Jan. 3, 2008

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NEW HAVEN, Conn.--The Yale women's basketball team (2-8) charged back from 13 points down in the second half to force overtime Thursday night at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, but Lehigh (7-7) outscored the Bulldogs 13-7 in the extra session to come away with a 67-61 victory.

The Bulldogs trailed 50-38 with 6:08 left in regulation before ending the second half on a 16-4 spurt. Yale scored nine straight points to cut its deficit to three before Lehigh's Tricia Smith hit two free throws to make the Mountain Hawks' lead 52-47 with 51 seconds left. Back-to-back layups by Haywood Wright and Lindsey Williams made it a one-point game with 24 seconds remaining before Lehigh's Erica Prosser sank a pair at the charity stripe to make it 54-51.

After a Lehigh timeout, Yoyo Greenfield had a three-pointer blocked, but Wright got the rebound and kicked it out to Williams, who drained the game-tying trey from the top of the key with six seconds left on the clock. Lehigh took another timeout to draw up a final play, but Prosser's three-point attempt fell well short and the game went into overtime.

Yale scored the first bucket of the extra period--its first lead since early in the second half--on a Williams layup, but Lehigh went on a 9-0 run to take control. The run was marked by one series where the Mountain Hawks gathered three straight offensive rebounds before finally converting two free throws. Lehigh outrebounded Yale 10-1 in overtime, including 5-1 on the offensive glass, and 47-34 for the game.

The Bulldogs trimmed the lead to three, 64-61, on Stephanie Marciano's three-pointer with 27 seconds left, but had to resort to fouling to stop the clock. Alex Ross missed her first free throw, but nailed the second to make it a two-possession game with 13 seconds remaining. Marciano's desperation trey fell short, and Smith converted a pair of free throws with three-tenths of a second to go to seal Yale's third straight loss, 67-61.

Lehigh scored the first five points of the game to start a very sloppy first half, but the Bulldogs immediately charged back and took a 7-5 lead on a Greenfield jumper. After Ross drained a three to give Lehigh a 13-11 advantage, Yale sank three-pointers on its next three possessions to open up a 20-13 cushion. Yale's lead reached a game-high eight points when Marciano's trey made it 27-19 with 2:42 left before halftime. However, Lehigh scored the final eight points of the half to send the teams into the locker rooms deadlocked at 27-27. There were 27 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, 15 by the Bulldogs.

Williams nailed a trey to open the second half, but Lehigh responded with a 5-0 run to jump in front 32-30. After Williams sank a pair of free throws to make it 32-32 with 16:23 remaining, the Bulldogs didn't score for the next 6:30. During that span, the Mountain Hawks went on a 13-0 run to open up a 45-32 advantage with 12:04 left. Yale used a 6-2 run to cut it to nine, then held the Mountain Hawks scoreless for the next 5:17 to get back in it and set up Williams' heroics at the end of regulation.

Williams finished with a career-high 14 points to lead the Bulldogs. She added six rebounds and a career-high four steals. Melissa Colborne tallied 12 points and five boards, while Greenfield chipped in 10. Wright pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds to go along with two blocks. Marciano had nine points and dished out five assists. Yale shot 35.1 percent (20-of-57) from the field and 38.5 percent (10-of-26) from three-point range. The Bulldogs went 11-for-14 (78.6 percent) at the free throw line.

Ross had 23 points, including five three-pointers, in 31 minutes off the bench for the Mountain Hawks. Smith added 16 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Haly Crites pulled down a career-high 15 boards, including five in overtime, and added four assists, two blocks and two steals. The Mountain Hawks shot 36.5 percent (23-of-63) as a team, including 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from behind the arc. Lehigh became the first team to drain more than four treys against the Bulldogs this season. The Mountain Hawks shot 68.2 percent (15-of-22) from the line in the game, but went 6-for-8 at the charity stripe in overtime.

Yale concludes its short two-game homestand with another Patriot League opponent--defending conference champion Holy Cross. The Crusaders (5-8) visit the John J. Lee Amphitheater for the first time since 1985 at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Following that game, seven of Yale's next eight contests are on the road.

NOTES: Yale played Lehigh to open the calendar year for the third straight time...Yale's last overtime game was a 74-64 win at Penn on Feb. 19, 2005...The Bulldogs had won three straight overtime contests, with the last loss coming to Dartmouth, 88-74 on March 8, 2003...Yale is now 12-17 all-time in overtime games...The loss snapped Yale's two-game winning streak against Lehigh and cut the Bulldogs' lead in the all-time series to 11-9...Both teams scored 27 points in the first half and 27 points in the second half.

Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity