NEW YORK – Columbia's Levien Gymnasium will be the home of the Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament this March, and it is currently the home of the defending Ivy League Co-Champions. Yale got a taste of that atmosphere and level of play Monday afternoon against Columbia. After falling behind early in front of a large crowd, the Bulldogs played almost even with the Lions in the second quarter. But they could not keep that momentum going in the second half, and Columbia eventually pulled away for an 88-52 win.
Slow starts have plagued Yale (3-12, 0-3 Ivy League) in each of the first three Ivy games. On Monday the Bulldogs fell behind 26-8 midway through the second quarter, but outscored Columbia 15-12 in the final 5:39 to start chipping away at the lead. Junior guard/forward
Mackenzie Egger scored six of her season-high 11 points in that span.
Egger totaled 16 points and 14 rebounds in two games over the long MLK Day weekend. That may be an indicator of even bigger things to come from her.
"That's the silver lining from today's game," said
Dalila Eshe, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "Mackenzie had a really good postseason (training) after last year and a really good preseason this year. The first part of this season was frustrating. Being able to get her going will be huge."
Columbia (12-4, 3-0) ultimately had enough weapons to withstand Yale's comeback attempt. The Bulldogs had rallied from a 21 point deficit on Saturday against Brown with a 17-0 run in the fourth quarter, but the Lions did not allow Yale to get any closer than within 15 in the second half. Four Columbia players finished in double digits, led by 24 points from guard Abbey Hsu.
Notes
- Three Bulldogs scored in double digits: senior guard Jenna Clark and sophomore guard Kiley Capstraw had 12 points each, while Egger added 11.
- Yale's 23 points in the fourth quarter marked just the second time in 12 quarters of Ivy play that Columbia allowed that many points in a quarter.
- Yale shot .533 in the fourth quarter, including 3-for-6 on three pointers. The Bulldogs were 4-for-5 from the free throw line in the fourth.
Quotes from Coach Eshe
- On what makes Columbia successful: "They walk into the gym and their expectation is that they are going to win, and that shows. They're long and athletic, and they did a good job pressuring our guards up the line so that we could not set up our offense."
- On junior forward Grace Thybulle, who had nine rebounds but fouled out: "She's our big, anchor post player. We need her in the game. It becomes more difficult when we don't have her in the paint."
Other Ivy League Scores
- Harvard 73, Brown 59
- Penn 67, Cornell 54
- Princeton at Dartmouth, 6:00 p.m.
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