NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The race for the four spots in the Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament will get a little clearer Saturday as the league schedule reaches the halfway point. Yale and Princeton are currently part of a three-way tie for third (with Harvard), so the winner of Saturday's game between the Bulldogs and Tigers at Jadwin Gym (2:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
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Tickets) will remain in position to make the tournament. The loser risks falling into fifth place with seven games left after Saturday.
Last Game
In a battle for first place in the Ivy League, Yale (10-9, 4-2 Ivy League) had a four-game winning streak snapped last Saturday with a
79-57 loss at Penn. Junior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored a career-high 21 points, sinking five three-pointers. With the win the Quakers remained in a tie atop the Ivy League standings, as both Penn and Columbia are now 5-1 in league play.
McGill Stands Out
One of Saturday's storylines will be the battle on the boards between the top two rebounders in the Ivy League: Princeton's Ellie Mitchell is first (11.1 rebounds per game) and Yale sophomore guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.) is second (8.5 per game). While Mitchell is 6-foot-1, McGill is 5-foot-8 – the only player in the league's top 16 in rebounding who is shorter than 5-foot-9. The same two players are also among the league's top four in steals: Mitchell is second (2.8 per game) and McGill is fourth (2.6). McGill and Mitchell are tied for 13th nationally in offensive rebounds per game (4.0). Mitchell was the 2022 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.
Clark Reaching New Heights
Junior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) managed to establish career highs in assists and points last week – in two different games. Her week began with a career-high 12 assists on Monday in the win at Brown. She then scored a career-high 21 points Saturday at Penn. Clark leads the Ivy League in assists per game (5.8, 15th nationally) and is second in the league in assist/turnover ratio (1.64). Clark is on the
Watch List for the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the country.
Astrom Earns It from Beyond the Arc and at the Line
Junior guard
Klara Astrom (Menlo Park, Calif.) has hit at least one three-pointer in six straight games, and over the last five games she is one of three Bulldogs (along with junior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and sophomore guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.)) averaging 10.0 or more points per game. Astrom does a significant chunk of her scoring by earning trips to the free throw line. On a prorated basis, she earns 5.2 free throw attempts per 40 minutes – the most on the team. More than 25% of her points this season (31 of 123) have come on free throws.
Here are the top five Bulldogs in terms of earning trips to the free throw line:
Free Throw Attempts Earned per 40 minutes
| Rank |
Player |
Minutes |
FTA |
FTA per 40 |
| 1 |
Astrom, Klara |
381 |
50 |
5.2 |
| 2 |
Lee, Avery |
163 |
19 |
4.7 |
| 3 |
Thybulle, Grace |
321 |
34 |
4.2 |
| 4 |
McGill, Nyla |
557 |
53 |
3.8 |
| 5 |
McDonald, Brenna |
77 |
7 |
3.6 |
Emsbowl VII
Since senior forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.) and her identical twin sister, Princeton forward Kira Emsbo, joined their respective teams for the 2018-19 season, the two teams have faced each other six times. Camilla and the Bulldogs won the first meeting,
96-86 in overtime Feb. 8, 2019 at Jadwin Gym, but Kira and the Tigers have won the past five. Camilla is Yale's captain this season.
Coach Eshe's Princeton Connection
Dalila Eshe, Yale's new Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Princeton. In 2021-22 she helped the Tigers to a No. 24 national ranking, an Ivy League title and an NCAA Tournament win over then No. 15 Kentucky. Eshe helped the Tigers to top 40 recruiting classes in each of the past three seasons, including the No. 19 overall class in 2022.
End of the Road
Saturday concludes a stretch of five road games in a six-game span for Yale. After Saturday the Bulldogs play four of their next five games in the friendly confines of Lee Amphitheater, starting with a game vs. Harvard Friday Feb. 3 at 6:00 p.m.
Yarasavage '87 Selected as a Legend of Ivy League Basketball
Karen Yarasavage '87, the former Yale women's basketball team MVP and captain, has been
chosen as a Legend of Ivy League Basketball. The league announced this year's 16 honorees on Thursday, and they will be formally honored at the 2023 Ivy League Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments March 10-12 at Princeton's Jadwin Gym. Yarasavage was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994.
Around the Ivy League
Saturday's other Ivy League games include:
- 12:00 p.m. Cornell at Brown
- 2:00 p.m. Dartmouth at Columbia
- 2:00 p.m. Penn at Harvard
Scouting Princeton
Princeton (13-5, 4-2 Ivy League) had a 42 game Ivy League winning streak snapped Dec. 31 at Harvard, then lost again Jan. 6 at Columbia in overtime. The Tigers have since bounced back to win five in a row, each by at least 13 points. They are 8-2 at Jadwin Gym, which is the site of this year's Ivy League Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments.
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