NEW HAVEN –  The Big Red women's basketball team had its six-game winning streak snapped this afternoon as Yale used a strong second half to nip Cornell, 60-53.

Cornell (12-6, 3-1) was led by Nia Marshall's 20-point, 11-rebound double-double, her second straight, and fifth of the season.  Kerri Moran added 10 points, eight  of which came in the first half, while Nicholle Aston finished with seven.

Yale (10-8, 4-0) used bench points (14) and offensive rebounds (17) to earn the win

After missing its first five shots of the contest, the Big Red rebounded and finished the half at 48 percent from the floor (12-25), while limiting the Bulldogs to just 34.5 percent overall (10-29). Yale stayed in the game thanks to the deep ball, hitting 44.4 percent from beyond the arc (4-9), while Cornell missed its only 3-point attempt of the first half.

Cornell struggled in the second half, shooting just 34.8 percent to finish at 41.7 percent for the game, while the Bulldogs came on strong, going 40 percent from the floor in the second stanza. 

After a pair of made free throws by Nicholle Aston gave Cornell the early 2-0 lead, consecutive treys by Whitney Wyckoff and a driving layup from Tamara Simpson put the home team up, 8-2, just under three minutes into the contest.  The Big Red missed its first five shot from the floor before Moran hit a jumper from the free throw line at the 15:20 mark to cut the Bulldogs lead in half (8-4).

Moran knocked down a pair of free throws on Cornell's next possession and then Christine Kline stole the Bulldog's inbound pass and found Moran under the hoop for the easy layup to tie the game at 8-8 at the 14:10 mark.

The action came fast and furious on the next few trips up and down the court, with the teams trading buckets before a layup from Marshall and a driving layup from Moran as the shot clock expired gave the visitors its first lead, 14-13, since the opening moments of the game.

A tough layup in the paint by Marshall pushed Cornell's lead to 16-13 but Wyckoff ended the 6-0 Big Red run on Yale's next possession and then put the Bulldogs back in the lead (17-16) with a driving layup.

Cornell responded with an 11-0 run as Aston answered on the other end, and following a Yale miss, Kline snagged the long rebound and sent a pass upcourt to Marshall, who was all alone and converted to make it 20-17.

Another bucket by Marshall, followed by a baseline floater from Kline made it 24-17 with just over five minutes to play in the half. Marshall then capped the run with a traditional three-point play to put Cornell up by double-digits (27-17).

Mary Ann Santucci ended the Cornell run with a trey from the corner and a layup from Aston was answered by a layup from Simpson to end the half with the Big Red leading, 29-24.

The teams traded buckets to open the second half but six unanswered points by Yale returned the one-point lead to the home team (32-31).

Kline ended the Bulldog run and returned the lead to Cornell (33-31) before the teams exchanged a single made free throw each. Cornell eventually pushed its lead back to two points as Megan LeDuc hit the Big Red's first trey of the game with 12:57 to play, but moments later Jen Berkowitz tied the game at 37-37 with a pair of made free throws.

The game went back-and-forth until a traditional three-point play by Katie Werner, followed by a layup from Simpson restored the three-point lead to the Bulldogs, 47-44.

A jumper in the lane by Moran ended the mini Yale run but three consecutive points by Berkowitz pushed the Bulldog's advantage to 50-46. Yale eventually stretched its lead to six point (54-48) before a tough layup from Poland made it a 54-50 game with 1:26 on the clock.

Yale went back up by six-points (56-53) before LeDuc hit a step-back trey to make it 56-53 with 33 seconds to play. Tough defense on the inbounds pass forced Yale to take a timeout but the Bulldogs got it in on the restart and after a Cornell foul, Werner made it a five-point game.

From there,  Yale held on for the 60-53 victory.

The Big Red will wrap up a five-game road swing when it travels to Penn and Princeton on Friday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 7, respectively. The game against the Quakers will tip-off at 7 p.m., while the game vs. the Tigers is slated to begin at 6 p.m.