The Yale women started hot at the Palestra, racing to a 17-2 lead, and never trailed in beating Penn, 68-58, on Friday night.
This was pretty much a must-win for the Quakers (9-13, 4-6 Ivy) in their fight for a slot in Ivy Madness, where Yale (14-9, 7-4) would join Princeton, Columbia and Harvard.
“I’m proud of our team’s victory on the road tonight versus a tough Penn team,” Yale coach Allison Guth said. “We shared it 19 times and shot 52% from three. Camilla Emsbo’s double-double was huge.”
Emsbo finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds.
Freshman guard Christen McCann showed why she wears the number 3 on her Yale jersey: She hit five of seven from beyond the arc and collected 18 points to tie forward Camilla Emsbo as top scorer. And two of those threes were daggers early in the third quarter to stop a Penn comeback.
Penn had a lot to come back from. The Quakers missed their first four shots, got a layup by Kayla Padilla on a fast break, then missed their next six shots while Yale seemingly couldn’t miss. A seven-point Penn run turned a 17-2 disaster into something more hopeful, but Emsbo finished the quarter by blocking a three-point attempt and, seconds later, converting a hook shot almost at the buzzer for a 15-point Yale lead. The Elis shot an insane 62.5% in the quarter — exactly double the Quakers’ percentage — and went 3-for-3 on threes, while the Quakers sank none.
In the second quarter, Penn turned a rout into a game. For one thing, the Quakers found their footing on defense, a perennial strength on Mike McLaughlin teams. (For the game, in fact, Penn had 13 steals, to Yale’s seven, and committed just 12 turnovers, to Yale’s 20.) And their shooting touch returned, as they hit half of their shots, including half of their threes, while keeping Yale under 31%. A couple of late Penn baskets cut the lead to five at halftime.
A layup by forward Jordan Obi in the opening minute of the second half got the Quakers within three, and after an Emsbo layup, the Quakers cut the lead to one on free throws by Padilla and Lizzy Groetsch. But then McCann unleashed two consecutive threes, soon followed by one from Jenna Clark, and Yale’s lead was 10 points again. It got as high as 19 in the fourth quarter before Penn hit some three of its own.
With the 6-5 Emsbo and 6-1 Alex Cade in the paint, it was no surprise that Yale dominated on the boards: Emsbo and Cade combined for 25 of Yale’s 42 rebounds (to Penn’s 28 total).
Obi led Penn’s scoring with 16 points; Padilla had 15.
Yale will be at league leader Princeton for Saturday night and then finishes its regular season against Cornell and Brown, both of which are out of the running for the tournament. Penn hosts Brown on Saturday, then has games against Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton.