Box Score HARTFORD, Conn. – For the second year in a row, the Big Red women's basketball team fell to Hartford in a one-possession game, as the Hawks' Deanna Mayza hit a trey with 10 seconds to play to lift the home team to the 53-50 victory.  Hartford defeated Cornell in last year's season opener, 48-46.
 
The Big Red's forward duo of Nia Marshall and Nicholle Aston accounted for 60 percent of Cornell's points in the game (30-of-50), finishing with 17 and 13 points, respectively, as the only Big Red players to finish in double digits. Aston also finished with a team-high eight rebounds, tied with guard Megan LeDuc, who filled out the stats line with five points, four assists, two steals and one blocked shot.
 
Mayza finished with 19 points, leading all scorers, while Darby Lee chipped in 10 points for Harford.  La'Trice Hall also had a solid game for the Hawks with seven points, seven rebounds, and four assists.
 
The game was evenly contested throughout with 11 ties, including a 24-24 score at halftime, and 10 lead changes. Hartford held the slight edge in rebounds (38-37) but had two more turnovers than the Big Red (12-10). Cornell shot 36.2 percent from the floor, while the Hawks connected on just 33.3 percent overall. The home team was better beyond the arc (31.3 percent to 20.0 percent) and made more free throws (14-of-18) than the Big Red even attempted (5-of-11).
 
Playing its first game of the season with the new NCAA rules that include four 10-minute quarters, the second half of play was extremely close, with Cornell taking the largest lead of either team at four points (34-30) after a layup from Maddie Campbell with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter. The Big Red fought off a Hartford comeback that saw the score tied at 38-38, as Marshall hit a layup with 57 seconds to play to in the quarter to put Cornell up by two heading into the final 10 minutes.
 
Mayza opened the fourth quarter with a trey to give Hartford its first lead since just before halftime, but back-to-back layups from Marshall and Aston put the visitors back up by three points (44-41) with just over five minutes to play. Five unanswered points returned the lead to Hartford, but the Big Red answered when a reverse layup from Campbell tied the game at 46-46.
 
The teams traded points before a baseline 3-pointer from Caroline Shelquist tied the game one final time at 50-50 with 30 seconds to play. After Mayza's shot put Hartford up, the Big Red had one last chance but the game tying shot was off the mark.  
 
Both team got off to a slow start in the game with Hartford holding the 8-6 lead after a jumper by Lindsey Abed with 49 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
 
The Hawks stretched their lead to 10-6 after a pair of made free throw from Lee at the 9:00 mark of the second quarter, but Cornell responded with a 10-2 run, featuring five points from LeDuc, to go up, 16-12.
 
Hartford used a 12-6 run of its own, which began with a trey from  Mayza at the 6:13 mark and ended four minutes later with a jumper in the paint to make it a 24-22 contest. But Aston knocked down a runner in the lane to send the teams into halftime tied at 24-24.
 
Cornell returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 15 when it takes on Bryant at 1 p.m.