Despite a more competitive effort than last weekend’s performance, the Yale women’s basketball team still could not triumph over Brown Saturday afternoon at the Pizzitola Memorial Sports Center.

The 72-56 victory for Brown (10-5, 2-0 Ivy) was its seventh consecutive win over the Elis (3-12, 0-2). The last time the Bulldogs came out triumphant against the Bears was a 79-60 win on Jan. 19, 2002, at home.

The Bulldogs outshot the Bears 45.8 percent to 38.2 percent from the court, but the Elis’ 26 turnovers proved to be more costly than they had hoped.

“I just felt that we made too many turnovers in this game,” Yale guard Chinenye Okafor ’07 said. “And just like last week, Brown took advantage of them to get a big lead over us.”

Bears starting point guard Sarah Hayes, who dropped 22 points on the Elis last week, caused some more damage to the Bulldogs this time around, leading her team with 16 points — but it did not come easy for her.

Yale guard Kaitlin Emmerling ’07, who led her squad with four assists, said the team focused more on containing Hayes in the week leading up to the game.

“We made some adjustments in our defense during practice,” Emmerling said. “We stopped Hayes from making too many fast breaks and she had to work a lot harder to make her baskets.”

Bears center Holly Robertson also scored 16 points and had four steals Saturday while Yale center Erica Davis ’07 was held to only five points for the second straight game.

The Elis’ offensive effort was led by captain Morgan Richards ’05, who led both teams with 18 points on the day. She also nailed three shots from behind the arc in the second half.

Bulldog point guard Tory Mauseth ’05 went 3-for-7 from downtown and totaled 15 points. She now stands six threes away from breaking Autumn Braddock ’99’s school record for treys.

Okafor scored Yale’s first four points and Davis scored the next four to tie the game at 8-8. But the Bears went on an 8-0 run and kept the lead for the rest of the game.

With less than three minutes remaining in the half, Brown held a formidable 39-18 lead, but the Bulldogs sprung back and finished with a 7-1 run to cut the lead to 15 points at the break.

Despite the score in the first half, both teams played even statistically. The Bears shot 45.5 percent in the first half compared to Yale’s 44 percent.

It was the Elis’ 16 first-half turnovers compared to Brown’s six that gave the Bears the edge.

The Bears also hit four of nine three pointers in the opening half while the Bulldogs were only 1-for-7.

The Elis toughened their defense in the second half and held Brown to 31.4 percent shooting, but the Bears’ 15-point halftime lead was just too much for the Elis to overcome.

“Overall, I think it was a very poor game,” forward Lindsay Page ’05 said. “We didn’t execute our plays well enough and we just didn’t play as well as we know we can. It wasn’t as bad as last week’s performance, but it still wasn’t good.”

The Bulldogs will try to get their first win in the Ivy League when they face the University of Pennsylvania Friday at home.