Box Score | Game Highlights

ITHACA, N.Y. – After a back and forth battle that saw 12 lead changes and eight ties, the Big Red women's basketball team dominated the final 10 minutes of play and earned a hard-fought 65-56 victory over Yale this evening in Newman Arena. The win snapped Cornell's eight game losing-streak to the Bulldogs dating back to an 80-62 victory on Feb. 20, 2009. The Big Red has now won six of its last seven games and improves to 11-7 overall and 3-1 in the Ivy League, while Yale slips to 9-9 overall and 3-1 in the conference.

With Yale holding a three-point lead (45-42) with just over 10 minute to play Cornell got back-to-back treys by Stephanie Long and Shelby Lyman to open up a 10-2 run that put the home team up 52-47 at the 6:36 mark. From there the Big Red closed strong, pushing its lead to double digits thanks to some inspired play by the Cornell bench. The Big Red went up by as many as 13 points before winning, 65-56 and in in the final seven minutes of action 11 of Cornell's 15 points came from Christine Kline (8), Nicholle Aston (2) and Joelle Davidson (1).

Long finished with 12 points, seven of which came in the final 10 minutes of play. She also grabbed three rebounds, handed out two assists and registered one steal. Nia Marshall led the Big Red with 14 points despites seeing only 22 minutes of action due to foul trouble. Kline registered a career-high 10 points in 14 minutes of action, while Allyson DiMagno and Lyman finished with eight and seven points, respectively. DiMagno also registered a game-high nine rebounds, followed closely by Aston, who pulled down seven, five of which came during that crucial final seven minutes as Cornell put the game out of reach.

Sarah Halejian was the only Bulldog in double-figures with 19 points, while Lena Munzer and Janna Graf finished with eight and seven points, respectively. Meredith Boardman matched DiMagno with a game-high nine rebounds.

Both teams shot lights-out in the first half, with Yale hitting 50 percent both overall (12-24) and from 3-point range (3-of-6), while the Big Red came in at 48 percent from the floor (12-25) and was a perfect 1-of-1 from beyond the arc. The second half was a different story for the Bulldogs as some tough Cornell defense held the visitors to 30 percent from the floor (8-26) and 33 percent from 3-point range (3-9). Cornell's numbers dipped, but not significantly enough and the Big Red finished the game at 44 percent overall (24-54) and 38 percent from downtown (3-8).

Cornell forced 14 Yale turnovers with five steals, while losing the ball a season-low nine times. The Big Red also held the slight edge in rebounds (35-32) and assisted on 15-of-24 shots, while the Bulldogs helped on just 10-of-20.

Unlike last night, when Cornell got out to a large lead against Brown and then held on for the win, neither team managed to build a lead greater than five points in the first half and the teams went into halftime tied at 32-32.

The Big Red took a slim three-point lead (38-35) with less than three minutes gone in the second half, but Yale managed to claw its way back into the contest and took a three-point lead of its own on a trey by Munzier at the 10:14 mark.

Cornell is back in action next weekend when it plays host to Penn on Friday, Feb. 7 and Princeton on Saturday, Feb. 8. The game against the Tigers will by the Big Red's annual Pink Zone contest.