NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Entering the final weekend of the regular season,
the Yale women's basketball team needs just one win -- or a loss by Harvard on Friday -- to clinch one of the four spots in the Ivy League Tournament. The Bulldogs could finish as high as the No. 2 seed with a pair of wins. Standing in their way are Dartmouth (Friday, 6:00 p.m.,
ESPN+) and Harvard (Saturday, 4:00 p.m.,
ESPN+, WYBC). On Saturday the Bulldogs will pay tribute to the senior class before the game. It is also Alumnae Weekend, and on Friday Yale hosts Pride Night.
Ivy League Tournament Picture
The top four teams in the Ivy League regular season standings advance to the Ivy League Tournament, which is at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion Mar. 13-14 this year.
- No. 21 Princeton is 12-0 in league play. The Tigers have clinched the Ivy League title and the No. 1 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
- Columbia and Penn are 8-4 in league play, tied for second. They play each other Saturday night in New York, after Columbia hosts No. 21 Princeton Friday and Penn plays at Cornell Friday night.
- Yale is 7-5 in league play. The Bulldogs need one more win, or a Harvard loss at Brown Friday, to clinch a spot in the Ivy League Tournament. The Bulldogs could finish as high as the No. 2 seed if they win both games this weekend.
- Harvard is 5-7 in league play and in fifth place. The Crimson must win both games this weekend, at Brown and at Yale, and have Yale lose to Dartmouth Friday, to earn a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
- Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth have been eliminated from contention for spots in the Ivy League Tournament.
- The complete list of Ivy League tiebreakers is available by clicking here.
Last Weekend
Yale (17-8, 7-5 Ivy League) split last weekend's Ivy League games, earning a historic win at Penn Friday before falling to No. 21 Princeton Saturday. The Bulldogs' 71-54 win vs. the Quakers marked their first win at The Palestra since Mar. 9, 2013. They limited Penn to 29 percent shooting and shot 50 percent from three-point range. Senior guard
Roxy Barahman (Calabasas, Calif.) finished with 29 points (four shy of her career high) and five assists, part of a 13 assist day for the Bulldogs as a team. Senior forward
Megan Gorman (Vero Beach, Fla.) led the team in +/- at +18 and rebounds with 13.
Seniors Celebrated Saturday
Yale will celebrate the Class of 2020 prior to Saturday's game vs. Harvard.
- Guard Roxy Barahman (Calabasas, Calif.) has rewritten the Yale record book. She enters the weekend fifth on Yale's career scoring list and is also in the top five at Yale for career assists. After missing part of her first year to injury she emerged as a starter her sophomore season, earning honorable mention All-Ivy honors and Yale's Most Improved Player Award. She was fourth in the Ivy League in assists. Last season she earned first team All-Ivy League honors, leading the league in scoring and placing 47th nationally. She was second in the league in steals and sixth in assists. She delivered one of that season's signature moments, hitting a buzzer beater to beat Harvard at Lee Amphitheater. On March 1, 2019 at Cornell she became the 22nd player in Yale women's basketball history to score 1,000 or more points. This season she leads the Ivy League in steals and is third in points and assists. She is an ecology and evolutionary biology major in Davenport College.
- Forward Megan Gorman (Vero Beach, Fla.) has been a starter and one of Yale's best rebounders throughout her career. She finished third on the team in rebounding in her first year and second as a sophomore. Last season she was fifth in the Ivy League in rebounding and third on the team in assists. Playing in her home state of Florida in December, she was named MVP of Florida Atlantic's Holiday Classic. She had a career-high 17 rebounds in the semifinals and 12 points in the championship as the Bulldogs won the tournament. This season she was elected captain by her teammates. In addition to her accomplishments on the court, she also has excelled academically. She earned Academic All-Ivy League honors last year and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa this year. She is an economics major in Trumbull College.
- Center Jessica Lezon (North Reading, Mass.) has persevered through injuries throughout her career. After appearing in 11 games her first year, she missed her sophomore season due to injury. She made a comeback last season, appearing in the final game of the year after missing more than two years. This season she has been sidelined once again but has remained an integral part of the team at practices and at games. Off the court, she is active with Special Olympics and is a psychology major in Berkeley College.
Closing in on Wins Records
Yale enters the final weekend of the regular season with several significant win marks within reach:
- Yale's win at Penn last Friday was its 17th of the season, tying the 1979-80 squad for the second-most wins in a season in school history. Only the 2017-18 team (19 wins) won more.
- The Bulldogs' .680 winning percentage is on pace for third-best in school history, trailing the 1976-77 squad (15-5, .750) and the 1975-76 squad (13-5, .722).
- With seven Ivy League wins, Yale is within reach of tying for the third-most Ivy wins in school history. The 1988-89 team and the 2010-11 team won 10 Ivy games, and the 1986-87 team won nine.
Home Sweet Home
With seven wins in 10 home games this season, Yale has continued to make John J. Lee Amphitheater a tough place for visiting teams to play. The Bulldogs are now 48-24 (.667) at home since the start of the 2014-15 season.
Emsbo Surges Near Blocks Record
After a busy weekend swatting shots against Penn and No. 21 Princeton -- she totaled nine in two games -- sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.) has 58 for the season. That puts her five away from the school record, 63, set by
Erica Davis '07 in 2007.
Averaging 2.3 blocks per game, Emsbo is second in the Ivy League in that category, trailing only Penn's Eleah Parker (2.6 blocks per game).
Scouting Dartmouth
Dartmouth (9-16, 3-9 Ivy League) has dropped nine of its last 11 games, including a 67-47 loss to Yale in Hanover Feb. 8. Yale limited the Big Green to 32% shooting and got 29 points and eight rebounds from sophomore forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.). The Bulldogs had a 48-20 advantage in points in the paint. Guard Annie McKenna is Dartmouth's leading scorer, averaging 11.3 points per game. She also leads the team in assists with 109.
Scouting Harvard
Harvard (14-11, 5-7 Ivy League), which plays at Brown Friday night, has dropped five in a row since opening the season 5-2 in league play. That hot start included a 66-57 win vs. Yale in Cambridge last month, when the Bulldogs could not overcome an 18-8 deficit from the end of the first quarter. First-year guard Lola Mullaney leads the Crimson in scoring (15.0 points per game, sixth in the Ivy League) and has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week three times this season.
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