NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team plays twice over Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, hosting Columbia Saturday (2:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats,
Tickets) and then visiting Dartmouth Monday (6:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats,
Tickets).
Last Game
Yale (1-14, 0-2 Ivy League) scored a season-high 69 points last Saturday at Brown, but the Bears rallied from a 50-49 deficit early in the fourth to
beat the Bulldogs 77-69. Senior guard
Mackenzie Egger (Mount Pleasant, Mich.) led Yale with 23 points and 11 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the year.
Home Stretch
Four of Yale's next six games are at home. Seven of Yale's last 10 wins have come at Lee Amphitheater.
New Highs for Lee
Senior guard
Avery Lee (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) has posted the best numbers of her Yale career this season, setting career highs in games started (11, the first starts of her career) and assists (30; previous high was 14). She is averaging 5.7 points per game, nearly tripling her previous career best (2.1, 2022-23). She needs one more rebound (she has 30) to establish a new career high in that category. Lee, who interned in event operations with the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders last summer, works part-time in the Yale Athletics Department.
Improvements Across the Board for Thybulle
Senior forward
Grace Thybulle (Irvington, N.Y.) is shooting .441, a near 50 point improvement on her shooting percentage from last season (.392). Thybulle has also improved her rebounding from 3.9 per game last year to 5.1 per game this year. She has cut back on fouls, averaging 2.9 per game this year after averaging 3.25 last year. Her cousin, Matisse Thybulle, is a guard for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers.
Capstraw Stirring
Junior guard
Kiley Capstraw (West Orange, N.J.) has shot .500 or better in four of the last eight games, including last Saturday's game at Brown (5-for-10). She has eight assists and just six turnovers in the last two games combined. Off the court Capstraw is a member of Yale Athletics' Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and chairs YUmatter, an initiative promoting student-athlete mental wellness.
Seeing Green
Yale has won eight straight in the series vs. Dartmouth, including a
36 point win (78-42) the last time these two teams met (Feb. 24, 2024 at Leede Arena). The Bulldogs shot .565 in that game and committed only 11 turnovers. They enjoyed a 46-23 rebounding advantage and held Dartmouth to .296 shooting.
Scouting Columbia
Columbia (11-4, 2-0 Ivy League) has won four in a row heading into Saturday's game, and the Lions have won 10 Ivy League games in row since an 80-65 loss at Princeton Jan. 20, 2024. The Lions have kept the momentum from the past two seasons (shared Ivy League championships in each, the first two in school history) despite losing all-time leading scorer Abbey Hsu to graduation. Columbia leads the Ivy League in scoring (73.6 points per game) and rebounding (40.3 rebounds per game).
Scouting Dartmouth
Dartmouth (8-7, 2-0 Ivy League), which plays at Princeton Saturday, is 2-0 in the Ivy League for the first time in 15 years. The Big Green ranks second in the league in scoring defense (57.3 points allowed per game) and features the fourth-leading scorer in the league, guard Victoria Page. She and 6-foot-4 forward Doreen Ariik are the team's only seniors. The team is in its second season with Linda Cimino as head coach.
Ivy League Games this Saturday
- 1:00 p.m. Penn at Cornell
- 2:00 p.m. Brown at Harvard
- 2:00 p.m. Columbia at Yale
- 2:00 p.m. Dartmouth at Princeton
Ivy League Games this Monday
- 2:00 p.m. Harvard at Penn
- 2:00 p.m. Cornell at Brown
- 6:00 p.m. Yale at Dartmouth
- 7:00 p.m. Princeton at Columbia
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