The women’s basketball team (11–13, 6–4 Ivy) will make one last stand to defend its home court this season as it hosts Dartmouth (10–13, 5–4) tonight and Harvard (16–7, 7–2) Saturday.
The games will be the two final home contests in the careers of Ashley Carter ’10, Melissa Colborne ’10 and Haywood Wright ’10, all of whom will be honored on Senior Night on Saturday.
“We’re totally psyched,” head coach Chris Gobrecht said. “These games mean a lot to us.”
The Bulldogs will face the Big Green, the defending Ivy League Champion, for the second time this season after defeating the Big Green 70–66 in double overtime on Feb. 13. Dartmouth, coming off of a win over Cornell last Saturday, is led by reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Brittney Smith. A defeat of Dartmouth would mark the first time Yale has swept the Big Green since 1987.
Archrival Harvard will arrive in New Haven after playing Brown tonight. The Crimson swept Cornell and Columbia last weekend. Yale traveled to Cambridge on Feb. 12, where the Cantabs shot a scorching 64.9 percent from the field to defeat the Elis 88–65 in what coach Gobrecht dubbed as her team’s “worst performance of the year.” Yale hopes to avenge the defeat on Senior Night.
Colborne, a two-time All-Ivy honoree, is currently fifth in Yale history with 1,373 career points. The former Ivy League Rookie of the Year, who was second in scoring in the Ivy League the past two seasons, has averaged 8.4 points per game this season.
Forward Michelle Cashen ’12 has been productive in the paint this season, leading Yale in rebounding with 7.3 rebounds per game, good for fifth in the Ivy League. Cashen, who is also ninth in the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.444), has tallied four double-doubles this year.
As the Elis enter the final stretch, the team will likely stick to its formula of balanced offense. Yale is the only team in the Ivy League with five players averaging over eight points per game. The Bulldogs, with eight players contributing at least 17 minutes per game, have had five different players lead them in scoring and six different players lead them in rebounding this season.
The Elis, currently third in the Ivy League, are 4–1 at home in conference play.
Both games will begin at 7 p.m. at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.