Harvard Outguns Yale, 88-65

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Yale women’s basketball team came into Friday night’s game at Harvard as winners of four of its last five games, but the host Crimson shot a scorching 64.9% from the field, including a 71.4% clip in the second half, to derail the Bulldogs by a score of 88-65. Sophomore Michelle Cashen led three Yale players in double figures with 14 points.

With the loss, Yale falls to 4-3 in the Ivy League and 9-12 overall. The Crimson improves to 13-7 on the season with a 4-2 mark in league play.

“That was our poorest performance of the season,” said Chris Gobrecht, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women’s Basketball at Yale. The Bulldogs were outrebounded, 30-24, and committed 18 turnovers.

Junior Yoyo Greenfield and freshman Megan Vasquez joined Cashen in double figures with 11 points apiece, while senior Melissa Colborne added nine. Junior Mady Gobrecht netted seven and hauled in a team-best four rebounds, and senior Haywood Wright and freshman Allie Messimer each chipped in with five points. Senior captain Ashley Carter rounded out the Yale scoring with three points.

Harvard’s Victoria Lippert led all scorers with 21 points. Emma Markley (16 points) and Brogan Berry (15) also reached double figures for the Cantabs.

The game began as a footrace, with a Vasquez layup giving Yale a 12-11 lead with 14:31 left in the half. That would be the Bulldogs’ last field goal for nearly seven minutes, however, as Harvard put together a 16-4 run to claim an 11-point lead at 27-16. It looked as if the Cantabs would take a double-digit advantage into the intermission, but a Messimer three-pointer and a Gobrecht fast -break layup in the final minute brought Yale within seven points as the Bulldogs went to locker room trailing, 39-32.

Vasquez and Colborne led the Yale offense with six points apiece over the first 20 minutes of action. Colborne also led all players with three rebounds as Yale was edged on the glass, 14-13. The Bulldogs shot 42.3% (11-26) from the floor, 30.8% (4-13) from three-point range and were perfect on all six of their free throw attempts. The Crimson shot 58.6% (17-29) from the field, 16.7% (1-6) from beyond the three-point arc and was also flawless at the line, connecting on all four of its attempts. Berry led all players with 12 first-half points, while Lippert added 11. The Bulldogs committed 10 turnovers in the half while turning over Harvard on nine occasions.

Just like the first half, it was a seven-minute Harvard run that made the difference, as the Crimson extended its lead from eight to 22 points, 62-40, courtesy of a 19-5 run that ended with 11:49 remaining in the game. The Bulldogs made a final push with an 11-3 run to pull within 12 points, 71-59, with 4:26 left, but the Cantabs answered in a big way with a three straight three-pointers to extend their cushion back to a more comfortable 21 points. When the final buzzer sounded, Harvard came away with an 88-65 win.

The Bulldogs are back in action tomorrow, as they head to Hanover, N.H. to challenge the defending Ivy League Champion, Dartmouth. Tipoff from Leede Arena is slated for 7 p.m.

report filed by Drew M. Kingsley, Yale Sports Publicity