PHILADELPHIA – A four-game winning streak had catapulted the Yale women's basketball team into a first-place tie in the Ivy League standings entering play Saturday, but a hot-shooting Penn team proved to be too much for the Bulldogs to overcome. The Quakers shot .574 and had three players score at least 16 points en route to beating the Bulldogs 79-57. Junior guard
Jenna Clark led Yale with 21 points, a career high.
Yale (10-9, 4-2, Ivy League) led 5-2 after Clark opened the scoring with a three-pointer and junior forward
Haley Sabol added a layup, but Penn (13-6, 5-1 Ivy League) went on a 6-0 run to take the lead and never look back.
The Bulldogs trailed 38-28 at halftime, and Penn began pulling away by outscoring Yale 22-12 in the third. The Quakers led by at least 19 points throughout the fourth.
"We never found our flow offensively," said
Dalila Eshe, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "We figured it out at a couple of moments, but not consistently."
Clark was a major bright spot, hitting five of her nine three-point attempts as Yale tied its season high for three-pointers as a team (nine). She also had six assists. Combined with her efforts in the win at Brown this past Monday, Clark has 40 points in Yale's last two games.
"She's found her confidence as of this last stretch," said Eshe. "She's taking the opportunities when they arise."
Sophomore forward
Grace Thybulle provided a much-needed spark off the bench, totaling eight points in just over 11 minutes of action.
"She did an excellent job being aggressive and posting up. We were wishing we could get a little more out of that. She's a matchup nightmare for many of our opponents," said Eshe of the 6-foot-3 Thybulle.
Sophomore guard
Nyla McGill led Yale with eight rebounds.
The Bulldogs are now tied for third in the Ivy League standings at 4-2, one game behind first-place Columbia and Penn. Yale is tied with Harvard and Princeton; the Bulldogs will face the Tigers next Saturday in New Jersey.
Social Media
