NEW HAVEN, Conn. – It was just one stop on the Yale women's basketball team's "redemption tour", but it was a memorable one. With a 60-42 win vs. Dartmouth Friday night at Lee Amphitheater, the Bulldogs clinched one of the four spots in the Ivy League Tournament, guaranteeing that their season will continue past Saturday's regular season finale. A year after enduring the frustration of missing out on the tournament -- which was at Lee Amphitheater -- the Bulldogs can now savor the feeling of a clinching win in front of a jubilant home crowd.
"We really were on a redemption tour," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "We wanted to let last year drive us. We're still building that championship culture, and wanted that to be something that motivated us but didn't paralyze us."
Since the start of Ivy League play in January the Bulldogs have been building towards a moment like Friday night. They opened Ivy play with four straight wins -- part of an eight-game winning streak -- but then endured a 2-4 stretch that put their spot in the tournament in jeopardy. A historic win at Penn last weekend -- the Bulldogs' first in seven years at The Palestra -- helped them get back on track, and they entered Friday in control of their own destiny. A win vs. Dartmouth would guarantee them a spot.
Yale (18-8, 8-5 Ivy League) left little room for doubt Friday night, jumping out to a 26-12 lead by halftime and holding Dartmouth (9-17, 3-10 Ivy) to 13 percent shooting. The Big Green never got closer than 13 the rest of the way, and Yale's lead ballooned to 23 at one point in the fourth quarter. After the final buzzer the Bulldogs were joined in their celebration by about a dozen of the alums who are back for Alumnae Weekend.
"It was really fun to come back [to the team meeting room] and see some of the alums giving a 'pump-up' speech," said Guth. "That says everything about the culture that we've tried to build."
As has been the case all season long, there were a wide variety of contributors Friday night. Senior guard
Roxy Barahman led the team in scoring with 19 points, but it was her defense -- including five steals, the second time in three games she has reached that mark -- that earned the most praise.
"That [defense] was the number-one focal point, what we told Roxy our team needs out of her," said Guth. "We all feed off that. It sets the tone, how she keeps somebody in front of her. I can't say enough about that kid and her growth."
Junior guard
Ellen Margaret Andrews added 16 rebounds, seven more than she has gotten in any other game in her career. She also had six assists.
"The way that kid attacks every day, you know what you're going to get out of her. She's a tremendous rebounder," said Guth, noting that Andrews is the only player she's ever had that got 2,000 career rebounds in high school. "She's been the X factor, the way she can score at the rim, knock down the three-ball, and defensively she's an absolute monster for us right now."
Junior guard
Tori Andrew added 12 points, while senior forward
Megan Gorman had seven points and four assists.
The Bulldogs ended Friday night tied with Columbia for third in the Ivy League standings, a game behind second-place Penn. The Lions and Quakers face each other Saturday. With a win vs. Harvard, or a Columbia loss to Penn, the Bulldogs would earn the No. 3 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
While noting that there was plenty of room for improvement based on Friday's game, Guth also noted that her team still took care of business with a tournament spot on the line.
"We have a concept -- respect all, fear none," said Guth. "We know hard work can beat talent on any given night. I'm really proud of our focus … We earned our opportunity to get to the tournament. Our team has several goals, and they are still in front of us."
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