Jan. 27, 2007

Box Score

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--The Yale women's basketball team won nine games combined in 2004-05 and 2005-06. The team notched just two conference victories last season. The Bulldogs surpassed both those marks this weekend, as they defeated Dartmouth (7-10, 1-2 Ivy) 63-56 at the John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday night to move to 10-8 on the season and 3-1 in Ivy League play.

Stephanie Marciano followed up her performance last night with another career-best game against Dartmouth. Marciano tallied a career-high 22 points, including a clutch three-pointer with 2:58 remaining in the contest that gave the Bulldogs the lead for good.

With Yale trailing 50-48 and the shot clock winding down, Marciano hit a fall-away trey from right in front of the Bulldog bench to put her team in front 51-50. She drained another three on Yale's next possession to increase the lead to four, 54-50, with 2:27 to go. The Big Green tied it at 54-54, but the Bulldogs went 7-for-7 from the free throw line down the stretch to seal a 63-56 win.

"It feels good," Marciano said. "Everyone is stepping up right now. The best part is that we won despite not playing as well as we can this weekend."

"We played very well during the last five minutes," Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach Chris Gobrecht said. "We struggled offensively, but that was due to Dartmouth's defense. We just needed to settle down and focus. Our defense and rebounding kept us in the game."

Marciano and Jamie Van Horne nailed three-pointers on the Bulldogs' first two possessions to give Yale an early 6-0 lead. The first half was a story of runs, as the Big Green responded with a 15-4 spurt to open up a 15-10 advantage. Yale then went on a 19-4 run over the next 9:43 to take a 29-19 edge with 2:35 remaining before halftime. Dartmouth scored the last six points of the half to cut Yale's lead to three, 29-26, at the half.

Yale scored the first six points of the second half to open up its biggest lead of the night, a 37-26 cushion with 16:36 to go. The Big Green stormed back with a 14-2 spurt to take the lead, 40-39. The teams traded baskets for the next few possessions until Marciano's heroics sealed Dartmouth's fate.

Marciano led three Bulldogs in double figures. Van Horne tallied 14 points and added a team-high four assists. Erica Davis had 10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Chinenye Okafor registered nine points and nine boards for the Bulldogs. Yale shot 44 percent (22-of-50) from the field and 50 percent (8-of-16) from three-point range. The Bulldogs shot 73.3 percent (11-of-15) from the free throw line, including 91.7 percent (11-of-12) in the second half.

Ashley Taylor had 22 points and seven rebounds for Dartmouth. Koren Schram added 11 points and four boards. Darcy Rose posted a team-high nine rebounds for the Big Green, who were outrebounded 34-31. Dartmouth shot 31.9 percent (15-of-47) from the field and 23.1 percent (3-of-13) from behind the arc. The Big Green shot 85.2 percent (23-of-27) at the charity stripe.

The Bulldogs ended a stretch where they played seven of nine games at home with an 8-1 record. Yale now plays six of its next eight games away from the John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Bulldogs visit preseason Ivy League favorite Princeton next Friday at 7 p.m., then head to Penn for a 7 p.m. matchup next Saturday.

NOTES: With their seventh consecutive home win, the Bulldogs tied a school record set from Jan. 15-March 2, 1980...Dartmouth had won four straight against Yale...The Bulldogs swept a weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth for the first time since the 1993-94 season...Yale is two games above .500 for the first time since March 1, 2002, when it was 14-12...Davis moved past Maria Siambekos into 10th place on the all-time scoring list with 1,098 career points.

Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity