PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Yale women's basketball team is headed into the postseason with some momentum after a 64-49 win at Brown Saturday afternoon. Defense once again led the way for the Bulldogs, as they limited Brown to a .315 shooting percentage – including just .217 from three-point territory. Yale also enjoyed a 47-30 rebounding advantage and hit 13 of 16 free throws. Junior forward
Camilla Emsbo led Yale with 20 points and 14 rebounds, while sophomore guard
Jenna Clark added 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
Yale (16-10, 9-5 Ivy League) needed a win Saturday to solidify the No. 3 seed in the Ivy League Tournament, which starts Friday at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion. The Bulldogs jumped on the Bears early. After a dominant second quarter in which Yale limited Brown to a 2-for-12 shooting performance, the Bulldogs took a 29-18 lead into halftime.
Yale built that lead up to 20 in the third quarter, as Clark's three-pointer at the 6:53 mark made the score 39-19. Just over a minute later a jumper by first-year guard
Avery Lee got the lead to its largest at 44-22.
Brown (6-20, 1-13 Ivy League), wrapping up its first season of competition under new head coach Monique LeBlanc, would not go quietly. The Bears went on an extended run that got them within 56-48 with four minutes to play, but four points from Emsbo, two from senior forward
Alex Cade and a long-distance three by Clark as the shot clock expired late in the game helped the Bulldogs finish off the win.
Seventeen of Yale's 22 field goals (77 percent) were assisted. Clark was credited with four assists, bringing her within one of the school single-season assist record of 156 set by Kathleen Offer '96 in 1994-95. In addition to Clark and Emsbo, first-year guard
Christen McCann also scored in double figures (11 points, along with four assists) and Cade also had double-digit rebounds (10).
With nine Ivy League wins, Yale finished tied for the third-most league wins in school history.The 1988-89 and 2010-11 squads won 10 Ivy games each. Yale's 16 overall wins are three shy of the school record held by the 2017-18 and 2019-20 teams.
Yale has won three of its last four games. The Bulldogs will face the No. 2 seed, Columbia, in the Ivy League semifinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Lavietes. The other semifinal, at 4:30 p.m. that same day, pits No. 1 seed Princeton against No. 4 seed Harvard. The Ivy League Tournament Championship takes place Saturday Mar. 12 at 5:00 p.m. at Lavietes.
