March 8, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Harvard had the chance to clinch an outright Ivy League championship on Saturday night. All Yale had to play for was a .500 Ivy record, and a chance to be the spoiler. Mission accomplished. The Bulldogs (9-18, 7-7 Ivy) reached .500 in conference play for the first time since 2001-02 with a 64-58 upset of the Crimson (18-10, 11-3 Ivy) on Senior Night at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. Harvard's loss, coupled with wins by Cornell and Dartmouth resulted in a three-way tie for the Ivy League title. The Crimson, Big Red and Big Green all finished 11-3 in conference play and will have a playoff for the NCAA bid next weekend.
The Ivy League doesn't have an annual postseason conference tournament, but this game certainly had a tournament atmosphere. The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the contest and led 9-6 before Harvard charged back to take a 12-11 advantage. The Crimson ran their lead to six points at 22-16 with 5:57 remaining in the half, but Yale chipped away and tied it at 26-26. After Jessica Knox put Harvard back in front, Jamie Van Horne banked in a three-pointer to put Yale in front 29-28. Emily Tay's jumper with four seconds left gave the Crimson a 30-29 halftime lead.
Harvard opened the second half on an 8-2 run to open up a seven-point lead, 38-31, with 16:19 remaining. Yale responded with a 9-0 rally of its own and took a one-point lead when Van Horne banked in a trey with 12:54 left. Knox hit a free throw for Harvard to make it 39-39, and the score was tied three more times in the next several minutes.
The Bulldogs broke a 52-52 deadlock with a 5-0 run and led 59-54 with 1:15 to go. The Crimson's Lindsay Hallion hit a free throw to make it a four-point game, then Niki Finelli nailed an NBA three from the top of the key to pull Harvard within one, 59-58, with 30 seconds to go. Harvard had to foul to stop the clock, and Stephanie Marciano missed a pair of free throws for the Bulldogs. However, Ashley Carter grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled. She sank her free throws to bring the lead back to three. Liz Tindal missed a trey on the other end and Marciano grabbed the rebound. After a Harvard timeout, Melissa Colborne drained a pair of free throws to put it away, and Lindsey Williams capped the 64-58 victory by going 1-for-2 at the line with 0.3 seconds left.
Colborne had 16 points to lead the Bulldogs. Haywood Wright added 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. Van Horne tallied 10 points and sank three treys, giving her 59 for the season, the second-highest single-season total in Yale history. Williams pulled down 10 rebounds. Playing in her final game as a Bulldog, Marciano notched six points to go along with a career-high eight rebounds and two assists. She was removed with 0.3 seconds remaining in the game and received a standing ovation from the crowd of 462. The Bulldogs shot 37.5 percent (18-of-48) from the field and 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from behind the arc. Yale shot 68.6 percent (24-of-35) at the charity stripe.
Katie Rollins had a double-double for the Crimson with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Hallion posted a team-high 15 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. Knox tallied 12 points off the bench before fouling out. Tay dished out four assists and pulled down four rebounds to go along with eight points. The Crimson outrebounded the Bulldogs 46-32, including a 20-9 edge on the offensive glass. Harvard shot 32.8 percent (19-of-58) from the field, including 44.4 percent (4-of-9) from three-point range, and 66.7 percent (16-of-24) from the line.
With the victory and Columbia's loss to Penn, Yale finished tied with the Lions for fourth place in the final Ivy League standings. However, the Bulldogs swept the two meetings against Columbia this season, so Yale holds the tiebreaker. The fourth-place finish is Yale's highest since the 2001-02 season.
NOTES: The Bulldogs beat the Crimson at home for the second straight year, the first time they've done that since winning six straight from 1981-82 to 1986-87...Yale is now 27-37 all-time against Harvard...Marciano finished her career fifth all-time with 310 assists and seventh with 91 three-pointers...Colborne scored 424 points this season, which ties her with all-time leading scorer Mary Kalich for the eighth-highest single-season total in Yale history...In three years under Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach Chris Gobrecht, the Bulldogs have improved from two to five to seven conference wins...The Bulldogs came back to win after trailing at halftime for the fourth time this season...Yale finished 7-7 in conference despite not sweeping an Ivy weekend all season...The Bulldogs went 4-3 at home and 3-4 on the road in conference play.
Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity