PHILADELPHIA – The Cornell women's basketball team used a furious comeback in the second half, but couldn't regroup from a 36-23 halftime deficit as it fell to Drexel, 62-53, this afternoon at the Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.  
 
Cornell (0-2) was led by sophomore forward Nia Marshall with 13 points, while sophomore guard Megan LeDuc finished with a career-high 12 points. LeDuc also matched a career-high with eight assists. Sophomore forward Nicholle Aston registered five points to go along with a career-high 10 rebounds, helping the Big Red to a 39-31 advantage on the boards. Christine Kline also chipped in 10 points as the only other Cornell player in double-figures.
 
Drexel (1-0) was led by Sarah Curran with 12 points, while Jamila Thompson and Meghan Creighton finished with 11 points apiece. Creighton also handed out five assists, while Rachel Pearson had a team-high five rebounds.
 
The game was a tale of two halves, as the Dragons shot a blistering 46.2 percent from the floor, 36.4 percent from 3-point range and was nearly perfect from the free throw line (8-9) in the first half, to get out to a 36-23 lead at the intermission. Cornell shot 34.8 percent from the floor and 30.8 from beyond the arc in the first stanza. In the second half, the roles were reversed as the Big Red hit five of its first seven shots and connected on 47.8 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from 3-point range to close the gap on Drexel.  The Big Red also stepped up on defense, holding the Dragons to 29.7 percent from the floor and just 12.5 percent from deep.
 
For the game, Cornell finished at 41.3 percent overall (19-46) and 25.0 percent from beyond the arc (6-24), while holding Drexel to 37.7 percent from the floor (20-53) and 26.3 percent from 3-point range (5-19).
 
Ashida Cooper  struck first for the home team with a deep jumper, but back-to-back layups from Maddie Campbell and Marshall gave the Big Red an early 4-2 lead. Pearson returned the lead to the Dragons, but a long defensive rebound to LeDuc led to a run-out the other way as LeDuc drove in for the easy layup to make it a 6-5 Cornell lead. A single made free throw pushed the visitors lead to 7-5 but an offensive putback by Pearson, followed by a layup from Curran and a jumper from Jackie Schluth made it an 11-7 Drexel lead.
 
A pair of treys from Kerri Moran and LeDuc on consecutive Cornell possessions put the Big Red up, 13-11 at the 11:37 mark, but Curran answered on the next trip down the floor to put the home team back up, 14-13. The trey by Curran opened an 8-0 run that also featured a three-point play from Creighton, but  a trey from Kline and a single made free throw from Moran made it a single possession game at 19-17 with just over eight minutes to play.
 
Four straight made free throws opened up a 10-2 lead that gave Drexel a double-digit lead at 29-19 with 3:35 on the clock. A trey from the corner by Kline temporarily halted the run, but Creighton answered right back with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc and the Dragons extended their lead to 36-23 at the intermission.
 
Cornell executed its offense and used some outstanding transition play in the opening moments of the second half to cut into the Drexel lead, using a 7-1 scoring run that included four points from Campbell to get back within single digits, 38-30, at the first media timeout.
 
The Big Red continued to click on offense and used tough defense and timely rebounds to make it a 42-38 contest after a trey from LeDuc and a fastbreak layup from Campbell with just under 11 minutes to play.
 
The teams traded a single made free throw each before a trey in the corner by Megan Marecic returned a 7-point lead to the home team, 46-39, at 8:34 mark.
 
A deep jumper from Marshall and a trey from LeDuc, sandwiched around a layup from Kelsi Lidge made it a four-point game once again, 48-44, with 5:17 to play.  The teams traded baskets before a layup from Thompson and an elbow jumper by Marecic on consecutive Drexel plays pushed the home teams lead to 58-50 with 56 seconds to play.
 
From there, Cornell was forced to foul and the home team made its free throws to account for the 62-53 final.       

The Big Red remains on the road when it heads to instate rival Colgate on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.