“Is there even a clock in March?” – Yale head coach Allison Guth in response to a question about the possibility of playing two games against higher seeds in 26 hours
Alex Cade
Yale women defeat Penn to close in on slot in Ivy League Tournament
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.
Columbia women outlast Yale, 65-57
It was a big game for both teams, but it was arguably even bigger for Yale.
The inconsistent Bulldogs sat at 6-3 and Columbia at 7-1 in Ivy play entering Saturday’s fray. Yale very much wanted to separate from Harvard and avoid the Columbia season sweep.
Harvard women best Yale in pivotal meeting in Ivy League Tournament race
In a game that had the feel of a battle for third place in the Ivy League and a chance to avoid Princeton in the first round of the conference tournament, Harvard outlasted Yale, 65-59.
Ivy women’s weekend: Saturday separation
As the calendar moves into February, we have reached the midpoint of the Ivy season. While this weekend brings the first back-to-back games of the season, Saturday night looks to be the more pivotal evening for the women’s division. Each game pits teams from the four tiers of the conference against one another.
Bolstered by their bench, Yale women beat Penn wire to wire
Yale staked its claim to second place in Ivy women’s basketball Saturday afternoon at home by beating Penn, 63-53.
Yale women best Brown off buzzer-beater from Christen McCann
Now that was a finish to remember.
Yale overcame a slow start and the absence of all-everything Camilla Emsbo to injury to beat Brown at John J. Lee Amphitheater Monday, 69-67, on a layup by Christen McCann with 1.8 seconds remaining.
🤩 Here is Christen McCann’s game-winner from today’s 69-67 @ivyleague win vs. Brown!#ThisIsYale pic.twitter.com/iB7UCuNN2L
— Yale Women’s Basketball (@YaleWBasketball) January 17, 2022
Jenna Clark, the Ivy assist leader, dished on the winning bucket.
The winner was set up by a Klara Astrom steal with five seconds remaining. Coach Allison Guth then called a timeout to set up the winning shot.
McCann played a full 39 minutes and led her team with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting. The Port St. Lucie, Fla. native also added eight rebounds.
Versatile senior forward Alex Cade took over for Emsbo at center and led Yale (10-6, 3-1 Ivy) with 11 rebounds while standing out with a career-high 18 points.
First-year guard Isabella Mauricio led Brown (5-11, 0-4) with her own career high of 23 points.
Brown carried a 41-37 lead into the locker room off of a torrid 53% shooting from the field. The Bears had taken a 22-21 lead at the end of the first quarter on a Mauricio trey at the buzzer and then went on a 12-0 run to start the second quarter.
Both Mauricio and freshman forward Amanda Latkany had eight in the half and Yale was paced by Jenna Clark with seven. Latkany had missed both the Harvard and Princeton losses.
Yale outscored Brown over the third stanza, fueled by an 8-0 run. Brown carried a narrow 56-55 lead into the last period.
Brown entered the game averaging only 55 points per game but shot 47% from the floor.
Yale outrebounded the visitors 43-31 and held a 16-1 advantage on the offensive glass to claim its third straight win.
Brown hosts Columbia and Yale hosts Penn next Saturday, both at 2 p.m.
Yale women prevail over Harvard in shootout
In 13 previous games this season, Yale sophomore guard Elles van Der Maas had logged a total of 29 minutes in 10 appearances, scoring 29 points.
But Saturday against Harvard, the Sydney, Australia native exploded for a team-high 22 points in 25 minutes, helping lead Yale to a hard-fought 80-73 win over Harvard at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
That was half the story.
Layoff, Shmayoff: A solid start for Ivy League hoops
Announcers and writers around the nation focused a lot of attention to the 600-plus days between games for the Ivy League. While many expected the teams to be a bit rusty out of the gates, the Ancient Eight acquitted itself quite well in the season’s first week.
Thirteen of the league’s 16 teams had at least one win, with the Princeton and Columbia women notching three victories each. The Brown men almost upset No. 19 UNC without their top player, and the Princeton men just missed out on winning the Asheville Championship.
Check out some of the highlights from a very successful and welcome week of Ivy hoops:
Ivy League women’s basketball Media Day roundup
One day after releasing the conference’s preseason poll, the Ivy League moved one step closer to normal by hosting the 2021-22 Media Day for women’s basketball Tuesday. For the first time, the league used a Zoom format to create a stronger connection between the coaches, players and the media.
In Monday’s poll, three-time defending champion Princeton was again picked as the top team with 122 total points and 12 first-place votes. Penn, the 2019 co-champion, was selected No. 2 with three first-place votes and 108 points. The next three teams were close, with only six points separating Columbia, Yale and Harvard.
The Lions, which earned their first Ivy League Tournament berth in 2020 before the tourney was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, moved up to third with 87 points. The Bulldogs, a third-place team in 2020, dropped to fourth at 82 points. The Crimson, which finished fifth in 2020, received one first-place vote but missed the upper division by one point.
Cornell, the 2020 seventh-place squad, moved up to sixth for 2022 with 41 points. Dartmouth and Brown, two teams with new coaching staffs, ended up with the last two spots, with the Big Green’s 29 points two ahead of the Bears.
Tuesday’s Media Day revealed the four tiers apparent in the preseason poll. But there could be a slight reordering near the top.