PHILADELPHIA – The Palestra has been a tough place for visiting teams to earn wins in recent years, with Penn boasting a 36-12 (.750) record at home since the start of the 2017-18 season heading into Friday. But Yale has held its own against the Quakers in that span, starting with a 71-54 win two years ago. And with Friday's 68-58 triumph that was highlighted by 10 three-pointers, the Bulldogs now have two straight wins at the Palestra – this one a critical one in terms of the Ivy League standings. The victory, combined with Harvard's loss at Columbia, gives the Bulldogs sole possession of third in the Ivy standings and pushes the fifth-place Quakers 2.5 games behind Yale with just two more weekends of play after this one.
"It was a huge win for us," said
Allison Guth, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "The highlights were 19 assists and shooting .526 from three-point territory. And we had four players in double figures."
Yale (14-9, 7-4 Ivy League) got off to a dazzling start, running up leads of 7-0 and 17-2 to establish the tone for the game early. First-year guard
Christen McCann hit a pair of threes and sophomore guard
Jenna Clark had six points in that span as well.
Penn (9-13, 4-6 Ivy League) was able to close within eight at one point in the first, but the Bulldogs promptly responded with a 9-2 run – including five points from junior forward
Camilla Emsbo – to take a 26-11 lead into the second.
Yale then scored the first five points of the second to get the lead up to 20. The Bulldogs were shooting .667 at that point, including 4-for-4 from three, so they were bound to cool off somewhat. Penn took advantage of a 2-for-11 Bulldog shooting drought to outscore Yale 21-6 the rest of the quarter. That cut the lead to 37-32 heading into halftime.
Penn got within one early in the third before the Bulldogs responded in decisive fashion. Within a span of 88 seconds Yale hit three threes – two from McCann and one from Clark – and suddenly the lead was back up to double digits. Yale led 52-42 heading into the fourth.
McCann started the fourth quarter off with her fifth three of the game, helping the Bulldogs further establish control. They got the lead back up to as many as 19 before an 11-0 Quaker run made the final minutes a bit interesting. Clark, McCann and sophomore guard
Klara Astrom combined to hit seven free throws in the final 50 seconds to seal the win.
Emsbo finished with her 12th double-double of the season, totaling 18 points and 13 rebounds. McCann tied her for the team high with 18 points while also helping the defense hold Penn's star guard Kayla Padilla to 15 points – nearly five below her season average. Senior forward
Alex Cade's 12 rebounds helped the Bulldogs to a 42-28 advantage on the boards. Clark had a team-best five assists.
Combined with the Bulldogs' win vs. Penn at Lee Amphitheater earlier this season, Yale has now swept the season series with the Quakers for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
Yale visits first-place Princeton Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
