BOSTON – The Yale women's basketball team trailed throughout the first half Wednesday afternoon at BU, falling behind by as many as seven points. But late in a back-and-forth third quarter the Bulldogs took a 36-35 lead and would not let go. They outscored the Terriers 19-14 in the fourth, including three three-pointers, to come away with a 57-51 win. For the game the Bulldogs shot .421 from three-point territory, their best performance of the season.
Before Yale even got to Boston
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, saw signs that the Bulldogs were ready to turn the corner after a loss at St. John's Sunday.
"It was inspiring," said Guth. "Before we even got on the bus, we had a copious amount of players [in John J. Lee Amphitheater] wanting to get shots up."
Yale (4-2, 0-0 Ivy League) had dropped two in a row after opening the season with three wins, and the Bulldogs got off to a slow start Wednesday. They trailed 12-7 after the first quarter, thanks in large part to seven turnovers. They then fell behind by as many as seven in the second, but were able to start getting BU point guard Sydney Johnson in foul trouble with her third of the game. The Bulldogs pulled within 27-23 heading into halftime, getting a three-pointer from first-year guard
Christen McCann right before the break.
McCann continued her hot shooting into the third, hitting an early three that jump-started an 11-6 Yale run in the quarter the put the Bulldogs on top. After two more lead changes, Yale went into the fourth up 38-37. Junior forward
Camilla Emsbo preserved that lead with a late block.
A 9-2 Yale run to open the fourth put the Bulldogs in control. After a jumper by senior forward
Alex Cade, sophomore guard
Klara Astrom hit a deep three-pointer to get the lead to six. Buckets by Emsbo and McCann after BU (2-3, 0-0 Patriot League) scored pushed the lead to eight with six minutes to play.
"We went into the fourth and said it was a 0-0 ballgame," said Guth. "We wanted to maintain being the aggressor. We wanted to run a great offense. When you see the shot selections made -- they were the right decisions. And from the defensive standpoint, we knew it was important to get the stop."
A three-pointer by Johnson, who finished tied for the team lead with 12 points, trimmed Yale's lead to four with 53 seconds left. But after a BU miss Emsbo got her 10th rebound, clinching her sixth double-double in as many games. She finished with 17 points. A pair of free throws by Astrom with six seconds left sealed the victory.
The Bulldogs shot .700 (7-for-10) in the fourth quarter, including a 3-for-4 performance from beyond the arc. McCann finished with 13 points and Astrom scored 12. Both hit three three-pointers. Sophomore guard
Jenna Clark had five assists.
"Chris and Klara helped us immensely," said Guth. "We had a little bit more inside-outside."
The win marks a victory for Guth against one of her proteges. BU is coached by Melissa (D'Amico) Graves, who was an assistant at Yale for three seasons and helped the Bulldogs win the 2018 WBI Championship.
"For Melissa and I, our coaching 'why' -- why we got into this profession -- is the same," said Guth. "It's all about the kids and their experience, and not about us. I'm very proud of her. She's a big reason that we are the program that we are today. We're rooting for her every day except this one."
Yale plays Fairfield at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn., Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
