ITHACA, N.Y. – For the second night in a row, the Big Red women's basketball team got an outstanding effort from seniors Megan LeDuc and Nia Marshall, but for the second night in a row it wasn't enough as Ivy unbeaten Penn escaped Newman Arena with a 61-55 victory. With 15 points, Nia Marshall became just the second player in Cornell history, and the 23rd in the history of the Ivy League to eclipse 1,600 points, now standing at 1,601 for her career.
 
"I thought Nia and Megan had a phenomenal weekend," said Dayna Smith, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball. "The really stepped up and we saw a lot of leadership and effort from them. We can build off of that."
 
LeDuc lead all scorers with 18 points, going 7-of-9 overall and 4-of-6 from 3-point range, while Marshall finished with 15 points, five rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.   
 
Penn (14-6, 7-0) was led by Anna Ross with 15 points, while Princess Aghayere chipped in 12. Forward Sydney Sipanovich finished with a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double, helping the Quakers to a significant 40-25 advantage on the boards.
 
Cornell (12-9, 3-5) shot just .392 percent overall (20-51), but was a solid .563 percent from beyond the arc (9-16), thanks to both LeDuc and a 2-of-2 performance by Caroline Shelquist. Penn was .434 percent overall and used its size to dominate the paint, outscoring the Big Red 30-12 in the lane. The Quakers hit just .278 percent from 3-point range.
 
"We play in one of o the best leagues in the nation and any night any team can win," said Smith. "We're disappointed. We knew what we needed to do. We did it maybe 50 percent of the time and when you play a good team, only doing it 50 percent of the time is going to hurt you."
 
The game was close throughout the first half with neither team going up by more than five points and Penn leading, 34-30 at the intermission. The Quakers slowly stretched their lead to 11 points (53-42) on its first basket of the fourth quarter, but Cornell made it a five-point game on consecutive treys from Shelquist with 4:19 to play.
 
On Penn's next possession, Ross hit a 3-pointer just as the shot clock buzzer sounded and after trading scores another trey from LeDuc made it a 57-53 contest, but that was as close as it would get as the Quakers hit 4-of-4 free throws down the stretch to seal the 61-55 victory.
 
The Big Red remains home and begins the second half of Ivy League play when it welcomes Dartmouth and Harvard to Newman Arena. Cornell will host the Big Green on Friday, Feb. 17 at 6 p.m., before welcoming the Crimson on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 5 p.m.