ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team saw its season come to an end at the hands of Penn, 56-42, as the Quakers ruined Cornell's Senior Night while earning its 20th victory of the season (20-7, 11-2 Ivy) this evening in Newman Arena. The Big Red closes its season at 15-13 overall and 6-8 in the Ivy League.
Nia Marshall led the team with 13 points, falling just 12 points shy of the school record for points in a single season (467), set by Mary LaMacchia during the 1995-96 campaign. Marshall finishes her sophomore year ranked third overall with 455 points. She also chipped in six rebounds, two blocks and one steal in 37 minutes of action.
Playing her final game in a Cornell uniform,
Christine Kline registered 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds to go along with four steals, two assists and one block.
Both Kline and Marshall finished the season with 58 steals, good for sixth overall in Cornell history for steals in a single season.
Penn was led by Sydney Stipanovich with 16 points, while Kathleen Roche tallied 10. On the boards, Michelle Nwokedi finished with a game-high nine rebounds, helping the Quakers to the slim 40-34 advantage.
Cornell was done in by poor shooting in the first half, hitting just 18.5 percent overall, while Penn connected on 44.8 percent to build a 29-17 halftime lead. The Big Red improved over the final 20 minutes, but finished at just 25.5 percent for the game (14-55), while the Quakers knocked down 42.9 percent overall (21-49).
The teams battled to an 8-8 tie just over seven minutes into the contest, before the Big Red took its lone lead of the game on a
Nicholle Aston jumper at the 12:21 mark. Stipanovich answered with a layup on Penn's next trip down the floor as the visitors used a 7-0 run to go up, 15-10. Kline knocked down a trey from the corner to make it a one possession game, but the Quakers closed the half on a 14-4 run to take the 29-17 lead into the break.
Penn went on to score the first seven points of the second half to push its lead to 19 points and never looked back, leading by double-digits the rest of the way.
