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The Yale women’s basketball team (13–8, 6–3 Ivy) was triumphant against seventh-place Dartmouth (2–18, 1–7) last Friday, but fell short of defeating Harvard (12–9, 6–3), who is currently on a red-hot five-game winning streak, on Saturday. 

The Bulldogs are still firmly in third place in the Ivy League standings, behind first-place Princeton (16–4, 8–0) and second-place Columbia (16–4, 7–1). The Tigers, the reigning regular season champions, remain undefeated in conference play after taming the Lions in a 57–39 matchup on Saturday. The Elis won 48–33 against Dartmouth and lost 59–65 against Harvard.

“I think we can all agree that we can play much better on both ends of the floor,” guard Avery Lee ’25 said. “We did a good job keeping Harvard to very few threes and our defense was pretty solid, but we know our flow on offense can be a lot better.”

Saturday’s victory over the Big Green makes it four victories in a row against Dartmouth. The last time the Bulldogs faced off against them was in late January this season, notching up a comfortable 57–43 win. 

The Elis had a slow start, trailing the Big Green 11–9 after the first quarter. However, they quickly recovered to set the pace of the game and never looked back, outscoring Dartmouth in every other quarter. They were especially skillful from the free-throw line, where they shot 9–10. The Bulldogs also showed off their defensive prowess in Saturday’s historic match-up, holding Dartmouth to just 33 points — the lowest amount in almost three decades. The last time the Blue and White achieved this was in 1996 after winning 54–33 against Columbia.

Center Camilla Emsbo ’23 also cemented her status in the Yale history books on Saturday with an outstanding performance against Dartmouth as the game’s top scorer. She went 8–12 on the day and scored 19 points, which propelled her through the 1,000 career points mark. Emsbo is only the 23rd athlete in Yale women’s basketball history to have achieved this. 

“The thing we’re most proud of is holding them to 33 points,” Yale women’s basketball head coach Allison Guth told Yale Athletics. “We shared it 13 times, and [Emsbo] had a fantastic night.” 

The Bulldogs were also formidable on Sunday as they traveled to Massachusetts, but were unable to completely shut down a Harvard squad that would sweep this week’s Ivy League awards. The Crimson entered the tipoff on a four-game winning streak, having just completed a 77–73 game against Brown the night before. 

Yale had a strong start, leading 10–6 after the first quarter. However, Harvard responded with an offensive spark of its own in the second, scoring 17 points to Yale’s seven. The Bulldogs were on fire after halftime, scoring 42 points. Both teams were evenly-matched, and the Crimson resorted to targeting key Yale players in order to get ahead.

Emsbo was outstanding once more as the Elis’ top scorer, accumulating 17 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Jenna Clark ’24 also had a strong performance, notching up 14 points. However, the team’s second-half comeback attempt was not enough to take down the Crimson, who remained consistent and scored 21 points in both the third and fourth quarters.

Junior guard McKenzie Forbes, who scored 15 points against Yale, was named the Ivy League Player of the Week. First-year sensation Harmoni Turner, who was Harvard’s top scorer in the game against the Bulldogs, was named Ivy Rookie of the Week for the fourth time this season. 

“We have a lot of grit on this team,” Lee said. “We all play for each other and trust each other so much. We’re just looking to limit our turnovers, continue to communicate … and pop the ball more on offense. This team has so much potential, so we just have to have fun with it.”

The Bulldogs will look to regain its momentum as they return home to host Columbia on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m.