ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team used a tremendous defensive effort to defeat Canisius, 60-43, this evening in Newman Arena. With the win, Cornell improves to 7-3 overall, its best start since the 1999-2000 season.
 
The senior guard tandem of Megan LeDuc and Kerri Moran led the Big Red. LeDuc finished with a game-high 17 points to go along with three assists and two steals. She connected on three 3-pointers, moving into seventh place in Cornell history with 111 for her career. Moran had 12 points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals, and no turnovers despite a scrappy and aggressive Canisius backcourt.
 
Freshman Samantha Widmann was solid off the bench with eight points and eight rebounds, while Nicholle Aston finished with eight points and six rebounds.
 
Additionally, senior Nia Marshall and freshman Maddy Reed put on a defensive clinic, holding the Griffs' leading scorer, Sara Hinriksdottir to 10 points fewer than her season average. For the game, Marshall finished with eight points, a game-high nine rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals, while Reed chipped in two rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.
 
Canisius (2-9) didn't have a single player score more than six points, as the team was led by Margaret Halfdanardottir and Maria Welch. The visitors saw nearly half of its points (20) come from bench players, as 11 of the 12 Griffs that saw action got into the scorebook.
 
After a slow start, Cornell shot 47.6 percent in the second half, including a mark of 71.4 percent from beyond the arc (5-7), to finish the game at 38 percent overall (38.0) and 35.3 percent from 3-point range (6-17). The Big Red assisted on 14-of-19 baskets.
 
The home team held Canisius to just 29.2 percent overall (14-48) and a mere 19 percent from beyond the arc (4-21), as the Griffs assisted on just 5-of-14 buckets.
 
Cornell also held the 37-30 edge in rebounds and had three fewer turnovers (9).
 
The game was relatively close throughout the first half, with the Griffs managing to stay within four points until a jumper by Moran, followed by a pair of made free throws by Widmann with 5:03 to go before the intermission put the Big Red up by  seven points (20-13).
 
Canisius made a late run to get back within three points with under two minutes to play in the half, but 10 unanswered points to close the second and open the third quarter was part of a 15-2 run that put the game out of reach (38-22) at the 6:27 mark.
 
The Griffs never got closer than 14 points over the remaindering quarter-and-a-half as the Big Red rolled to the 60-43 victory.
 
The Big Red will play its final game of 2016 when it closes the year at Stony Brook on Friday, Dec. 30 at 1 p.m.