Seeking its second win of the season, the Yale women’s basketball team was upset at home 89–62 against cross-town rival Quinnipiac.
After last week’s highly contested games in Chicago against teams from two top conferences — DePaul and Northwestern — the Elis were still unable to notch a win against the undefeated Bobcats.
“It’s really cliche to say that [Quinnipiac] wanted it more, but it’s true — they did,” head coach Chris Gobrecht said.
The Bulldogs (1–5, 0–0 Ivy) struggled in the first half, trailing by as many as 18 points at the 5:01 mark. The Bobcats (4–0) bested the Elis in steals with 11 takeaways in the half compared to only four for Yale. Quinnipiac scored 19 points off of 19 Yale turnovers in the first half alone.
Yale finished the game with a total of 27 turnovers forced by 15 Quinnipiac steals. Turnovers have been a problem for the Bulldogs this season, and the team has averaged 20.4 per game.
“We just need to work a lot harder,” captain Allie Messimer ’13 said. “We need to focus on squaring up, seeing our teammates and making the right pass.”
The Bobcats also dominated on the offensive boards all night, pulling down 17 rebounds on their end of the court. Quinnipiac out-rebounded the Elis 48–31.
Yale was only able to shoot 36.7 percent from the field, and most of the team’s scoring came from behind the arc. The Bulldogs were 42.9 percent in 3-point shooting, led by Megan Vasquez ’13, Sarah Halejian ’15 and Janna Graf ’14, who each netted two 3-pointers.
The Elis struggled getting to the free-throw line as well, despite six early fouls by Quinnipiac. The Bulldogs, who have shot 73 percent from the line so far this season, only made 69.2 percent against the Bobcats.
“When playing in very passionate games like tonight’s, we need to set our emotions aside, stop getting down and just push through,” Vasquez said.
Vasquez, Halejian and Amanda Tyson ’14 led the scoring for the Elis with 11 points apiece. Halejian has been the leading scorer for the team so far this season with an average of 14.2 points per game.
The Bulldogs were unable to stop the strong Bobcat offense, led by a 16-point performance from Felicia Barron. Quinnipiac boasted four players in double-digit scoring and ran a fast-paced offense.
“They had a fast pace but that’s what we want to do, need to be able to do,” Messimer said. “That shouldn’t have been a negative for us at all.”
Going into the game, the Elis had beaten the Bobcats in the previous three contests held at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. The win for Quinnipiac leaves the team undefeated after four games this season.
“We have to just put this game behind us because there is a quick turnaround,” Vasquez said. “It’s what we have to do a lot of the time in Ivy play and it’s what we have to do now.”
The Bulldogs will travel to take on Army Saturday in search of their first road win of the season.