ITHACA, N.Y. – After erasing a two-point halftime deficit and going up by six early in the second half of play, the Big Red women's basketball team went nearly nine minutes without hitting a field goal, allowing Brown back into the contest. The Bears eventually pulled away for good to steal a 58-51 victory during the Big Red's Play 4Kay celebration this evening in Newman Arena.
 
Cornell (15-9, 6-4) was led by Nia Marshall with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Nicholle Aston had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double, her sixth of the season. Sophomore guard Taylor DePalma finished with a career-high nine points on a 3-of-5 performance from 3-point range, while  Megan LeDuc chipped in seven points, matched a career-high with eight rebounds, and handed out three assists. Kerri Moran  also had a solid night,  scoring three points, to go along with a team-high six assists and five rebounds.  
 
Brown (10-14, 4-6) was led by Natalie Ball and Jordin Alexander with 14 and 12 points, respectively.
 
The Big Red held the significant advantage in rebounds, 41-25, and assisted on 18-of-20 baskets, but had an uncharacteristic amount of turnovers, finishing with 19. Cornell also hit just 38.5 percent from the floor (20-52) after connecting on just 30 percent in the second half. Brown finished with just 12 turnovers and shot 50 percent in the second half, upping its total for the game to 45.1 percent from the floor (23-51).
 
After trailing 29-27 at the half, the Big Red opened the second stanza on a 10-2 run go build a 37-31 lead with 17:16 to play. During the run, Cornell got a trey by LeDuc to open the half before jumpers from Aston, Christine Kline and Marshall.
 
That's when Cornell's shooting touch went cold as the Big Red missed its next 12 shots from the floor, allowing Brown to tie the game 39-39 with 8:38 to play. A trey from Moran on Cornell's next possession ended the drought and Cornell pushed its lead back to four points twice more – with the first coming on a trey from Taylor DePalma (45-41; 6:33) and the second on a layup from Aston (47-43; 5:58) – but Brown closed the game on a 15-4 run to earn the victory.
 
Brown also started the game strong, getting out to a quick 5-0 lead before the Big Red used an 11-2 run, with six points coming from Marshall to go up, 11-7 with just under 13 minutes to play in the first half. Four unanswered points by the visitors knotted the game at 11-11, but Cornell responded once again with a 12-2 run to go up by double-digits, 23-13. During the run, the Big Red got a pair of treys from DePalma and four points from Nicholle Aston.
 
The Bears fought back and closed the half strong, which was punctuated by scoring the final five points of the stanza to take the 29-27 lead into the break.
 
The Big Red will play its final road weekend of the season when it travels to Harvard and Dartmouth on Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28, respectively. The game against the Crimson will tip-off at 7 p.m., while the game vs. the Big Green is slated to begin at 6 p.m.