NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team starts a stretch of four straight road games with a pair this week, visiting BU Tuesday (6:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Terriers All-Access Audio,
Live Stats,
Tickets) and Lehigh Friday (6:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
Live Stats,
Tickets). The Bulldogs then head to California for a pair of games next week.
Last Game
Yale (0-2, 0-0 Ivy League) fell to Saint Joseph's in the home opener this past Saturday, 65-41. The Bulldogs started strong, leading by three after a layup by senior forward
Brenna McDonald (Natick, Mass.) at 7:31 of the second. But Saint Joseph's went on a 10-0 run and never trailed again.
Captain Clark Shines in Return to Pittsburgh
Last Tuesday's game at Pitt was a homecoming for senior point guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Yale's captain. Clark was a two-time captain at Thomas Jefferson High, where she set the school record for career assists and earned first team all-state honors in 2018-19. Clark made the most of her return, leading the team with 19 points and nine assists in a narrow 79-74 defeat. Clark has led the Ivy League in assists for two years – including a school-record 160 in 2021-22. She was recently
featured on The Next.
McDonald Back in Massachusetts Tuesday
The Bulldogs have one Massachusetts native on their roster, senior forward
Brenna McDonald (Natick, Mass.). McDonald led the Ivy League in blocks per game last year (1.1) and has an early lead this year with six blocks in three games. She is tied for third in the league in rebounds per game this year (9.0). McDonald was a Boston Globe Dream Team selection in her senior year at Natick High School, where she set the school career record for scoring. She played AAU Basketball for the Bay State Jaguars for four years. Tuesday night's game is one of three trips to the Bay State for the Bulldogs, as they play at Merrimack Dec. 3 and at Harvard Jan. 6.
McGill Leads Defense
Junior guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.), the reigning Ivy League Co-Defensive Player of the Year, got her season off to a solid start with four steals at Pitt last Tuesday. Her career high in that category is seven, set this past Jan. 14 against Cornell. She has 16 rebounds this season, second on the team.
Bench Providing Scoring
Yale's bench has outscored the opponent's bench in each of the first two games – 24-18 at Pitt and 15-2 against Saint Joseph's. Junior forward
Grace Thybulle (Irvington, N.Y.) (11.0 points per game) and junior guard
Christen McCann (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) (7.0 points per game) are the Bulldogs top two scorers off the bench.
Road Warriors
Starting with Tuesday's game at BU, the Bulldogs play six of their next eight games on the road.
Scouting BU
BU (2-0, 0-0 Patriot League) was picked second in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, having won the league's regular season championships last year. Six-foot-four forward Caitlin Weimar was named the Patriot League Preseason Player and Defensive Player of the Year. Head coach Melissa Graves was an assistant coach at Yale for three years, including the 2017-18 season in which the team set the school record for wins (19) and won the WBI Championship.
Scouting Lehigh
Lehigh (2-0, 0-0 Patriot League), which visits Delaware Tuesday night, has held both of its first two opponents to 50 or fewer points and 31 percent or worse shooting. The Mountain Hawks are coached by a former Ivy Leaguer, 2011 Princeton grad Addie Micir. She is in her fifth season with Lehigh, having served as associate head coach starting in 2019 prior to being promoted to head coach in 2022.
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