NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Good things come to those who wait. The Yale women's basketball team earned a unique comeback win Tuesday night vs. Providence at Lee Amphitheater, rallying from a halftime deficit that dated all the way back to Nov. 5. The two teams had played two quarters on that day before a scoreboard malfunction forced the game to be suspended. Trailing 42-33 at the half, the Bulldogs wound up falling behind by as many as 17 in the third quarter when play resumed Tuesday night. But a 26-4 run from the third quarter into the early part of the fourth turned the game in Yale's favor, and a last-minute defensive stand capped an 82-79 Bulldog win.
"This is the strangest win I've had," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "It actually feels better [winning after having to wait four weeks to complete the game]. It's felt like a loss for this long. The kids were so juiced. We're a team that believes in each other."
The game was initially scheduled to be Yale's season opener, and when the Bulldogs left the court on Nov. 5 at halftime they knew they had some work to do. They began turning their season around with a win vs. Quinnipiac in the next game, but suffered a setback with an overtime loss at Colgate after that. They bounced back by winning four of five -- including a pair in California last weekend -- to gain some momentum heading into Tuesday night's resumption.
Providence (5-1, 0-0 Big East) started the second half with a 9-2 run that began with a pair of free throws. One of the oddities of Tuesday's resumption was that, in the weeks since the game started, two Yale players who were out due to injury on Nov. 5 -- junior guard
Tori Andrew and sophomore forward
Erin Hill -- were healthy by the time the game resumed. Because they were not listed in the official scorebook for the start of the game Nov. 5, the Bulldogs took a technical to be able to get them into Tuesday's second half.
Andrew wound up playing 19 minutes, contributing a pair of assists.
"Her presence on the floor, her defensive intensity, is worth those two points [that Providence got from the technical foul]," said Guth.
In addition to Andrew, three other Bulldogs played at least 18 minutes in the resumption -- junior forward
Ellen Margaret Andrews, senior guard
Roxy Barahman and senior forward
Megan Gorman.
Andrews and Barahman played the entire 20 minutes, enjoying big improvements from the Nov. 5 first half.
At that point of the year Andrews was in her first game back after missing all but five games last year due to injury. She scored seven points on Nov. 5, then went off for 16 points in the second half on Tuesday to finish with a career-high 23.
"She was absolutely grinding it when she came back [this fall]," said Guth. "She was first in every conditioning sprint. Her work ethic is amazing. She was great tonight."
When the game began Nov. 5 Barahman was dealing with injury issues of her own; she had missed most of the preseason due to injury and shot 0-for-6 from the field in the first half. She was a different player Tuesday, shooting 5-for-10 in the second half to finish with 19 points.
Gorman put Yale ahead for the first time of the night with a jumper a minute into the fourth that made the score 61-59 Yale. After four more ties, the Bulldogs got a big three-pointer by Andrews with 5:18 left and kept the lead the rest of the way -- though not without some threats by Providence. The Friars got within two on a three-pointer by Kaela Webb with 1:56 left, but a layup by sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo pushed the lead back to four.
After the Friars hit a pair of free throws to get within two again, an offensive foul by the Bulldogs gave Providence a chance to tie. It also gave Yale (6-2, 0-0 Ivy League) a chance to show how far it has come in the last few weeks. Facing a similar situation at Colgate Nov. 16, the Bulldogs allowed a game-tying three pointer near the end of regulation and then lost in OT. This time, the defense delivered. As Friar guard Chanell Williams drove the lane, Andrews and Barahman cut her off and she lost the ball. Junior forward
Alex Cade (16 points) grabbed the loose ball to help seal the win.
"Getting that stop without fouling shows our growth," said Guth. "The Dec. 3 Bulldogs are a different team from the Nov. 5 Bulldogs. I couldn't be more proud of these kids."
Yale hosts St. John's Friday at 7:00 p.m.
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