Box Score Box Score

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – After a strong first half of play, the Big Red women's basketball team could not keep pace with William and Mary, falling to the Tribe in both teams' season opener, 85-54, this evening at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va. Cornell remains in the state of Virginia for the rest of the weekend, as it takes on Longwood on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m.

The Big Red was led by sophomore guards Shelby Lyman and Allyson DiMagno with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Lyman was extremely efficient, hitting 4-of-6 from 3-point range, while DiMagno fought her way to the foul line and converted 7-of-8 chances. DiMagno also chipped in five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Junior Clare Fitzpatrick led the team with seven rebounds and handed out a team-high four assists to go along with two blocks and one steal, while Taylor Flynn chipped in seven points.

W&M was led by a pair of 20-point performers with Janine Aldridge (24) and Jaclyn McKenna (20) hitting a combined 16-20 shots overall and 7-of-8 from 3-point range. Emily Correal finished the night with 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Katherine DeHenzel handed out a game-high six assists.  

Cornell shot a blistering 52 percent from the field in the first half (12-23) and 63 percent from beyond the arc (5-8), but went cold in the second  half of play to finish the night at 33.3 percent overall (16-48) and 44.4 percent (8-18) from 3-point range. Unfortunately for the Big Red, W&M also shot well in the first half but were able to keep pace in the second to finish the game at 45.9 percent (28-61) from the floor and an outstanding 64.7 percent (11-of-17) from beyond the arc. 

Despite the Tribes' significant height advantage, the Big Red held the slight edge in rebounds (35-34), but suffered from 26 turnovers.

The first half was a rollercoaster for Cornell, which trailed by nine points at the midway point before clawing back into the contest and taking a one-point lead with 3:00 to play, but W&M closed the half on a nine-point run to go into the intermission with a 41-33 lead. 

W&M started the game strong, jumping out to a 7-0 lead behind a trey from DeHenzel and a rare four-point play from Aldridge before the Big Red got on the board with a jumper from Fitzpatrick at the 18:01 mark. On the Tribe's next possession, Maka Anyanwu blocked a DeHenzel shot and Fitzpatrick started a break the other way, hitting DiMagno for the wide open 3-pointer to make it a 7-5 lead.

The Tribe pushed its lead back to seven points (12-5), but a trey by Lyman and a layup from Spencer Lane cut into the home team's lead, 12-10. W&M responded with some full-court pressure and used a 9-2 run to take its largest lead of the half, 21-12, but once again, Cornell fought back to make it a one possession game (23-20) when Lyman sandwiched a pair of deep 3-pointers around a layup from Anyanwu.

The teams battled back-and-fourth for the next five minutes but the Big Red used a 9-2 run, which ended with a layaup from DiMagno, to give Cornell its first lead of the half, 33-32, with 3:00 to play.

Once again, W&M turned up the full-court pressure and closed the half with nine unanswered points to take a 41-33 lead into the intermission.

Cornell fought its way back to within five points at the 16:52 mark of the second half (47-42), but over the next 3:45, the Tribe scored 14 unanswered points to go up 61-42. With that, W&M put the game out of reach, eventually taking a 36-point lead before cruising to the 85-54 victory.