field.
Freshman Ross Morin scored 10 points and Casey Hughes added nine points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs. Kaplan scored six points and equaled his career-high with four assists.
John Baumann paced Columbia with 16 points and eight rebounds. Mack Montgomery scored 15 points and Ben Nwachukwu had 10.
The Bulldogs were fortunate to be trailing by only six at halftime. Columbia, who came into the game with a three-game winning streak, shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and made 6 of 8 three-pointers. The Lions (11-14, 4-8 Ivy) led by 11, 24-13, when Armstrong made two free throws with 7:14 left.
"We weren't making our shots early, but we came back and felt good at halftime," said Flato. "We came out and got two [defensive] stops to start the second half and that got us going."
Yale shot 34.3 percent in the first half and made only 4 of 15 three-pointers.
"We weren't setting up our offense," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach Of Men's Basketball. "When we did, we started to get good shots."
Columbia missed all 11 of its three-point shots in the second half.
Jones improved to 5-1 against his younger brother Joe, who is in his third season as the head coach at Columbia.
The Bulldogs return to the friendly confines of the John J. Lee Amphitheater next weekend, hosting first-place Penn on Friday and second-place Princeton on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity
