NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After only two games, the 2021-22 Yale women's basketball team seems like a group of battle-tested veterans. On Friday night at Lee Amphitheater the Bulldogs had to face their second straight overtime game to start the season when Northeastern -- as Providence did on Tuesday -- got three points to tie the game right before the end of regulation. But Yale got a pair of clutch three-pointers in OT, from sophomore guard
Jenna Clark and first-year guard
Christen McCann, and came away with a thrilling 63-60 win for a 2-0 start.
"Our energy and our heart is truly there," said senior forward
Alex Cade, who assisted on Clark's OT three-pointer that tied the game 60-60 with 1:47 to play. "As a team, we know each girl has each other's back."
Clark's three came less than 20 seconds after Northeastern guard Kendall Currence had given the Huskies a 60-57 lead with a three-pointer of her own. Currence, a preseason All-CAA Honorable Mention selection, led the Huskies with 15 points and tied for the team lead with six rebounds. But Clark answered with 16 points and six boards of her own, adding five assists.
"Jenna, coming back from a year without games, has really grown as a player and a person," said Cade. "Every day in practice she's asking for feedback on her passing. And we know she's capable of making big plays herself when we need them."
McCann has stepped right into the starting lineup and has looked like she belongs. After debuting with nine points Tuesday, she cracked the double-digit mark Friday with 12 points. That included the go-ahead three off a Clark assist with 74 seconds left in OT.
"All I have to say is she has ice in her veins," said Cade. "The whole Ivy League has to look out, because this isn't going to stop."
Clark then kept momentum squarely in Yale's favor by drawing a charge on the ensuing Northeastern possession.
"I was proud of Jenna's fight," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "She's an absolute gamer and is doing so much for us while being pressured. Her ability to be that type of competitor is going to be huge for us as we continue to grow as a team."
Northeastern (1-1, 0-0 CAA) had one more chance to tie in the final seconds, but the Bulldogs forced the Huskies into a miss to end the game.
Cade and Clark tied for the team high in points, joined by junior forward
Camilla Emsbo (13 points, along with 10 rebounds) and McCann (12 points, three steals) in double digits.
"Any game, any one can step up," said Guth of the team's depth. "This team is a total team. They believe in each other."
Northeastern led by as many as seven points in the first half, but the Bulldogs outscored the Huskies 16-10 in the third and took a 42-39 lead into the fourth. Cade's and-one late in regulation appeared to be enough to get Yale a 55-52 win, but Currence was fouled while flinging up a three-pointer and calmly sank all three free throws with nine seconds left.
That forced overtime -- just as a buzzer-beating three by Providence's Janai Crooms had done Tuesday night. But the Bulldogs once again were able to prevail eventually, this time in front of a spirited home crowd seeing them play for the first time since Mar. 7, 2020. That game was a 60-58 win over Harvard that went down to the wire, and the 2021-22 version of the Bulldogs appears to have picked up where the 2019-20 team left off.
Yale (2-0, 0-0 Ivy League) returns to action Wednesday at Sacred Heart.
