NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team hits the road for a pair of Ivy League games this weekend. The Bulldogs start at No. 25 Princeton Friday (7:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats,
Tickets; tape delay broadcast Saturday on
NBC Sports Philadelphia and
SNY). They then visit Penn Saturday (5:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
NBC Sports Philadelphia+,
International Stream,
Live Stats,
Tickets).
Last Game
Yale (4-14, 1-4 Ivy League) cut Harvard's eight-point fourth quarter lead down to four with 45 seconds left last Saturday at Lee Amphitheater, then got a Crimson turnover. But the Bulldogs turned the ball over, and over the course of the final 25 seconds Harvard guard Harmoni Turner made five free throws to seal a
61-52 Crimson win. Junior forward
Grace Thybulle (Irvington, N.Y.) led Yale with 14 points.
Road Show
Yale plays its next three games on the road – the longest stretch of road games for the Bulldogs since playing four straight Nov. 14-21.
Trending Up at the Line
Yale is 98-for-135 (.726) at the free throw line in its last nine games. Prior to that the Bulldogs had gone 80-for-126 (.635). Two Bulldog seniors, guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) (.782) and forward
Brenna McDonald (Natick, Mass.) (.759) are at 75 percent or better for the season.
Clark Makes Her Mark
Senior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) ranks second all-time at Yale in career assists (424), trailing only
Kathleen Offer '96 (546). That places her 20th on the Ivy League career assists list. She has three of the top 13 single-season assist totals in Yale history, including the school record (160, set in 2021-22). She has led the Ivy League in assists for the last two seasons, and this season (with 106 assists) she has 23 more assists than anyone else in the league.
McGill Among Ivy Leaders
Junior guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.), last year's Ivy League Co-Defensive Player of the year, is tied for sixth in the league in steals per game (1.7) and is seventh in the league in rebounds per game (6.8). Last year she was second in the league in steals per game (2.6) and second in rebounds per game (8.9).
New Block Mark for McDonald
Senior forward
Brenna McDonald (Natick, Mass.) now has 25 blocks for the season, one more than her previous best (set last year). She is tied for second in the league in that category, three behind Dartmouth's Doreen Ariik.
Go Low
In games where the winning team's score is 72 or lower, Yale is 4-5. In games where the winning team's score is 73 or more, Yale is 0-9. The average number of total points scored (including both teams) in Yale's four wins this season is 113. In Yale's losses this season, that number is 135.
At Home in Philly
Senior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) excelled against Penn last season, averaging 17.5 points in two games. That included a 21 point, six-assist effort in Yale's last visit to the Palestra (Jan. 21, 2023). During the 2021-22 season, in Yale's 68-58 win in Philadelphia on Feb. 18, 2022, Clark had 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Close But Not Enough
In nine of Yale's 14 losses this season the Bulldogs have been within five points of their opponent, or had a lead, in the fourth quarter. Here is a breakdown of how close the Bulldogs have been in each of those nine games:
| Game |
Lowest Deficit/Largest Lead in 4th |
Final |
| Nov. 7 at Pitt |
Trailed by 2 with 1:14 left |
Lost 79-74 |
| Nov. 14 at BU |
Trailed by 4 with 6:24 left |
Lost 60-53 |
| Nov. 17 at Lehigh |
Trailed by 2 with 7:49 left |
Lost 90-75 |
| Nov. 20 at Pacific |
Led by 8 with 8:45 left |
Lost 66-59 |
| Dec. 3 at Merrimack |
Trailed by 5 with 1:38 left |
Lost 84-73 |
| Dec. 6 at Stony Brook |
Trailed by 3 with 8:12 left |
Lost 81-66 |
| Dec. 9 vs. Providence |
Trailed by 2 with :23 left |
Lost 63-58 |
| Jan. 13 vs. Brown |
Trailed by 4 with :21 left |
Lost 76-71 |
| Jan. 27 vs. Harvard |
Trailed by 4 with :45 left |
Lost 61-52 |
Ivy League's Iron Women
Saturday's game in Philadelphia includes two of the top three players in the Ivy League in terms of minutes played: Yale senior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) is second (35.5 minutes per game) and Penn's Jordan Obi is third (34.7 minutes per game). Harvard's Lola Mullaney is the leader at 36.0 minutes per game.
Ivy League Action this Friday
- 6:00 p.m. Brown at Penn
- 6:00 p.m. Dartmouth at Cornell
- 6:00 p.m. Harvard at Columbia
- 7:00 p.m. Yale at No. 25 Princeton
Ivy League Action this Saturday
- 5:00 p.m. Brown at No. 25 Princeton
- 5:00 p.m. Dartmouth at Columbia
- 5:00 p.m. Harvard at Cornell
- 5:00 p.m. Yale at Penn
Scouting No. 25 Princeton
Princeton (15-3, 5-0 Ivy League) has returned to the top 25 in the national rankings this week, earning the No. 25 spot in both the Associated Press Poll and the WBCA Coaches' Poll. Princeton was previously ranked No. 25 by the AP for the week of Nov. 27. They are ranked No. 30 in the latest NCAA NET Rankings. The Tigers lead the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.453), including a league-best .336 from three-point territory. They also have the league's best turnover margin, +3.72. They have allowed only 47.8 points per game in their five Ivy League games – five fewer points per game than any other Ivy team.
Scouting Penn
Penn (10-8, 2-3 Ivy League), which hosts Brown Friday night, has lost two in a row. That includes a 69-56 loss to Harvard Jan. 20, just the Quakers' second loss in seven games at The Palestra this year (and they went 12-2 at home last year). The Quakers lead the Ivy League in blocks per game (4.2) and are second in rebounds per game (37.28). Yale has won three of the last five in the series, including two of the last three in Philadelphia.
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