HANOVER, N.H. – After seeing an eight-game winning streaked snapped Friday night, the Yale women's basketball team bounced back in decisive fashion Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth at Leede Arena. Behind a dominant defensive effort that limited the Big Green to 32 percent shooting, and a career-high 29 points from sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo, the Bulldogs cruised to a 67-47 win to end the weekend on a high note.
Yale (15-4, 5-1 Ivy League) established control of the game early, opening with a 12-0 run that included six points each from Emsbo and junior guard
Tori Andrew. Dartmouth shot just 23 percent from the field in the first quarter, scoring eight points.
"We did three things defensively: we pressured the ball, we stayed in our gaps and we had better ball screen coverage," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "We needed so badly to get back to that [after allowing 66 points in Friday's loss]. Then, we completed the stop by getting the rebound."
Playing in front of a large group of alums in Hanover to celebrate 40 years of women's basketball at the school, Dartmouth (7-12, 1-5 Ivy League) was able to chip away at the lead gradually. The Big Green trailed just 29-25 at halftime, then scored the first four points of the third quarter to tie the game.
Senior guard
Roxy Barahman -- en route to a 14 point, six-assist night -- gave Yale the lead for good with a pull-up jumper at 8:11 of the third. That started a 17-6 run that got the Bulldog lead to double digits late in the third.
"Roxy has the gravity to draw the defense because of how she can work off the bounce," said Guth. "We need her to create, and she did that today. I was also proud of her defensive effort, how she dug in."
Dartmouth made one last run, getting within six with 9:48 to play, before an Emsbo layup started a 10-0 run that effectively put the game out of reach.
Emsbo's 29 points were a big part of Yale's dominant effort in the paint: the Bulldogs outscored the Big Green 48-20 down low. Behind four blocks from Emsbo and two from Barahman they also enjoyed a 6-0 advantage in blocks, and Emsbo drew seven fouls.
"We were cognizant of where we could thrive and felt that we had an advantage inside," said Guth. "That's a credit to Mills working to get open, and her teammates getting her the ball."
Yale also got outstanding efforts from Andrew, who was a team-high +31, and junior guard
Ellen Margaret Andrews, who finished with 14 points.
"Ellen Margaret was fantastic," said Guth. "We kept going to her because she was poised and patient. And she gave us a heck of a defensive effort."
This was the third time this season the Bulldogs held an opponent to fewer than 50 points.
Yale hosts Princeton next Friday at 6:00 p.m. The Tigers have a half-game lead on Yale for first place in the Ivy League standings.
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