NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team tests itself against two of the top teams in the Ivy League this weekend. The two schools coming to Lee Amphitheater have accounted for every Ivy League women's basketball championship since 2009-10: Princeton (six titles, including one shared) and Penn (four titles, including one shared). Yale, off to the best start in program history, is currently in second place in the Ivy standings -- a half-game behind first-place Princeton and a game and a half ahead of fourth-place Penn. The Tigers are in town Friday (6:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
WYBC) and the Quakers are in town Saturday (4:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
WYBC).
Last Weekend
Yale (15-4, 5-1 Ivy League) had a school-record-tying eight game win streak snapped last Friday by a 66-57 loss at Harvard. The Bulldogs bounced back the next day for a 67-47 win at Dartmouth, holding the Big Green to 32 percent shooting. Sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.) had a career-high 29 points, adding eight rebounds and four blocks.
Atop the Ivy League
Yale leads the Ivy League in scoring, averaging 73.6 points per game -- 3.5 more than the next-best team (Columbia, 70.1). The Bulldogs' .447 shooting percentage is 20 percentage points better than any other Ivy, with Cornell second (.427). Yale also leads the league in three-point shooting percentage (.354).
Winning Big
Saturday's 20 point win at Dartmouth marked the eighth time this season the Bulldogs have won by 15 or more points. Here is the list of Yale's biggest margins of victory:
- 47 (87-40 vs. Sacred Heart 12/19/19)
- 33 (73-40 at Brown 1/25/20)
- 25 (85-60 at Columbia 1/31/20)
- 20 (67-47 at Dartmouth 2/8/20)
- 20 (87-67 vs. Fresno State 11/29/19)
- 19 (87-68 vs. Wagner 12/31/19)
- 16 (81-65 at Loyola Marymount 11/30/19)
- 15 (78-63 at Northeastern 11/23/19)
Staying Disciplined
Yale is 12th in the nation in fewest fouls (303) and 15th in the nation in fewest turnovers (278).
Home at Last
Yale returns to John J. Lee Amphitheater this weekend for its first home games since Jan. 17 -- a stretch of 27 days. The Bulldogs went 4-1 on the road in that span. They are 6-1 at home this season and have gone 46-22 (.676) at home since the start of the 2014-15 season.
Winning at a Record Pace
Yale's 15-4 mark is the best record after 19 games in school history. The Bulldogs' .789 winning percentage puts them on pace to break the school record. In terms of winning percentage, here are Yale's top seasons:
- .750 (15-5, 1976-77)
- .722 (13-5, 1975-76)
- .667 (12-6, 1974-75)
- .654 (17-9, 1979-80)
- .615 (16-10, 1993-94)
RPI and the Ivy League
This weekend Yale faces the only other Ivy League teams in the top 90 in the NCAA RPI rankings.
Here are the complete rankings as of Feb. 11:
20. Princeton
40. Yale
87. Penn
100. Harvard
132. Cornell
160. Columbia
198. Dartmouth
211. Brown
National Girls and Women in Sports Day Celebration Saturday
Saturday's game is
part of Yale Athletics' celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. There is free admission and a post-game sports clinic for children ages 12 and under. There will be giveaways and autographs with Yale women's teams. The day also includes a women's lacrosse home game at 1:00 p.m. and a women's ice hockey home game at 3:00 p.m.
Black History Month Commemoration Game Saturday
Yale will commemorate Black History Month at Saturday's game. Prior to the National Anthem, members of the singing group Shades will perform "Lift Every Voice". Yale Steppin' Out will perform during breaks in the action, and there will be activations and tabling hosted by the Afro-American Cultural Center. The event is co-sponsored by the Working Women's Network, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Afro-American Cultural Center.
Scouting Princeton
Princeton (17-1, 5-0 Ivy League) brings a 13 game winning streak into Friday's game, tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the country, and is ranked No. 25 in one poll and receiving votes in the another. Stony Brook has the longest, 20 games. The Tigers have been dominant in their five Ivy League games, winning by an average of nearly 24 points. Their smallest margin of victory in Ivy play so far is a 14 point win at Harvard Feb. 1. They lead the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 48.5 points per game. Guard/forward Bella Alarie, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, leads the league in scoring in league games (19.6 points per game), is tied for third in blocks in league games (2.0 blocks per game) and is sixth in rebounding in league games (7.8 rebounds per game).
Kira Emsbo, identical twin sister of Yale sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.), is on the Tigers roster but has been sidelined all season by an injury.
Scouting Penn
Penn (13-5, 3-2 Ivy League), which hosts Brown Friday, was Ivy League co-champions with Princeton last season. The Quakers have lost two or fewer Ivy League games four times in the last six full seasons, but are already at two league losses this year with eight games remaining.
Rookie guard Kayla Padilla leads the Ivy League in scoring (18.7 points per game), while six-foot-four center Eleah Parker leads the league in blocks (2.4 per game).
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