NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Yale women's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting St. John's team Sunday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena, and the Bulldogs did their best to keep up. Yale had its best shooting performance of the year, shooting .439, but the Red Storm answered with a blistering .478 shooting percentage -- including 14 three-pointers -- en route to beating the Bulldogs 86-68.
Yale (3-2, 0-0 Ivy League) had seen its three-game winning streak to start the season snapped Friday night with a loss to Maine. St. John's (3-1, 0-0 Big East) averaged 75 points per game in its first three games, offering a hint of the challenge that awaited the Bulldogs.
The first quarter was evenly played, ending in a 19-19 tie. The seesaw battle saw Yale take an early 10-5 lead, only to have St. John's reel off seven straight points. That streak was snapped by a three-pointer from sophomore guard
Elles van der Maas, the first points of her career.
Yale paid the price for seven turnovers in the second quarter, helping St. John's outscore the Bulldogs 28-15 in that frame. Senior guard/forward
Robin Gallagher snapped a 13-0 Red Storm run with a jump shot at 1:20, and SJU went into the break up 47-34.
The Bulldogs ate into the St. John's lead with a 15-7 run to start the third quarter, including a pair of threes from first-year guard
Christen McCann. But the Red Storm responded with a 13-6 run and got the lead back up to 67-55 into the fourth.
St. John's outscored Yale 19-13 in the fourth to pull away for the win.
"We gave up 14 threes and we turned the ball over 23 times," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "We caught St. John's on a hot shooting night."
Two other Bulldogs joined van der Maas in scoring the first points of their careers, as first-year guard
Nyla McGill finished with six points and first-year guard
Avery Lee drove in for a layup in the game's final moments for her first career points. All told Yale played eight players in this game who had no collegiate playing experience heading into this season.
The Bulldogs finished with a season-high 15 assists and had four scorers in double digits, led by sophomore guard
Jenna Clark (15 points). She hit six of her 12 shots and added nine assists and eight rebounds. Junior forward
Camilla Emsbo registered her fifth double-double of the year, scoring 14 points and adding 13 rebounds. McCann also had 14 points, and van der Maas finished with 11.
Yale visits BU on Wednesday at 12:00 p.m.
