NEW YORK – For three quarters Sunday afternoon at Levien Gymnasium, the Yale women's basketball team kept the Ivy League's leading offense largely in check. The Bulldogs led by as many as 12 and held a 41-40 advantage heading into the final quarter of the league opener at Columbia, limiting the Lions to a .286 shooting performance at that point. But the final quarter saw Columbia turn the tables, erupting for 25 points and holding Yale to 14. That gave the Lions a come-from-behind 65-55 win.
Yale (7-6, 0-1 Ivy League) was coming off a 68-50 win vs. Army Dec. 28 while Columbia (10-3, 1-0 Ivy League) had not played since Dec. 13. After the Lions scored the first basket of the game, the Bulldogs gradually took control, leading 16-12 after one quarter and 30-22 after two.
"In the first quarter we stuck to our game plan, and did a great job in our gaps [defensively]," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball.
Yale limited the Lions to a 2-for-10 performance on three pointers in the first half. The Bulldogs withstood early foul trouble that forced junior forward
Camilla Emsbo to the bench for the entire second quarter after she had five rebounds and four blocks in the first. Sophomore guard
Jenna Clark picked up the scoring slack with 13 points for the half, while senior forward
Alex Cade provided a strong inside presence and had six points.
"[First-year guard/forward]
Mackenzie Egger played some fantastic defense," added Guth. "Cade coming in off the bench did some great things defensively too."
Emsbo was back in the game for the third quarter, and her layup off an assist by first-year forward
Grace Thybulle gave Yale its largest lead of the game: 34-22 at 8:54 of the third.
Columbia answered with a 9-0 run that, even after Clark snapped it with a jumper at 6:35, proved a sign of things to come. Clark picked up her fourth foul at the end of the third, and a pair of free throws pulled the Lions within one heading into the fourth. They were still well below their typical offensive output – they had just 40 points, having averaged 75.1 points per game in their first 12 games – but they had momentum.
"Our lack of scoring affected our defensive intensity, and that can't happen," said Guth. "When you're playing a great team that is well-coached like Columbia, if we had stuck to our game plan we would have put ourselves in a good position."
A 7-2 Columbia run to start the fourth prompted a Yale timeout, but the Lions came back with a 7-0 run after the break to take a commanding 54-43 lead with 4:59 to play. Yale had a response in the form of a 6-0 spurt that included four points for sophomore guard
Klara Astrom and two from Clark. But as time began working against them, the Bulldogs were forced to start fouling. The Lions hit nine of 12 from the line in the final minute to seal the win.
Clark finished with a team-high 18 points, adding four assists and three steals. Astrom scored 15, hitting six of her nine shots from two-point territory. Emsbo had 10 rebounds and five blocks in 29 minutes.
This wound up being the second-most points Yale has allowed in a game this season. The Bulldogs had entered the day allowing an Ivy-best 56.4 points per game.
"We're just disappointed," said Guth. "We want to get back home and get to work."
Yale hosts Dartmouth Friday at 6:00 p.m.
