The women’s basketball team (6-20, 1-13 Ivy League) lost to Yale (16-10, 9-5) by a score of 64-49 on Saturday. Kyla Jones ’24 led the Bears with 17 points while captain Ashley Ducharme ’22 put up 10 points and five rebounds.
The game began with a ceremony for Brown’s only senior, Ducharme, who has spent four years with the Bears and has played three seasons rather than the traditional four due to the pandemic cancellation of her junior season.
Ducharme “has always done things the right way and to the best of her ability to set herself up and the team up for success,” Head Coach Monique LeBlanc said. “She’s done that in a really selfless way, so I honestly can’t say enough good things about Ashley.”
Ducharme scored the first two points of the game on a layup, but Yale subsequently took the lead and held it for the rest of the game. The Bears kept it close up until there were five minutes left in the second quarter, when the Bulldogs scored two points and made it a 21-15 game. The Bulldogs increased that lead to their biggest lead of the game — 22 points — with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
The Bears never fully caught up to the Bulldogs, but they did gain some momentum in the fourth quarter as they began to press full-court. Beginning with a three-pointer by Maddie Mullin ’23 that cut Yale’s lead to 54-40, the rest of the Bears started to heat up. Ducharme, in back-to-back possessions, hit a three and then scored a layup, bringing the score to 54-46.
From there, Bella Mauricio ’25 scored a three of her own, cutting Yale’s lead to eight with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for Bruno, the Bulldogs got their rhythm back and increased their lead again, working their way to a 64-49 win over the Bears.
Despite the loss, Ducharme said she is “proud of how the team finished out this game.” She added that she is “definitely so grateful to have been at Brown for four years and play basketball here.” Ducharme said she looks forward to coming back to games and watching the rest of her team grow.
The Bears have a bright future ahead of them — all of their players but Ducharme will return next season. Jones, who was one of the Bears’ top scorers this season, said she is “looking forward to (the team) getting more experience.”
“I think we’re a really young team and at times that kind of hurt us,” Jones said. She is excited to play next year when herself and her current teammates will all have a season under their belts, she added.
LeBlanc is similarly looking forward to the 2022-23 season. “This year, everything was new,” said LeBlanc. “There was so much learning everyday… I’m looking forward to being able to make strides quicker next year.”
