ORONO, Me. – The Yale women's basketball team utilized a dominant second quarter Saturday night at The Pit in Memorial Gymnasium to earn a 55-46 road win vs. Maine. The Bulldogs outscored the Black Bears 17-3 in the second, breaking open a 13-7 game. Maine would get no closer than within six the rest of the way. Junior guard
Jenna Clark led Yale with 15 points, one of three Bulldogs in double digits.
Coming off a road win at Army three nights earlier, Yale (3-2, 0-0 Ivy League) broke off an 11-0 run in the first after Maine scored the game's first basket. Clark had five of those points.
Maine (1-2, 0-0 America East) got within six by the end of the first, but the second quarter proved pivotal. The Bulldogs held the Black Bears scoreless for the first 7:42 of the quarter (and a total of 8:05 including the end of the first), forcing Maine into 11 missed shots. That enabled Yale to build a 22-7 lead. The lead was 30-10 heading into halftime after Clark drilled two threes in the final 40 seconds.
The Black Bears rallied in the third quarter, outscoring Yale 22-10 and closing within eight by the end. A layup by Maine guard Sarah Talon at 8:27 of the fourth got the Bulldogs' lead down to 40-34, but a layup by sophomore guard
Nyla McGill and a pair of free throws by junior guard
Elles van der Maas quickly got the advantage back up to double digits. van der Maas wound up scoring seven points in 76 seconds to help keep the Black Bears at bay.
Clark's three-pointer with just over two minutes to play, her fourth of the night, got the lead up to 14 and ended any chances of a Maine comeback. In addition to Clark's 15 points, Yale got 11 from van der Maas and 10 from sophomore guard/forward
Mackenzie Egger – who shot 50 percent from the field. Clark added five assists, while McGill and junior guard
Klara Astrom had five rebounds each.
Yale travels to Colorado for the University of Denver Classic next week, facing New Mexico State Nov. 25 and Houston Christian Nov. 26.
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