LORETTO, Pa. – The Cornell women's basketball team jumped out to a 22-5 lead in the first quarter, and for the second consecutive game held an opponent to 20 points below its season average, as it defeated Saint Francis (Pa.), 78-71, this evening at DeGol Arena in Loretto, Pa. With the win, Cornell improves to 5-2 on the season.
 
The Big Red had four players finish in double-digits, led by Megan LeDuc with 16 points. Nia Marshall finished with 15, including nine in the crucial fourth quarter, while Kerri Moran and Samantha Widmann chipped in 14 and 11, respectively. Marshall, Moran, and Nicholle Aston all finished with six rebounds, helping Cornell to a dominant 42-27 advantage on the boards. Moran tallied seven assists and four steals, while LeDuc handed out five assists and had four steals.
 
SFU (2-3), which entered the game ranked fourth in the nation with 91.5 points per game, was led by Jessica Kovatch's 25 points, while Ace Harrison added 18 points and had a game-high nine rebounds. 
 
Both teams shot the ball extremely well, with Cornell finishing at 44.9 percent overall (31-69) and the Red Flash knocking down 48.1 percent from the floor (26-54). The Big Red shot just 25 percent from beyond the arc (3-12), but SFU wasn't much better at 30.4 percent (7-23), although the home team did connect of four more treys more than the visitors. 
 
The game got off to a sloppy start, with multiple stops due to clock issues, and five combined turnovers, but Cornell got out to a 7-3 lead at the 6:44 mark, thanks to a trey by LeDuc, followed by a steal and a fast break layup from Moran.
 
From there, the Cornell defense turned up the pressure and a pair of transition buckets by Moran and LeDuc opened up a 15-2 run over the final 6:47 of the first quarter to put the Big Red up, 22-5 at the first break. In total, Cornell forced SFU into 10 first quarter turnovers.
 
"I was really proud of that defensive effort," said Dayna Smith, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "They're a dynamic team and I think they're a very emotional team. We really wanted to start it off strong, set the tone, and not let them get excited. We weren't able to duplicate that the whole game but the first quarter set the tone for us."   
 
After three quick fouls on the Big Red to open the second quarter, the Red Flash scored nine unanswered points to get back to single-digits (22-14), before back-to-back baseline jumpers by Moran and Marie Hatch pushed Cornell's lead back to 12 (26-14) with just over five minutes to play before the half.
 
From there, the teams traded baskets, with a layup from Marshall at the buzzer sending the visitors into the intermission with a 32-19 lead.
 
The Red Flash cut back into Cornell's lead early in the third, getting within single-digits once again on an offensive put back by Kovatch at the 6:19 mark, but a layup by Maddy Reed pushed the Big Red's lead back to 10 points (38-28) with 5:10 to go in the third quarter.
 
SFU had another push in it and a traditional three-point play from Samiah Bethel made it a six-point game (42-36), but consecutive layups from Danielle Jorgenson opened up a 7-2 run to close the quarter with Cornell leading, 49-38.  
 
Marshall scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to push Cornell's lead to 15 and start wild 10 minutes of action that saw the teams trading big shot after big shot. SFU got within single digits five times, but each time Cornell had an answer. Eventually, the Red Flash got consecutive buckets, including a trey from Kovatch, to open up a 9-2 run and cut the Big Red's lead to six points, 71-65, with less than three minutes to play, but Cornell responded with down the stretch and held on for the 78-72 victory.
 
"Last year at our place it was the same thing," said Smith. "We had a big lead and they came back. With the scorers they have they're in every game until the last minute. So we talked about expecting runs and not getting down or overwhelmed by the moment and I thought we did that tonight." 
 
The Big Red returns home to take on Drexel in the final game prior to the University's two-week exam break on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 1 p.m.