LOS ANGELES – The Yale women's basketball team was facing more than just another team known as the Bulldogs Friday, taking on Fresno State at LMU's Thanksgiving Classic. Yale was also facing a pair of high-scoring identical twins, as FSU featured guards Haley Cavinder and Hanna Cavinder. Yale had twins of its own, though, and both helped provide the winning edge. Sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo (whose identical twin, Kira, plays at Princeton) tied her career high with 26 points and set her career high with 17 rebounds. Yale's other twin (albeit not an identical one), senior guard
Roxy Barahman, finished with 18 points and eight assists. They both played critical roles as Yale pulled away for an 87-67 win.
Yale was expecting Emsbo to be able to use her six-foot-five frame as an advantage against a Fresno State team with five starters who are six-foot-one or shorter. She established control of the paint early on, tallying six points and four rebounds in the first quarter alone.
"Assistant coach
Danielle Brown did a great job with the scout," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "Inside was our target. Our team bought into playing inside-out. And Camilla created a lot for herself with five offensive rebounds."
Yale (4-2, 0-0 Ivy League) got an early boost off the bench from another forward, senior
Bronwyn Davies, who had five points in a span of five minutes in the second quarter as Yale turned a 16-16 tie into an 11 point Yale lead. Emsbo's buzzer-beating layup eventually made the score 39-26 heading into halftime.
Fresno State (4-3, 0-0 Mountain West) made a run in the third quarter, scoring eight in a row at one point. But after FSU got within two at 49-47 with 2:14 left in the third, junior forward
Ellen Margaret Andrews and senior forward
Megan Gorman hit shots to get the lead to six heading into the fourth. Yale then utilized a 17-4 run at the start of the final quarter to take control.
Barahman -- whose twin brother, Bardia, was one of many fans in the stands for her Friday as she played just 30 miles from her hometown of Calabasas -- had six points, an assist and a steal during that run.
"We were controlling the tempo with great stops," said Guth of the fourth-quarter run. "We were a little bit more intelligent with our push -- when we had numbers we were aggressive, and when we didn't have numbers Roxy did a great job leading us as a true point guard."
FSU got no closer than 15 the rest of the way.
Emsbo came out with two minutes to play, and shortly after that Barahman came out as well. Sophomore guard
Roxanne Nesbitt made her season debut in the final minute and assisted on Yale's last basket, a layup by first year guard
Jenna Clark.
Andrews finished with 15 points, six steals and five rebounds. Her trip to California has been a productive one, as she had a team-high 22 points in Tuesday's game at No. 11 UCLA.
"Ellen Margaret has strung together two great games, and it has started with her defense," said Guth. "One of our better adjustments vs. the zone was putting EM in the high post. [Sophomore guard]
Robin Gallagher [who had six points in 12 minutes] also did some beautiful stuff for us vs. the zone."
Hanna Cavinder finished with 20 points for Fresno State, while Haley Cavinder scored eight. They had been averaging a combined 33 points per game in the first six games.
Yale faces Loyola Marymount to conclude the tournament Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
