Boxscore

ITHACA, N.Y. – For the second night in a row, the Cornell women's basketball team gave one of the top programs in the Ivy League all it can handle, and for the second night in a row, the Big Red came up short as it fell to Harvard, 69-53, this evening at Lavietes Pavilion.

The freshman duo of Clare Fitzpatrick and Taylor Flynn turned in their second strong performance in as many nights with Fitzpatrick leading Cornell with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Flynn scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds, handed out four assists and had two steals. Senior Lauren Benson added 14 points, six rebounds and had four helpers.

Harvard (11-6, 2-1 Ivy) had four players in double-figures, including Christine Matera (16), Brogan Berry (14), Elle Hagerdorn (12) and Emma Markley (10). Berry also handed out seven assists. Victoria Lippert and Jackie Alemany had 13 and 11 rebounds, respectively, helping the Crimson to a 47-35 advantage on the boards.

Cornell (5-12, 0-4 Ivy) shot 31.6 percent from the floor and 30.8 percent from 3-point range, while Harvard connected on 41 percent overall and 33.3 from beyond the arc.

The Big Red jumped out to an early eight-point lead, 12-4, at the 12:47 mark, thanks to a combined nine points from Flynn (5) and Fitzpatrick (4). A jumper by Claire Wheeler and a trey by Matera got the home team back in the contest, before a pair of made free throws by Fitzpatrick, followed by a jumper from Allie Fedorowicz gave Cornell a 16-9 lead.

The Crimson strung together 12 unanswered points over the closing moments of the half to take a five point lead, 21-16, but a layup by Benson with just two ticks showing on the clock cut the lead to two and Harvard went into the intermission leading, 21-19.

A 3-pointer by Matera in the opening moments of the second half put the home team back up by five points, but Benson responded immediately with a trey of her own to make it a 24-22 game.

After back-to-back Crimson baskets extended Harvard's lead to six points, the Big Red used a 10-4 scoring run to knot the game at 32-32 with 15:25 to play. During the run, Cornell got 3-pointers from Flynn and Benson and layups from Allie Munson and Fitzpatrick.

Harvard pushed its lead back to five points with a trey from Hagedorn and a jumper by Marley, but a 3-pointer from Benson and a layup by Fitzpatrick cut the Crimson lead to one-point, 38-37, with 12:48 to play.

From there, Harvard used a 9-0 scoring run to build an insurmountable 46-37 lead with just over 11 minutes remaining in the contest.

Cornell would cut the lead down to as few as six points on two separate occasions, but the Crimson eventually pushed its lead to 13 points at the 6:22 mark and from there, it cruised to the 69-53 victory.

The Big Red closes a five-game road-trip when it travels to Yale and Brown on Friday, Feb. 5 and Saturday, Feb. 6, respectively. Both games are slated to tip-off at 7:00 p.m.