Box Score ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team started its season with a dominating 76-62 victory over in-state rival Colgate this evening in Newman Arena. It was Cornell's third consecutive win over the Raiders, including back-to-back season openers, as the Big Red moved to 1-0 on the year.

"I am very happy with the win tonight," said Dayna Smith, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "I think it was a tremendous team effort and our defense really set the tone in the first half. That gave us some great transition offense and allowed us to get out to a big lead."

Senior Allyson DiMagno picked up right where she left off last season, leading the team with 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists. With her nine rebounds, she becomes just the fourth player in Cornell history to reach the 700-rebound plateau. Classmate Shelby Lyman finished with 16 points as the only other Cornell player in double-figures, while Aspen Chandler tallied eight points. Four freshmen saw action during the game with Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc each chipping in eight points, while Nicholle Aston and Nia Marshall had six and four points, respectively. Moran also grabbed six rebounds, while Marshall was huge on the defensive end with five blocked shots and five steals. The five blocked shots were the most by a Big Red player in 10 seasons and rank third all-time in Cornell history for blocks in a single game.

"We came into the game knowing that we were going to play a lot of freshmen, and while you know their potential, you never really know what you'll see early on," said Smith. "I was really proud of how well they played and how they were able to contribute."

Colgate was led by Paige Kriftcher (13 points) and Lauryn Kobiela (12 points). Kelly Reid tied DiMagno for a game-high with nine rebounds, while Carole Harris added seven boards.

The Big Red connected on 45.6 percent of its shots from the floor, including a blistering mark of 53.1 percent (17-of-32) during the first half, while holding Colgate to 33.3 percent overall. The Raiders did connect on 47.4 percent from behind the arc, thanks in large part to a 5-of-8 performance in the second half, which helped to close the gap of what had been a 20-point Cornell lead at the intermission.

Colgate (0-1) held the slim edge in rebounds (41-39). Both teams had 17 turnovers but Cornell registered 14 steals to the Raiders' eight.

Despite going against a Colgate squad that started five upperclassmen (two seniors, three juniors), the Big Red looked like the more experienced team in the opening minutes, forcing seven Raider turnovers in the first seven minutes of action to build a 19-7 lead at the 12:47 mark.

The Big Red maintained a comfortable 10 point lead for the next eight minutes before a pair of free throws from Aston with 4:11 to play in the first half opened up a 15-6 run that sent Cornell into the break with a 45-25 lead. During the run, Cornell got a pair of 3-pointers each from LeDuc and Lyman, with Aston contributing four points.

Colgate used a full-court press in the opening moments of the second half to force the Big Red into turnovers on back-to-back possessions, making it a 15-point game at the 14:51 mark, but consecutive layups from Lyman and Chandler pushed the Cornell lead back to 19 points (55-36) just over a minute later.

Midway through the half, Colgate went on a 5-1 run to make it a 13-point lead with just under six minutes to play, but six consecutive Big Red points, including four from Lyman, put the game out of reach as Cornell rolled to the 76-62 victory.

The Big Red is back in action on Saturday, Nov. 16 when it travels to Buffalo to take on the Bulls in Alumni Arena at 12:30 p.m.