CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A surging Harvard women's basketball team won its fourth straight, edging the Big Red, 68-63, this evening in Lavietes Pavilion. The game was tightly contested throughout, with 15 ties and six lead changes, before the Crimson scored seven unanswered points to close the third and open the fourth period to take a lead it would not relinquish.
 
Megan LeDuc made it a one-point game (58-57) with a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:50 to play in the contest, but Kit Metoyer responded on the Crimson's next trip down the court to keep Cornell at bay.
 
Cornell (13-11, 5-5) was led by Nia Marshall's 16 points and nine rebounds, while Maddie Campbell finished with 10 points and eight boards. With her nine rebounds, Marshall becomes just the second player in Cornell history to amass 1,200 points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 steals and 50 blocked shots, joining Clare Fitzpatrick. Both LeDuc and Caroline Shelquist finished with nine points and accounted for the Big Red's 5-of-14 performance from beyond the arc (.357).
 
Harvard had three double-digit scorers – Shilpa Tummala (15), Metoyer (14) and AnnMarie Healy (14). Metoyer also added a team-high seven rebounds.
 
The game stats nearly as evenly matched as the final score, with Cornell shooting .385 overall (25-65) and the Crimson finishing at .377 (23-61). Harvard was better beyond the arc (.379) and had two fewer turnovers (13-11). The Big Red held the significant 46-37 edge in rebounds, but the Crimson managed to convert more second chance points (9-7).
 
Cornell got out to a quick start, going up 13-7 after a trey by LeDuc with 4:32 to go in the first period. But five straight points by Tummala made it a one-point Big Red lead (13-12) at the first intermission.
 
Trailing by one late in the second period, the Big Red got a jumper by Marshall, then forced a turnover, and answered with a trey from Shelquist. Another Crimson turnover, this time in the form of an offensive foul by Tummala, led to a layup from Moran that put the visitors up by six once again (30-24) with 3:05 to go before halftime. But just as they had done at the end of the first, the Crimson closed the second on an 8-2 run and the teams went into the break knotted at 32-32.
 
The teams traded baskets throughout the third, with neither going up by more than three points, but a single made free throw by Healy put the home team up, 47-44, a lead the Crimson extended at the start of the fourth to eight points (54-46) with 7:52 to play.
 
A layup from Marshall ended the run and a pair of made free throws by Marisa Knox made it a three-point game (54-51). Harvard pushed its lead to five twice more before LeDuc's 3-pointer at the 3:50 mark brought the Big Red within one-point.   
 
The Big Red returns to Ithaca to play its final regular season home games, and honor its lone senior – Maddie Campbell – next weekend when it welcomes Penn and Princeton to Newman Arena.  Cornell takes on the Quakers on Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m., before facing the Tigers on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.