LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Cornell women's basketball team closed its non-conference slate with a heartbreaking 56-45 loss to Patriot League foe Bucknell this evening at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa. The Big Red surrendered a 27-25 lead at the half as it falls to 4-8 on the season.
Allie Fedorowicz went 7-for-14 from the floor and 4-for-8 from 3-point range to register her first career double-double with 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
Shannan Scarselletta was the only other Big Red player in double-figures with 15 points, while
Virginia McMunigal pulled down nine rebounds.
Bucknell (8-5) was led by Amanda Brown and Lauren Schober with 15 points apiece, while
Cosima Higham pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.
The Big Red shot just 29.6 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from 3-point range, while the Bison connected on 36.5 percent overall and 27.3 percent from beyond the arc. Bucknell also held the slight edge in rebounds, 39-36.
The Big Red jumped out to an early 5-0 lead just two minutes into the contest when Fedorowicz broke the Bucknell press and took the ball coast-to-coast for the easy bucket. The Bison got on the board thanks to Brown, who scored the team's first six points of the contest. After a Fedorowicz 3-pointer from the top of the key, Benson pushed the Cornell lead to 10-6 with a runner in the lane at the 15:34 mark.
Bucknell took its first lead of the game with a 5-0 scoring run to make it an 11-10 game, but the Big Red responded on its next possession as Fedorowicz nailed a trey before Scarslletta converted a traditional three-point play to give Cornell the 16-11 lead with 12:10 to play in the first half. The visitors pushed its lead to eight points just over one minute later thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers by Fedorowicz.
Neither team managed much offense for the next four minutes but the Bison were able to slowly chip into Cornell's lead, making it a two-point game at the 6:23 mark, before back-to-back layups by Scarselletta gave the Big Red the 25-21 cushion with three minutes to go before the break. The Bison went on to outscore Cornell, 4-2, over the closing minutes as the Big Red took the slim 27-25 lead into the break.
Benson knocked down a 3-pointer as the shot clock was about to expire to open the second half, but seven unanswered points gave the home team a 32-30 lead just three minutes into the second stanza. Scarselletta knotted the game on Cornell's next possession with a layup, but four straight points gave the Bison the 36-32 lead with 12 minutes left in the contest.
A pair of free throws by
Susie Doyle ended the drought, but Schober answered right back with four straight from the charity stripe before Christina Chukwuedo converted a three-point play to give Bucknell a 43-34 lead with 8:48 to play in the contest.
Cornell cut the lead to five points with a layup from Fedorowicz and a pair of free throws by Scarselletta, but a trey by Schrober and a pair of free throws by Morgan Wrightson gave the Bison its largest lead of the game, 48-38, with just over six minutes to play.
The Big Red defense clamped down to hold Bucknell scoreless for the next three minutes, but couldn't make much headway offensively, getting just one layup by Scarselletta before seven unanswered points by the Bison made it a 55-40 game with 1:27 to play.
A Fedorowicz triple with just under one minute remaining in the contest ended the Bucknell run and the Big Red stole the ensuing inbounds, giving
Christine Vlasic the easy layup to account for the 56-45 final.
The Big Red will have 10 days to prepare for the start of Ivy League play as it travels to New York City to take on Columbia on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 4:30 p.m.
