ITHACA, N.Y. – The Yale women's basketball team pulled away from Cornell in the second half Saturday at Newman Arena en route to a 58-43 win. This was the Bulldogs' largest margin of victory since Feb. 22, 2025. Senior forward
Kiley Capstraw, Yale's captain, led the way with a team-best nine rebounds and eight assists.
The first half was evenly played, with Yale leading for the majority of the time but never by more than six. The half included four ties, the last of which was broken by a last-minute shot by Capstraw that gave the Bulldogs a 25-23 lead at halftime.
Yale steadily built that lead throughout the third, then ended the quarter in dramatic fashion as a buzzer-beating three from junior forward
Luisa Vydrova sent the Bulldogs into the final quarter with their largest lead of the game to that point, 42-33.
The Yale lead ballooned to 19, 56-37, on a pair of free throws from sophomore guard
Ciniya Moore with 4:33 left. Cornell got no closer than 15 the rest of the way.
Yale improves to 5-12 (1-3 Ivy League) while Cornell falls to 7-10 (2-2 Ivy League).
STATISTICAL LEADERS
- Sophomore guard Ciniya Moore led Yale in points with 18.
- Senior forward Kiley Capstraw led Yale in assists with eight and rebounds with nine.
- Junior forward Mary Meng led Yale in steals with four.
KEY STAT
- Yale had its second-lowest foul total of the season (13).
NOTES
- Capstraw finished one assist shy of her career high, nine, which came against Brown Jan. 5. She also was one rebound away from her career high, 10, set at High Point Dec. 20.
- Yale held Cornell scoreless on its first nine attempts from three-point territory. The Big Red finished 2-for-19 (.105) from downtown.
- Yale's previous largest margin of victory this season was 14 in the 63-49 win at New Haven Dec. 8. The last time Yale won by 15 or more points was a 17 point win (76-59) vs. Dartmouth Feb. 22, 2025.
- Moore was 6-for-6 from the free throw line for the third time in the last four games.
- Yale committed just five turnovers in the first half.
QUOTING DALILA ESHE, YALE'S JOEL E. SMILOW, CLASS OF 1954 HEAD COACH OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
- On what the win means for her team: "It's huge. Just the ability to stay the course and stay process-focused at the end of the day is what we have really been dialed in on. We have been getting so much better throughout the season. We got a little bit sloppy at the end, but one of the areas we've really been trying to clean up is our turnovers. Towards the end, right around the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter, we were only at 13 turnovers, which is fantastic."
- On the team's depth: "We were able to utilize our bench a little bit more. All the teams throughout the league are maybe a little bit tired, playing two games in three days. For us to be able to have that grit to really focus in and still get down the floor was huge. It also allowed us to work in our roster a little bit more."
AROUND THE IVY LEAGUE
- Columbia 68, Brown 52
- No. 24 Princeton 82, Harvard 79 (OT)
- Penn 67, Dartmouth 59
UP NEXT
- Yale hosts Penn Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
