NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team heads to Colorado this week for the University of Denver Classic. The Bulldogs play New Mexico State Friday (2:30 p.m. MT,
Pioneer All-Access,
Live Stats,
Tickets) and Houston Christian Saturday (2:30 p.m. MT,
Pioneer All-Access,
Live Stats,
Tickets). Both games are part of doubleheaders, as the host school plays at noon MT each day.
Last Game
Yale (3-2, 0-0 Ivy League) outscored Maine 17-3 in the second quarter on the way to a
55-46 win at The Pit in Memorial Gymnasium Saturday night. Junior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) led Yale with 15 points, one of three Bulldogs in double digits. Yale had an 11-0 run early in the first quarter and held the Black Bears scoreless for a total of 8:05 from near the end of the first quarter until the 2:18 mark of the second quarter.
Win Streak In Progress
Yale enters the University of Denver Classic with a three-game winning streak. That is the Bulldogs' longest streak since winning five in a row Jan. 8-23, 2022.
No Threes Allowed
Yale is limiting its opponents to a .269 shooting percentage from three-point territory. That makes the Bulldogs the best three-point shooting defense in the Ivy League.
League-Leading Thievery
Yale has two players in the top five in the Ivy League in steals. Sophomore guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.) leads the league with 13 steals and junior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) is tied for fifth with 10. Clark is on the watch list for the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation.
Big Leap for McGill
En route to earning starts in the last three games – the first starts of her Yale career – sophomore guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.) has made dramatic improvements in multiple areas on the stat sheet compared to last season. Here is a look:
- Points per game: 0.7 last year, 8.2 this year
- Rebounds per game: 0.7 last year, 7.6 this year
- Steals per game: 0.4 last year, 2.6 this year
- Assists per game: 1.0 last year, 1.8 this year
Homecoming for Captain Emsbo
This trip marks a homecoming for senior forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.), elected Yale's captain by her teammates. She will miss this season due to injury, but still provides valuable leadership. Emsbo was a unanimous first team All-Ivy League selection last year, when she led the league in blocks per game (2.2, 26th nationally), double doubles (13) and field goal percentage (.514). She was second in rebounds per game (10.2), third in free throw percentage (.704) and seventh in points per game (14.1). Emsbo was a five-star ESPN recruit out of Lakewood High, where she was Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Colorado. She was team captain as a junior and senior, leading the team to the Class 5A Final Four both times. She played alongside her identical twin sister, Kira, who now plays at Princeton.
Longest Trip of the Year
Yale's trip to Denver is its longest trip of the year, and its only plane flight. It comes in the midst of a stretch of five straight games away from Lee Amphitheater for the Bulldogs. That stretch started with wins at Army and Maine last week. After the Bulldogs return from Colorado, they visit UMass on Nov. 30 before returning to Lee – for the first time in 20 days – on Dec. 4 to play Syracuse. By the end of the five-game road stretch they will have traveled more than 4,800 miles.
Scouting New Mexico State
New Mexico State (2-1, 0-0 WAC) has won two in a row since falling to Colorado in the season opener. The Aggies are coming off an overtime win against rival New Mexico, 73-64 last Tuesday, that snapped an eight-game losing streak in the series. They are in their first season under Jody Adams, the starting point guard on the Tennessee 1991 NCAA Champion squad. She posted four straight 20 plus win seasons and made six straight postseason appearances from 2009-15 as Wichita State's head coach.
Scouting Houston Christian
Houston Christian (1-2, 0-0 SLC), formerly known as Houston Baptist, plays Denver on Friday on the first day of the Denver Classic. The Huskies are coming off a 2021-22 season in which they went 12-2 in the Southland Conference but fell in the SLC semis. They finished with a loss at Toledo in the WNIT.
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