PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Big Red women's basketball team remained perfect in the Ivy League (3-0) and extended its current win streak to six consecutive games when it defeated Brown, 65-52, this evening at the Pizzitola Center in Providence, R.I. Sophomore forward Nicholle Aston lead four Big Red players in double-digits as Cornell improved to 12-5 on the season.
 
Aston finished with a game-high 18 points and added 10 rebounds for her fourth career double-double, and second in as many games, to lead the Big Red. Frontcourt mate Nia Marshall also registered a double-double, the eighth of her career and her fifth this season, with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Overall, Cornell dominated in the paint, holding the 38-18 advantage.
 
Sophomore guards Megan LeDuc and Kerri Moran added 11 and 10 points, respectively, with LeDuc grabbing six rebounds and Moran handing out seven assists. Senior guard Christine Kline was one of five Big Red players to pull down at least six rebounds, as the Big Red held the significant 47-35 edge on the backboards.
 
Brown (6-11, 0-3 Ivy) was led by Jordan Alexander with 17 points, while Janie White tallied nine points and a team-high nine rebounds.
 
Cornell shot 44.6 percent from the floor (25-56) and 33.3 percent from the arc (4-12), thanks in large part to Taylor DePalma who was a perfect 2-for-2 from 3-point range.
 
The Big Red assisted on 15-of-25 baskets.
 
The Big Red's tough defense limited the Bears to just 27.9 percent shooting overall (17-61) and a mere 17.9 percent from long distance (5-28).  
 
The Big Red jumped out to an early 6-2 lead off buckets from Moran, Marshall and Aston before the home team knotted the game at 6-6 at the 13:39 mark. Cornell went to its transition game, first with a steal by Kline leading to a fastbreak layup from Marshall, before Moran pulled down a defensive rebound and sent a full court pass to Kline, who converted the tough layup between two Brown defenders to put Cornell up, 10-6.
 
After a single made free throw by Brown's Megan Reilly, LeDuc banged in a trey off a behind the back drop-pass from Moran to go up, 13-7. Natalie Ball answered for the Bears, but Marshall hit a 15-footer in transition to return the six-point lead to the visitors (15-9).
 
The teams traded a single made free throw, with LeDuc accounting for Cornell's score, before a wide open layup from Aston, off a great pas from Maddie Campbell, made it an 18-10 Big Red lead with 6:09 remaining in the first half.
 
While both teams had struggled to score up to that point, both team's offensives came alive over the final moments of the first half, trading baskets on the next eight possessions.
 
A pair of layups by Alexander were sandwiched around a deep jumper from Marshall. Moran then hit a jumper in the lane to force a Brown timeout. Coming out of the break, Rebecca Musgrove hit a 3-pointer for the home team, but Aston answered with a tough layup and then converted the traditional three-point play with just under four minutes to go.  Kennedy Martin responded when she hit a tough layup in the lane, but Marshall restored the eight point lead to the visitors with a pair of made free throws with 3:20 to go in the half.
 
The Bears cut the Cornell lead to three points with its first back-to-back baskets in over 11 minutes of action with five straight points from Ellise Sharpe making it a 27-24 contest. The Big Red answered, however, with back-to-back layups from Maddie Campbell to push the lead back to seven points, 31-24, with 1:44 to go in the half.
 
A tough bucket in the lane by Alexander with 49 seconds to play ended the scoring and the teams went into the intermission with Cornell leading, 31-26.  
 
Cornell opened the second half on a 5-0 run to go up by double-digits (36-26) with 17:39 to play. LeDuc opened the stanza with a layup in the opening moments and a single made free-throw by Moran was followed by 15-foot jumper from Aston.
 
A pair of made free throws by Alexander ended the Big Red run and Riley had the team's first field goal of the half at the 15:28 mark to make it a 36-30 game, but Aston answered on Cornell's next trip down the court and then a trey from LeDuc made it an 11-point Cornell lead (41-30) with 14:07 to play.
 
Sharpe connected on a pair of free throws but once again the Big Red had the answer as consecutive layups from Marshall and Moran pushed the lead back to double digits (45-34) with just over 10 minute to play.
 
The action was fast and furious over the next two minutes, but neither team could manage to hit a shot until DePalma knocked down a trey from the left baseline to extend the 7-0 Cornell run and put the visitors up, by 14 points (48-34) with 8:08 to play.
 
Consecutive buckets from Alexander and White made it a single-digit game (48-39) but a wide open layup by Aston pushed Cornell's lead back to 11 (50-39).
 
White knocked down her second consecutive trey and Sharpe hit a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game with just over five minute to play, but that was as good as it would get for the Bears as DePalma hit her second trey of the night, and her fourth 3-pointer of the season, to give Cornell some breathing room.  
 
With 3:35 to play, a free throw from Aston pushed Cornell's lead back to 10 points and Brown would not get within single digits the rest of the way as the Big Red hit free throws and got big defensive stops en route to the 65-52 victory.
 
Cornell will get a rare night of rest before it takes on Yale on national television on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the American Sports Network with Nate Ross (play-by-play) and Leah Secondo (color) on the call. For viewing information, click here.