HAMILTON, N.Y. – The first road game of the 2019-20 season wound up being a pressure-packed one for the Yale women's basketball team. After falling behind by seven early, the Bulldogs rallied and wound up spending much of their Saturday afternoon battling back-and-forth with Colgate at Cotterell Court. The Raiders hit the shots they needed down the stretch to overcome a six-point fourth quarter deficit, getting a game-tying three-pointer with four seconds left in regulation. They then won it in overtime, 70-67. The loss overshadowed a 20 point effort from Yale junior guard
Tori Andrew. Yale limited the Raiders to 36.7% shooting but was hurt by 19 turnovers.
"Colgate earned the victory today," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "We turned the ball over 19 times and the scored 23 points off our turnovers, so we've got to get back to work at valuing the possession."
Colgate (4-0, 0-0 Patriot) was fresh off a win over another Ivy League school, 62-58 at Cornell on Thursday. The Raiders took an early 13-6 lead Saturday before the Bulldogs rallied, eventually heading into halftime with a 27-26 lead thanks to a late free throw by senior forward
Bronwyn Davies.
Yale (1-1, 0-0 Ivy League) built its lead to as many as 10 in the third quarter, when Andrew scored eight of her points -- including a pair of three pointers. But Colgate scored the last four points of the third quarter and the first seven of the fourth, taking a 45-44 lead with 8:12 to play. Yale answered immediately with a bucket from junior forward
Alex Cade, part of a day in which the Bulldogs scored 40 points in the paint.
The Bulldogs got the lead up to six on a three-pointer by junior guard
Ellen Margaret Andrews with 5:31 left, but Colgate rallied again. After a pair of free throws by Andrews put Yale up 59-56 with 17 seconds left the Bulldogs got the defensive stop they needed: a block by sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo. But Colgate got the rebound and guard Keelah Dixon buried a last-second three-pointer to send the game to OT.
The teams traded baskets for the first eight minutes of OT, and after a Colgate miss Emsbo -- playing with a bloody nose -- sank layup for a 67-66 lead with 1:20 left. Colgate guard Alexa Brodie answered to swing the lead back in the Raiders' favor, and after a miss by Yale the Bulldogs had to foul. Raiders guard Haley Greer sank both free throws, and a last-second three-point attempt by Yale came up short to make the final 70-67.
Emsbo finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while senior forward
Megan Gorman led Yale with 12 boards. In addition to her 20 points, Andrew had six assists.
Yale returns to action Thursday at UMass Lowell, the second of six straight road games for the Bulldogs.
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