Yale Athletics
After opening the 2017–18 season with a 62–51 win against LIU Brooklyn, the Yale women’s basketball team amended its downtown-shooting woes on Monday night. After surging off the tip against Colgate, the Elis were able to ride their early lead and tally their second win of the season.
In their first ever matchup, the Bulldogs (2–0, 0–0 Ivy) defeated Colgate (1–1, 0–0 Patriot) in a 82–56 stomp in John J. Lee Amphitheater Monday night. Five Bulldogs scored in double figures in a well-balanced, offensive effort. Forward Jen Berkowitz ’18 led the way with 17 points and also grabbed eight rebounds. Guard Roxy Barahman ’20 once again led the Bulldogs on the boards with 11 rebounds on the night while adding 11 points to notch her first double-double of the season. Guards Tori Andrew ’21, Tamara Simpson ’18 and forward Alexandra Maund ’19 rounded out the Elis who scored at least 10 points in the wire-to-wire win.
“Each game has a life of its own,” head coach Allison Guth said. “Some people can feed off of their teammates and the energy of it, and it’s just confidence. I want to have that every night and get more of a consistent effort. There’s just nights that you don’t hit. That’s just the game. As far as our capability, I think we could shoot the ball really well. It’s going to be fun for us.”
The Elis were trigger happy at the onset of the game, as the first five of their field goal attempts came from beyond the arc. Andrew, Simpson, and guard Mary Ann Santucci ’18
Bulldogs devour Raiders
hit three triples in quick succession before the Raiders could respond, allowing the Bulldogs to jump out to an early 9–2 lead.
“We were just feeling it,” Berkowitz said. “Sharing the ball gave us an energy, and we play best when we don’t think, and that’s what we were doing. We were just playing and not thinking and letting it fly.”
As the Raiders attempted to trim the Bulldogs’ lead, the Elis answered with more hot shooting from beyond the arc. At the end of the first quarter, the Bulldogs held a 29–15 advantage. After shooting an ice-cold four of 20 from three in the last game against LIU Brooklyn, the Bulldogs hit seven 3-pointers in the first quarter alone on a sizzling streak. Andrew, who started her second career game for Yale, was responsible for three of the team’s buckets from long range.
After their offensive explosion in the first 10 minutes of play, the Bulldogs cooled down considerably in the second quarter, shooting 0–6 from downtown. Yale shifted its focus from the perimeter to dribble drives, exploiting the handling skills and speed of Barahman. At the end of the first half, the Bulldogs led, 48–26.
“They switched on screens, which helped me a lot because I was put on a guard and I could bury them and go up with it,” Berkowitz said.
During the beginning of the third quarter, the Raiders looked to mount a comeback, making a quick 7–0 run that forced Yale to call an early timeout. Forward Summer King, who led the Raiders with 21 points and 10 rebounds, scored a layup before guard Nia Ahart pocketed a 3-pointer and layup to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 48–33.
The Bulldogs came out of the timeout playing solid team defense and again looked to their perimeter shooting to ignite the offense. With 6:01 to play in the quarter, Barahman hit her sole 3-pointer of the game to break the Bulldogs’ drought from behind the arc that traced back to the first quarter. The Elis regained their momentum and led 65–41 at the end of the third quarter.
This is my style of pushing the ball, just to get out in transition and push,” Barahman said. “That’s how we got an easy lead at the beginning of the game, and we just kept going from there.”
During the fourth quarter, the Elis sat comfortably on their sizable lead, as the Raiders were unable to start another run.
One of the standout statistics of the game was the significant difference between the Elis’ number of attempted shots from the field compared to Raiders’ total. Due to a 21–3 disparity on the offensive boards in favor of Yale, the Bulldogs were able to attempt a whopping 85 shots compared to 49 for Colgate. The number of extra possessions stemming from their rebounding and defense was a significant boon for the Bulldogs that allowed them to hoist as many threes as they did.
Yale will hit the road to take on Kansas this weekend.
Jimmy Chen | jimmy.chen@yale.edu
Cristofer Zillo | cris.zillo@yale.edu