The women’s basketball team lost its second Ivy League game of the year Friday, falling to Yale 73-52 on the road.
The Bears (6-10, 0-2 Ivy) were heavily outscored from the field the entire game — ceding a 14-point run to the Bulldogs (8-8, 2-0) at the end of the first half to guarantee the Elis a safe lead for the rest of the game.
“We made uncharacteristic mistakes, like ... 22 turnovers ... in that game on Friday, which isn’t really like us,” said Sophie Bikofsky ’15. “Transition defense was one of the main things we struggled with.”
Friday’s game marked the seventh time this season the Bears conceded 70 points or more.
“We really gave them some easy baskets and got ourselves in a hole, (and) weren’t able to bounce back off,” said Head Coach Jean Marie Burr.
The game started out slowly — the first field goal came after more than two minutes of play when Carly Wellington ’14 made a layup for the Bears. The competition remained close for a while, with multiple lead changes. At 11:55, Brown reached its largest lead of the night, going up 16-12. But immediately after, Bruno found itself in a scoring slump that lasted more than six minutes, allowing Yale to take a seven-point lead.
The Bears briefly mounted a comeback — putting up seven points in two minutes — but quickly suffered another scoring drought over the last four minutes of the half. The Bulldogs took the opportunity to push their lead even further, scoring the next 14 points to end the half ahead 40-23.
“They went into a scoring (run),” Burr said. Yale “got a couple of long passes up court, and they were able to convert quickly on them.”
Any plans Bruno had for a quick comeback at the beginning of the second half were extinguished by Yale’s defense, as the Bears went scoreless for the first five minutes. The Bulldogs safely guarded their 20-point lead for most of the second half.
Plagued by 22 turnovers, the Bears had difficulty posing a threat from the field, scoring on just 14 of 43 attempted field goals. The Bulldogs made 31 of 60 chances from the field, for a season-best conversion rate of 51.7 percent. Bruno relied on the free-throw line for its scoring, converting 17 out of 20 from the charity stripe.
“The number one place we lost points was in transition,” Burr said. “That was the biggest Achilles’ heel.”
The Bears will go for their first Ivy League win of the season this weekend, when they head to New York to take on Cornell (9-7, 1-1) and Columbia (4-12, 1-1).
“The first two (Ivy) games obviously didn’t go the way we wanted, but we’re learning from them and we’ll bounce back,” Bikofsky said.
Burr echoed Bikofsky’s words of optimism for the next couple of games. “Starting out the way we did is not what we expected,” she said, “but I feel pretty confident in our leaders to keep the team focused and ready.”
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