WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Big Red women's basketball team erased a 16-point deficit late  in the second period and led by a point with 1:09 to play, but couldn't hold on as Howard took a 76-74 victory this afternoon at Burr Gymnasium. With the loss, Cornell has its two-game winning streak in the series snapped and slips to 7-6 on the season.
 
Nicholle Aston finished one-point shy of her career-high with 21 points and added 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season, while Nia Marshall and Megan LeDuc added 13 points apiece. Kerri Moran finished with seven points, seven assists and six rebound and Maddie Campbell chipped in six points and nine rebounds to help the Big Red to a 44-32 advantage on the boards.
 
Howard (3-12) was led by Victoria Gonzales' 22 points and nine rebounds, while Imani Bailey (13) and Jasmine Hill (10) both finished in double figures.
 
The Big Red shot .479 percent from the floor (34-71) and .417 from 3-point range (5-12) but had an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers, 10 more than its season average. Howard shot .435 percent overall (27-62) and .571 percent from beyond the arc (8-14), marks well above its season average of .353 and .237, respectively.

The largest disparity came at the free throw line as the Lady Bison knocked down 14-of-17 from the charity stripe, while the Big Red earned just three trips to the stripe and converted 1-of-3 attempts.
 
Cornell won the tip and LeDuc scored an uncontested layup on a fantastic pass from Moran but that was as good as it got for Cornell in the first period as the Lady Bison connected on a blistering .706 percent over the first 10 minutes to jump out to a 29-13 lead at the first break. Aston was a bright spot, scoring seven of Cornell's points during the frame.
 
Howard extended its lead with a layup from Sydni Johnson on its first possession of the second quarter, but a layup from Aston and a trey from Caroline Shelquist opened up a 10-6 Big Red run to make it a 37-25 contest with 6:01 to go before half. The Lady Bison pushed its lead back to 16 points on a jumper by Johnson with 4:17 remaining, but the Big Red closed the half on a 15-3 run to go into halftime trailing 44-40. During the run, Cornell got four points from both Marshall and Moran, while Marisa Knox knocked down her second bucket of the game to match a career-high with four points.
 
After trading blows throughout the third quarter, Howard got out to a quick six-point lead early in the fourth period before a trey from LeDuc made it a 60-57 Bison lead. The teams traded buckets with Howard scores answered by LeDuc and Christine Ehland to make it a 63-61 game with 5:56 to play.
 
The Lady Bison responded with a 6-0 run to go up, 69-61 under four minutes to go in the game, but Shelquist ended the run with a deep trey. Gonzales scored on Howard's next possession, but Cornell answered with back-to-back buckets from Aston, and a foul line jumper from LeDuc to get within one-point, 71-70 with just over two minutes to play. 
 
Hill knocked down a pair of free throws to make it a 73-70 game, but Aston responded with a tough layup in traffic and then Campbell knocked down a baseline jumper off a great pass from Marshall to put the Big Red up by one-point, 74-73 with 1:09 remaining in the contest.
 
Hill put Howard back on top with a driving layup and then sealed the victory after a Cornell miss with a single made free throw with 10 seconds to play. The Big Red had one final chance to tie it but the last shot fell short and the Lady Bison took the 76-74 victory.  
 
The Big Red is back in action in its final non-conference game when it welcomes Delaware State to Newman Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.