PHILADELPHIA – The Yale women's basketball team had the lead heading into the fourth quarter Friday night at The Palestra against Penn. But the Quakers turned the tide of the game with an 11-0 run in the final frame, going on to pull out a 71-59 victory over the Bulldogs.
Penn (12-10, 3-6 Ivy League) led by as many as eight early in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs chipped away at that lead. Yale rallied to tie the game 25-25 on a pull-up jumper by senior guard/forward
Mackenzie Egger at 3:27 of the second. The Bulldogs eventually went ahead 27-25 when junior guard
Kiley Capstraw set up sophomore forward
Ana Guillen, who had just stolen the ball, for a layup at 1:10. Penn answered with a Katie Collins basket and the game was 27-27 at the half.
Neither team led by more than three in the third quarter. The Bulldogs came out of it with a 46-44 advantage thanks to two late free throws by senior forward
Grace Thybulle.
Penn got the lead to seven at 55-48 with a 6-0 run early in the fourth, prompting a Yale timeout with 6:12 remaining. After the Quakers tacked on five more points the Bulldogs called timeout again, this time with 3:56 left. Egger then drew a foul and hit a free throw to bring Penn's run to an end, but the Quakers answered with a three-pointer and kept the Bulldogs at bay the rest of the way.
Egger finished with a double-double for Yale (2-20, 1-8 Ivy League).
STATISTICAL LEADERS
KEY STAT
- Penn outshot Yale 70.0% to 33.3% in the fourth quarter.
NOTES
- This was Egger's eighth double-double of the year.
- Senior forward Grace Thybulle had nine rebounds, matching her season high.
QUOTING DALILA ESHE, YALE'S JOEL E. SMILOW, CLASS OF 1954 HEAD COACH OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
- On losing the lead in the fourth quarter: "I thought we played three really good quarters. In the fourth we played a little tight."
- On making extensive use of the bench: "We were trying to account for possible fatigue in the fourth. We gave props to the bench group that did go in. I thought they did a very good job maintaining for us so the starters could get a rest."
- On the second quarter, in which Yale outscored Penn 18-11: "It started from our defense. We were pressuring, we were denying. When we're more aggressive on defense, it translates to offense."
AROUND THE IVY LEAGUE
- Princeton 78, Brown 67
- Harvard 66, Cornell 29
- Columbia 89, Dartmouth 37
WHAT'S NEXT
- Yale plays at Princeton Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
