Box Score Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team travelled to Syracuse this evening and fell to the Orange, 86-45, at the Carrier Dome. For the second game in a row, a young and inexperienced Cornell team showed moments of brilliance, but was outmatched by a team with greater experience, size and depth as it fell to 0-2 on the season. With the win, Syracuse improved to 2-0.

Cornell gave the Orange all it could handle in the first half, staying within striking distance and taking a 27-26 lead at the 5:21 mark, but the home team closed the first half and opened the second half with 21 unanswered points to take the insurmountable 20-point lead.

The Big Red was led by Stephanie Long's nine points, all of which came in the first half, and Aspen Chandler's eight points, all of which came in the second half. Allie Munson finished with six points and a team-high six rebounds.

Syracuse (2-0) was led by Kayla Alexander's 19 points, while La'Shay Taft and Iasia Hemingway added 13 and 10 points, respectively. Alexander, Hemingway and Shakeya Leary all registered eight rebounds apiece.

Cornell shot just 30.2 percent overall and 34.8 percent from 3-point range, while Syracuse connected on 43.5 percent overall and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. The Orange outrebounded the Big Red, 52-28 and forced 26 turnovers with 18 steals.

All 12 Cornell players saw action and the Big Red assisted on 15 of its 16 baskets.

The Orange used its side and speed to implement a smothering press in the early moments of the game, forcing four Cornell turnovers in the first four minutes of action as it jumped out to a 9-2 lead at the 15:46 mark.

A jumper by Taylor Flynn from the left baseline ended the Big Red drought and a stop on the other end led to a Munson free throw, making it a 9-5 contest just over one minute later.

SU answered with a pair of made free throws by Phylesha Bullard but a scrappy possession by Cornell led to a traditional three-point play from Munson to cut the home team's lead to three points, 11-8.

Alexander answered with at three-point play of her own on the other end, but a deep trey by Long again made it a one-possession game (14-11) with 12:11 to play in the first half.

The Orange answered with a 3-pointer from Taft, sparking a 9-2 scoring run to go up by double-digits, 23-13. Cornell responded with back-to-back treys from Long, with a key steal by Allyson DiMagno in-between to end an SU possession, before an offensive putback by Kristina Danialak cut the Orange lead to 23-21.

A layup by Alexander gave the home team some breathing room, but it was short-lived as consecutive treys from DiMagno and Shelby Lyman gave Cornell its only lead of the contest, 27-26, with just over five minutes to play until the intermission.

That was as good as it would get, as the Orange rattled off 21 unanswered points over the closing minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half to go up, 47-27.

Danialak ended the Big Red drought with a jumper from the left elbow, but the relentless Syracuse press, coupled with some hot shooting from the Orange expanded the home team's lead as SU rolled to the 86-45 final.

The Big Red is back in action on Friday, Nov. 19, when it travels to the Connecticut to take on Fairfield at 7 p.m.