NEW HAVEN, Conn. – With five teams who played in the 2019 NCAA Tournament on the 2019-20 schedule, the Yale women's basketball team will get to measure itself against some of the best squads in the country this year. Wednesday night at Lee Amphitheater, the Bulldogs' first win of the season came against one of those teams -- in thrilling fashion. Senior guard
Roxy Barahman poured in 23 points, including a layup with 23 seconds to go that put the game out of reach, as Yale held off local rival Quinnipiac 63-59.
Yale (1-0, 0-0 Ivy League) came out strong, taking a 17-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. Quinnipiac (0-2, 0-0 MAAC) tied the game early in the second, then responded to a 16-5 Yale run with a 7-0 run to get within 33-29 at halftime.
"Holding a good offensive team like that to 29 points is right where we wanted," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball.
The Bobcats then battled back-and-forth with the Bulldogs early in the third, eventually taking a 45-44 lead before the Bulldogs closed the quarter with a 9-2 run that culminated with a three-pointer from junior guard
Ellen Margaret Andrews. Playing in her first full game after missing all but five games due to injury last year, Andrews went on to finish with 13 points and a pair of steals.
"She's just a hustle player from both ends of the floor," said Barahman. "Her defensive intensity is something we really missed."
Quinnipiac hung around throughout the fourth quarter, never letting Yale's lead grow to more than five. But after the Bobcats got within 61-59 with 2:30 to play, the Bulldogs shut them out the rest of the way.
"With the fire [Quinnipiac] came out with, we had to weather the storm," said Barahman. "We didn't let it get to us."
Barahman's final layup iced the game.
"It was a ball screen," she said. "I didn't like what I saw the first time. The second ball screen was a credit to Mills [sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo] and [senior forward
Megan] Gorman. They got me open."
Emsbo finished with 15 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while Gorman added a team-best five assists.
Yale returns to action Saturday at Colgate, the start of a stretch of six straight road games.
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