ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time in over three years, the Cornell University women's basketball team had two players score 20 points in the same contest as Virginia McMunigal and Allison Abt each set new career highs, as they led the Big Red to an 80-62 victory this evening in Newman Arena. Cornell took a 50-30 lead into halftime and cruised to the victory. With the win, the Big Red improves to 8-13 overall and 4-5 in the season, as its sweeps the Bulldogs for the second year in a row.

 

Abt went 7-for-10 from the floor and 3-for-5 from 3-point range for 20 points while grabbing three rebounds and blocking one shot. McMunigal was equally impressive, shooting 7-for-12 overall and 5-of-9 from beyond the arc for 20 points. Joining Abt and McMunigal in double-figures was Allie Fedorowicz with 11 points. Fedorowicz filled out the stat line with six assists, four rebounds and two steals. Lauren Benson handed out a game-high seven assists, while Allie Munson went 3-for-3 to score seven points, grabbed a team-high six rebounds and blocked three shots. Sasha Truong also registered career highs with eight points and four rebounds.

 

Yale (10-13, 3-6) was led by Melissa Colborne's 27 points, while Jamie Van Horne chipped in 11 points.  Maddy Gobrecht pulled down a game-high seven rebounds, while Yoyo Greenfield handed out six assists.

 

The Big Red shot a blistering 61.2 percent (30-of-49) from the field and 61.1 percent (11-of-18) from 3-point range, both of which were season highs. Yale connected on 44.2 percent (23-of-52) overall and 40 percent (4-of-10) from beyond the arc.

 

Cornell held the 33-23 advantage in rebounds, as every player in the box score registered at least one board, but turned the ball over six times more than the Bulldogs (20-14).

 

At the start of the game, everything seemed to be going Yale's way, as the visitors jumped out to the early 11-5 lead at the 16:07 mark, thanks to nine points from Colborne. Coming out of a media time out, Benson nailed a jumper before finding Susie Doyle alone in the lane for the sophomore's first bucket of the game, making it a two-point contest.

 

Yale responded with a jumper by Michelle Cashen, but Cornell used a three-point play by Abt, to make it a 13-12 game at the 13:23 mark. Van Horne drilled a trey on the Bulldog's next possession, but the Big Red got a layup by Fedorowicz and back-to-back buckets by Abt to take its first lead of the contest, 18-16 with 11 minutes remaining in the first half.

 

A pair of free throws by Gobrecht knotted the game for the third and final time as Cornell opened up a 10-0 scoring run over the next three minutes to take a lead that it would not relinquish. During the run, the Big Red got back-to-back layups from Shannan Scarselletta and Benson, and a pair of treys by Fedorowicz and Abt.

 

After trading baskets to make it a 30-21 game, Cornell outscored the Bulldogs, 7-2, to go up by 14 points, 37-23, with just under four minutes to play in the opening half. From there, the Big Red closed out the final four minutes by outscoring Yale, 13-7 to take the 50-30 lead into the break. The highlight of the run came with 22 seconds to play when Troung hoisted up a deep 3-pointer from the right corner as the shot clock was about to expire. Initially, one official ruled it a shot-clock violation, but the trail referee over-ruled the call to the delight of the Newman crowd.

 

McMunigal hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the second half and give Cornell its largest lead of the game, 26 points, as the Big Red went up, 56-30, less than two minutes in. The Bulldogs slowly chipped into the lead, using six straight points, including four from Colborne, to make it a 20-point game at the 15:42 mark. The teams traded baskets for the next three minutes before a layup and a pair of free throws by Colborne made it an 18-point game at the 12:44 mark, but on Cornell's next possession, Truong nailed another trey to put the Big Red back up by 21 points.

 

From there, the Big Red rolled to the victory as Yale was able to cut the lead to less than 20 points on only three occasions, but Cornell responded each time with a bucket of its own to keep the game in its control.   

 

The Big Red is back in action tomorrow night as it plays host to Brown at Newman Arena at 7 p.m. The game will be part of the WBCA's Pink Zone, a global unified effort for the WBCA nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.