NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team nearly overcame a 17 point deficit Friday night against Harvard at Lee Amphitheater, pushing the Crimson to the final seconds of the game before falling 70-62. Sophomore guard
Ciniya Moore scored 32 points, shooting .500 (9-for-18) from the field.
Harvard jumped out to a 22-5 lead with 1:56 left in the first, but the Bulldogs did not back down. They eventually trimmed the deficit to eight in the second quarter and had multiple chances to cut it to six. Instead, a late Harvard run got the lead to 12, 39-27, heading into halftime.
The Bulldogs eventually pulled within five, 46-41, on a free throw by Moore with 2:01 left in the third. The Crimson once again closed out a quarter with a run, though, and went into the fourth up 53-43.
Yale pulled within five on a dramatic three from Moore at 8:35 of the fourth. Senior forward
Kiley Capstraw's cross-court pass out of a double team was tipped by sophomore guard
Marisa Chapman to Moore, who calmly drained the three.
Moore drew a foul on a three-point attempt with 4:50 to play, then hit all three free throws and pulled Yale within 58-55. Harvard answered with another run, but the Bulldogs got within five on a pair of Moore free throws with 1:48 left. They missed a chance to cut the deficit to three with 54.2 seconds left, and Harvard's Karlee White (35 points) hit a layup to put her team up 69-62. After the Bulldogs missed a three and Harvard got the rebound, the Crimson hit one more free throw and then – on a missed free throw – got an offensive rebound that effectively ended Yale's chances.
Yale falls to 5-17 (1-8 Ivy League) while Harvard improves to 14-8 (7-2 Ivy League).
STATISTICAL LEADERS
- Sophomore guard Ciniya Moore led Yale in points with 32.
- Sophomore guard Marisa Chapman led Yale in assists with four.
- Junior forward Mary Meng led Yale in rebounds with eight and blocks with five.
KEY STAT
- Harvard had a 27-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
NOTES
- Yale shot .478, third-best among Harvard's opponents this year. Only then-No. 13 Michigan (.554) and Alabama (.547) shot better.
- Moore was one point shy of her career high, 33, set Dec. 20 at High Point.
- Moore and Columbia's Riley Weiss are the only Ivy Leaguers with two 30 point games this season.
- Moore was 12-for-14 (.857) from the free throw line, earning the most trips to the line for any Ivy League player in a game this season. She drew seven fouls on the Crimson.
- Meng and Moore both played all 40 minutes. Both did so despite eventually getting to four fouls.
- With Columbia's win vs. No. 24 Princeton Friday night, Harvard is now part of a three-way tie for first with the Lions and the Tigers. All three teams are 7-2 in Ivy League play with five games left in the regular season. Fourth-place Brown is a game back.
QUOTING DALILA ESHE, YALE'S JOEL E. SMILOW, CLASS OF 1954 HEAD COACH OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
- On the team rallying after being down 22-5: "We've been working a lot in practice on our response to spurts. They did an excellent job as a group. In basketball, it's all about runs and responding to runs."
- On the team shooting .478, third-best for a Harvard opponent this year: "We implemented a secondary offense, where we don't have to call anything. The team did a really good job dealing with the chaos of Harvard's press without having to stop and get stagnant. We flowed in our offense."
- On Ciniya Moore (32 points): "Ciniya had an exceptional game. What I'm even more proud of, not just the point production, is how she was dialed in defensively."
- On Mary Meng (five blocks, eight rebounds): "She covers up our mistakes defensively. She's very aggressive with her rebounding. The offense is going to come. She's effecting the game in so many ways."
AROUND THE IVY LEAGUE
- Columbia 70, No. 24 Princeton 56
- Penn 72, Cornell 66 OT
- Brown 58, Dartmouth 51
UP NEXT
- Yale hosts Dartmouth Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
