PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Yale women's basketball team capped off a 2-0 long weekend with a win on Monday at Brown that paralleled Saturday's win vs. Cornell in showcasing the Bulldogs' scoring depth. Monday was sophomore guard
Mackenzie Egger's turn to shine, as she slashed her way to a career-high 24 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard
Jenna Clark added 19 points, a career-high 12 assists and five steals. The Yale win, combined with Princeton's win over Penn and Columbia's win at Cornell, puts the Bulldogs in a tie for first place in the Ivy League standings alongside the Lions and Quakers at 4-1.
Yale (10-8, 4-1 Ivy League) wound up having five different players score at least 14 points in a game this weekend. On Monday Egger was a big reason for the Bulldogs' success against a Brown zone defense that had befuddled many teams. Entering the day the Bears had held nine opponents to a shooting percentage below .400. Egger hit 10 of her 15 shots on the day and surpassed her previous career high in points (15, set Nov. 7 at Fordham) 79 seconds into the third quarter.
"She did an excellent job in the zone, flashing and finding gaps, then turning and facing the basket and shooting confidently," said
Dalila Eshe, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball.
Egger was a big part of the offense from the get-go, scoring as many points herself (13) as Brown did in the first quarter. But the Bears, who trailed by as many as eight in the first, bounced back to tie the game in the second quarter and send the teams into halftime knotted at 29.
Brown's defense had proved stingy in the first half, limiting the Bulldogs to a .343 shooting percentage. The second half was a different story. Junior forward
Haley Sabol's layup off an Egger assist on Yale's first possession gave the Bulldogs a lead that they wound up never relinquishing. Brown hung close – but each time the Bears threatened, Yale responded. With the lead down to three two minutes into the third, Clark bumped it to six by drawing an offensive foul and then hitting one of her three three-pointers on the day.
Brown cut the lead to three two more times in the third, but after the Bears got within 45-42 with 3:06 remaining in the quarter the Bulldogs ended it with a 9-3 run. That included four points from Clark, a three-pointer from sophomore guard
Christen McCann and two points for sophomore guard
Nyla McGill on a fast break after a Clark steal.
Clark's 19 point effort came on the heels of being held to a season-low two points (albeit with 10 assists) in Saturday's win vs. Cornell. Monday saw her return to her usual spot, at or near the top of Yale's list of scorers.
"Our team in general, across the board, they never get too high or too low," said Eshe. "Some games things just aren't there for you offensively. Jenna and Mack showed the ability to step up today."
The Bulldogs got their lead to as many as 15 in the fourth quarter, limiting Brown to a 2-for-16 shooting performance in the frame to seal the win.
Yale wound up shooting .577 (15 for 26) in the second half.
"We settled in to playing against the zone," said Eshe. "We tweaked some things, and I think it worked better for the personnel we had on the floor."
Led by Clark's 12, the offense totaled 23 assists – the most in a game for Yale since Feb. 10, 2012 (24 in an 86-73 win vs. Cornell). The Bulldogs had tied their previous season high for assists, 16, in Saturday's win.
"Our guards started to do a really good job of penetrating the zone and finding their open teammates for high-percentage shots," said Eshe of Monday's effort.
The current first-place tie in the Ivy League standings will not last long; Yale and Penn meet next Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at The Palestra (the same day Columbia hosts Brown).
"We try not to get too caught up in the league standings," said Eshe. "Let's take it one game at a time and see where we end the season."
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