During the winter, bears normally go into hibernation. The same could be said of Brown’s offense Friday night, as the Yale women’s basketball team defeated the Bears 67–43.

The Bulldogs (6–10, 1–1 Ivy) rode a stifling, scrappy defense to victory over Brown (4–12, 1–1) in John J. Lee Amphitheater — just a week after falling to Brown in their Ivy League opener.

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“It was a very important win,” guard and captain Ashley Carter ’10 said. “It was a game where we showed how good we are defensively.”

The Elis forced 25 Brown turnovers and held the Bears to just 26.9 percent shooting.

Yale was coming off losses to Brown and Bryant last weekend. In their previous game against the Bears, the Blue committed 27 turnovers in Providence in a 60–56 defeat.

The Bulldogs got their revenge after opening their Ivy League season with a loss.

“Brown actually played better in this game than the last one,” head coach Chris Gobrecht said. “We just played so much harder than the last time. We took it to another level this game.”

Brown started the game strongly, using an efficient offense to take a 12–8 lead after six minutes of play. But the Bulldogs responded, as four straight points from forward Melissa Colborne ’10 ignited a 12-0 Yale run that put the Elis up 20–12.

The Bears nevertheless scored the next 10 to take a 22–20 lead with three minutes left in the first half. Yale scored the last five points of the half to head into the locker room up 27–24.

The see-saw play continued for much of the second half, and with 10 minutes left in the game, Brown took a 37–35 lead. Then, guard Yoyo Greenfield ’11 made the play of the game, hitting two clutch three-pointers in a one-minute span and starting a 12-0 run from which Yale would not look back the rest of the game.

The Elis ultimately outscored the Bears, 40-19, in the second half, holding Brown to 23.5 percent shooting in the last 20 minutes of play to earn a 24-point victory.

“This is how we’re supposed to play,” Gobrecht said. “Hopefully, we can continue this.”

Yale once again benefitted from a balanced scoring attack, as 10 different players scored. The Bulldogs were led by Greenfield and forward Michelle Cashen ’12, who each had 11 points. Forward Haywood Wright ’10 scored 10 points on four-for-seven shooting, while forward Mady Gobrecht ’11 scored six points, notched eight rebounds and earned four steals. Guard Megan Vasquez ’13 grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

The Bulldogs committed a season-low 13 turnovers, including none in the final 10 minutes of the game.

The team’s emphasis on defense this past week paid off as the Elis forced 25 turnovers, blocked five shots and stole the ball 12 times, Wright said.

“Coach G. is always about defense,” Wright said.

The 24-point margin of victory was the largest for the team since the Elis beat Brown last season by 34 points.

The Bulldogs continue the crucial Ivy League stretch this weekend, as they return to the road to face Penn on Friday and Princeton on Saturday.