Box Score Photo Gallery (Patrick Shanahan)
Coach Smith Postgame Interview
ITHACA, N.Y. – It was déjà vu all over again. For the second consecutive game between the Cornell and Brown women's basketball teams, a basket by
Clare Fitzpatrick in the final moments would lift the Big Red to victory. This evening, the senior forward converted a traditional three-point play with six seconds remaining to hand Cornell a 60-58 win over the Bears in Newman Arena.
Fitzpatrick finished the game with 17 points and nine rebounds, while
Allyson DiMagno had another outstanding performance with a 16-point, 17-rebound double-double, to go along with two assists, including the pass that set up Fitzpatrick's game-winner.
Stephanie Long tallied 15 points and six rebounds, while
Shelby Lyman chipped in 10 points, four assists and three rebounds.
Spencer Lane ran the offense with a game-high seven assists.
Brown (7-15, 1-7) was led by Sophie Bikofsky, who tallied a career-high 21 points and was on fire from 3-point range, connecting on 7-of-9 (.777), shooting well above her season average of .340. She also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Shelia Dixon finished with 17 points, seven boards and six assists, while Lauren Clarke had eight points and four assists.
Cornell (11-10, 3-4) connected on its first four shots of the contest to jump out to an 8-0 lead before going up by as many as 13 points (17-4) on a Fitzpatrick layup at the 12:42 mark. The Bears responded with an 11-0 run, which featured three Bikofsky treys, to cut the Big Red lead to 17-15 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the half. Moments later, the visitors would tie the game at 19-19, but four points from Lyman, sandwiched around by back-to-back treys from Long and DiMagno restored a double-digit lead to Cornell at the 5:25 mark and the home team took a seven-point advantage (33-26) into the intermission.
As well as Bikofsky shot in the first half (4-of-6), she was even better in the second, hitting all three of her 3-point attempts to stretch the Cornell defense and help her team get back into the game. The Big Red was leading 38-28 with just over 14 minutes to play when the Bears used a 12-2 run to tie the contest at 40-40 with 10:16 showing on the clock. Over the next four minutes, Cornell retook the lead, eventually going up by five points on a pair of Fitzpatrick free throws, but Brown responded with a step-back trey from Dixon and four consecutive free throws by Clarke to go up, 52-50.
A 3-pointer from Long momentarily returned the lead to the Big Red, but with just over two minutes to play Cornell was faced again with a five-point deficit. With 1:24 remaining in the contest, DiMagno made a layup to bring the Big Red within three points. On Brown's next trip down the court, Dixon had her shot blocked by Fitzpatrick but in the scrum for the rebound, Cornell committed a foul. Page missed both of her free throws and on the second one, DiMagno came down with a hard-fought rebound to give the ball back to Cornell with 1:03 to play. Pushing the tempo, Fitzpatrick scored just seconds later to make it a one-point game, but the visitors couldn't convert a layup on the other end and Lyman pulled down the defensive rebound with 26 ticks on the clock to set up Fitzpatrick's heroics on Cornell's next possession.
The Big Red is back in action next weekend as it travels to Penn and Princeton.
