Oakland. UC Irvine. Stony Brook and Albany.
And now Yale becomes the latest non-conference team to upset the Huskies at home as they fell to the Ivy League team Sunday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Despite it being Lorenzo Romar’s birthday, his team could not deliver a win as a present.
Sloppy play including turnovers and poor shooting in the early going proved to be a hole that the Dawgs could not dig out of as the Bulldogs built a 20 point league in the first half.
Yale had an impressive 14-to-1 assist to turnover ratio and turned 8 first half Husky turnovers into 9 points. The Bulldogs gave up the ball 6 more times in the second half to the Huskies 5.
In the second half, the Dawgs were able to whittle down the Yale lead to 5 but could get no closer.
Markelle Fultz, the super frosh, had a shaky start although he scored the first Husky basket of the season. He led the Huskies with 30 points on 11-17 shooting. However, he missed two free throws under 2 minutes which could have cut the lead to 3. With the misses, Yale’s Miye Oni immediately came down to hit a 3 and extend the lead, 85-77. Oni led the Bulldogs with 24 points.
Fultz is exciting no doubt. He is always under control and had a highlight breakaway dunk. He did have a couple defenses lapses in sagging off his man attempting to press others.
Yale was a tournament team last season although it was not playing with its best player and leading scorer, Makai Mason. It played sound, disciplined and executed its offense in the first half while the Huskies were unable to overcome a deficit that stood at 49-35 at half.
Defense will need to be addressed as the Dawgs continue on. The Bulldogs scored 49 points each half for 98. In its exhibition game, it allowed Western Washington to score 103.
The Huskies were outrebounded 42-29 including allowing Yale 21 offensive rebounds. Fultz led the Huskies with 7 rebounds. Newcomer Samuel Timmons had 4 boards in addition to scoring 5 points which included a 3. On the bright side, the Huskies had 15 blocks led by Matisse Thybulle and Malik Dime with 6 apiece. Thybulle kept the Dawgs in the game in the first half and ended up with 2j0 points on 6-7 shooting.
The Huskies play Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena against Cal-State Fullerton.
Odds and Ends
The Dawg Pack sang Happy Birthday to Lorenzo Romar pre-game.
The Bulldogs stood with an arm around each other during the national anthem.
It was a sparse crowd, 7,456 (if that), due to the NFL as well as the Seahawks playing Sunday night.