ANTIBES, France – The second and final game of the Yale women's basketball team's foreign tour saw the Bulldogs take on Antibes Select Monday at Stade Foch. The Bulldogs were locked in a title battle with their veteran opponents through the first half, trailing just 34-30 at the break. But Antibes outscored Yale 27-14 in the third, and Yale's rally in the fourth – when the Bulldogs scored 21 points, their best quarter of the game – came up short. Antibes came away with a 76-65 win.
Yale had arrived in Nice on Sunday, having spent the previous four nights in Barcelona. Their brief time in Nice has so far included a tour of the city on Sunday night, and they will remain in the area until returning to the United States on Thursday. Yale played one game in Barcelona, falling to El Pacto 73-66 last Friday.
NOTES
- Yale went with the same starting lineup as Friday's game: senior guard Kiley Capstraw along with four sophomores: guard Marisa Chapman, guard Ciniya Moore, guard Ke'iara Odume and guard Magdalena Schmidt.
- Moore led Yale with 16 points. Capstraw added 14 and Odume scored 13.
- Once again, three Yale first-years scored: guard Radhika Garapaty (six), forward Sophia Gibson (four) and guard Olivia Kim (five).
- Odume finished with a team-best 28 points for the trip, followed by Moore (24 points) and Capstraw (23 points).
- The sophomore class totaled a team-best 73 points in the two games, accounting for 56 percent of the team's scoring. The first-year class was second in scoring with 35 points.
QUOTING DALILA ESHE, YALE'S JOEL E. SMILOW, CLASS OF 1954 HEAD COACH OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
- On Ciniya Moore leading the team in scoring: "She showed a lot of grit, which is what we were talking about. The gym [which had no air conditioning] felt like it was around 95 degrees, and it seemed like she didn't lose her stamina towards the end of the game, which was really impressive. She made some changes from the first game. She was finding her teammates a little bit more, which allowed the floor to open up and gave more scoring opportunities for her."
- On keeping the game close through halftime but ultimately falling: "We're playing against national team-caliber players, players that are probably closer to my age and have played at least a decade of pro basketball, and so they just understand how to grit it out. We had three first-years out there, and when you put it into context – these kids just got out of high school. I was proud of their effort. We did stay with [Antibes Select]. I thought we made some good runs, then we hit a point where they just pulled away."
