March 1, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - It was Senior Night on Saturday at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, and the four Yale players making their final appearance made sure it was memorable. Eric Flato, Matt Kyle, Caleb Holmes and Nick Holmes combined for 39 points and nine rebounds as the Bulldogs topped Princeton 67-59 before an enthusiastic crowd of 2,008.
"Those guys have been in the program for four year, and we wanted them to go out on a high note," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball.
In their careers, the Class of 2008 has helped lead the Bulldogs to more than 50 wins and has combined to play in nearly 400 games and score almost 3,000 points.
Flato and the Holmes twins each had 11 points, while Kyle contributed six points in Saturday's victory.
"It was nice to win at home in front of all my family and friends," said Caleb Holmes, who added three rebounds and three assists.
Junior Travis Pinick also had a big night for the Bulldogs, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Ross Morin added eight points, six rebounds and a career-high five assists.
"We really wanted to send the seniors off right," said Pinick, who was 7 of 8 from the field and added four assists.
The Bulldogs (11-15, 5-7 Ivy) led by 14, 50-36, with 8:30 left before Princeton rallied. Jason Briggs' three-pointer cut the deficit to three, 62-59, with 52 seconds remaining, but Porter Braswell answered with a driving layup with the shot clock winding down. After Kareem Maddox missed a three-pointer, Flato sealed the victory by making two free throws with 15 seconds left.
Yale shot 52.2 percent from the field to build a 30-24 halftime lead. The Tigers (5-21, 2-9 Ivy) stayed in the game by making nine of 12 free throws.
Noah Savage scored 15 points and Nick Lake added 14 for the Tigers, who have lost nine straight games.
Yale outrebounded Princeton 31-25.
With the win, the Bulldogs completed a season sweep of the Tigers for the second straight year. It is the first time since the official start of Ivy play in 1956-57 that Yale has swept Princeton in back-to-back years and only the fourth time overall.
It was Alumni Weekend, and several former players were in attendance, including a large contingent from the 2001-02 team that shared the Ivy League championship with Penn and Princeton.
Yale closes out the season by playing at Dartmouth on Friday and at Harvard on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity
Video Highlights:
Senior Night: