LEWISBURG, Pa. – All season long, Chris
Gobrecht has credited the tremendous depth of the Yale
women’s basketball team as one of its biggest assets. That
depth was in full effect on Saturday night at Bucknell, as the Joel
E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women’s Basketball got
points from all nine players who took the court. In the end, the
Bulldogs needed every one of those points to hang on and best the
host Bison, 54-50, at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa. Senior
Melissa Colborne led the balanced attack with 10 points, and junior
Mady Gobrecht chipped in with nine points and a team-high seven
rebounds.
With the win, Yale snaps a three-game losing streak and evens its
record at 3-3. The Bison fall to 2-6.
“Bucknell is tough and physical like an Ivy League
team”, said Coach Gobrecht. “This was a very beneficial
experience for us; it was basically an Ivy League road game in a
lot of respects”.
Freshman Megan Vasquez knocked down three three-pointers to account
for her nine points, as the Bulldogs shot 4-for-12 (33.3%) from
beyond the arc. Junior Yoyo Greenfield contributed seven points to
the scoring effort, and sophomore Michelle Cashen added five.
Senior captain Ashley Carter and freshmen Allie Messimer and Ericka
von Kaeppler each dropped in four points, and freshman Alicia
Seelaus rounded out the Bulldogs’ offense with two points. As
a team, Yale shot 19-for-48 (39.6%) from the field and 12=for-20
(60%) from the free throw line.
The Bison were led by 22 points and eight rebounds from Morgan
Wrightson, as they shot 19-for-39 (48.7%) from the floor, 1-for-2
(50%) from three-point range and 11-for-13 (84.6%) from the charity
stripe.
A pair of jumpers from Gobrecht paced Yale out to an 8-3 lead in
the early stages of the contest, before Rachel Voss notched two
points for the Bison to trim the lead to three. From that point
forward, however, the Bulldog defense clamped down as Yale raced
out to an 18-7 lead, allowing just one Bucknell field goal over the
next 10:55. The squads played to a dead heat over the final 6:58 of
the half, splitting the last 24 points of the frame, as Yale
entered the intermission with an 11-point lead, 30-19.
Gobrecht and Greenfield each netted six points in the first half to
lead Yale. As a team, the Bulldogs hit nearly half of their shots
from the floor at 12-for-25 (48%). The defense held the Bison to
just 38.4% shooting (8-for-22), as Bucknell got nine of its 19
first-half points from Wrightson. Yale, which was outrebounded
17-13 before halftime, was led on the glass by Gobrecht’s
three boards.
Bucknell started the second half with its best stretch of the
contest thus far, an 8-1 run over the first 4:40 of the stanza to
cut the Yale lead to four points at 31-27. A Vasquez three-pointer
ended the Bison spurt as the Bulldogs extended their lead back to
eight points, 39-31, at the 12-minute media timeout. Yale would
keep the Bison at arm’s length for most of the second half,
but a Voss three-point play with 4:12 remaining cut the lead to one
possession, 44-42, for the first time since the contest was just
two minutes old. Colborne answered with a layup to bring the lead
back to four points, but a Wrightson three-pointer and one of two
free throws from Voss on the next two Bucknell trips knotted the
score at 46-46 with 2:47 remaining in the game. A bucket from
Cashen and a pair of foul shots from Voss kept the score
deadlocked, and two Colborne free throws at the 1:45 mark gave the
Bulldogs a two-point advantage at 50-48. After an empty trip for
the Bison, Cashen followed her own miss and hit Gobrecht slashing
to the hoop for a lay-in to extend the Yale lead to four points,
52-48, with under a minute to go. A Wrightson layup cut the lead
back down to two, but Carter connected on a pair of free throws on
the ensuing Bulldogs’ trip to maintain the four-point
cushion, and a Greenfield steal sealed the victory for Yale,
54-50.
“Our mistake was not taking a larger lead while our defense
was playing so well in the first half”, said Gobrecht.
“We didn’t play our best, but you aren’t going to
play your best every time you go on the road, and tonight we
overcame it”.
Yale returns to the court on Dec. 9, as action returns to the John
J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn. The Bulldogs will welcome
Boston University to the Elm City for a 5:30 p.m. contest.
report filed by Drew M. Kingsley, Yale Sports Publicity
