PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The irons at the Palestra proved to be unkind to the Big Red women's basketball team, as the visitors scored a season low 34 points, falling to Ivy League leader Penn, 47-34, this evening. Despite the loss, Cornell (14-10, 5-6 Ivy) remains in fourth place in the Ivy League standings thanks to Dartmouth's upset of Brown in Providence.
 
Cornell was led by Megan LeDuc with 13 points and seven rebounds. Senior Nia Marshall had a 13-game double-digit streak halted, but still had a solid all-around game with eight points, five rebounds, three blocked shots, one steal and one assist. Kerri Moran matched LeDuc's team-high with seven rebounds to go along with five points and three assists.
 
Penn (16-7, 9-1) was led by Michelle Nwokedi, who was the only player other than LeDuc to finish the game in double-figures, with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The 47 points scored by the home team matched a season-low for the Quakers as well.
 
The Big Red shot just .235 percent from the floor (12-51) and a mere .176 from 3-point range (3-17), but Penn didn't fare much better, connecting on just .365 percent overall (19-52) and .294 percent from beyond the arc (5-11). Neither team hit a field goal over the final 7:51 of the contest, with just two made free throws from Marshall moving the scoreboard during that time.
 
Both teams grabbed 37 rebounds but Cornell finished with five more turnovers than the Quakers (13-8).
 
Cornell went 0-of-5 to start the game and didn't get its first points of the contest until Moran hit a pull up jumper 4:53 into the first quarter. Despite the slow start, the Big Red was still in it thanks to some tough defense and key rebounding and scored six unanswered to cut Penn's lead to one-point (7-6).
 
After back-to-back layups from Ashley Russell pushed Penn's lead to 11-6, Moran knocked down a trey from the top of the key and Marshall blocked a last second Quaker shot to send the teams into the first break with Cornell trailing, 11-9.
 
Penn used another strong start, scoring the first 11 points of the second quarter to extend its lead to double-digits (22-9), with eight points coming from Nwokedi. Marshall ended the run with an elbow jumper at the 6:20 mark and the teams traded baskets, including a buzzer-beater by Maddy Reed that cut Penn's lead to 28-17 at halftime.
 
The Quakers extended their lead to 18 points (40-22) at the 6:15 mark of the third but Cornell closed the quarter on a 7-1 run to get within 12 points at the final break.
 
Trailing 41-29 at the start of the fourth quarter, LeDuc converted a traditional three-point play on Cornell's first possession to get the visitors within single digits (41-32) but Kasey Chambers responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to  push Penn's lead back to 15 points with just under eight minutes to play, sealing the victory for the Quakers.
 
The Big Red is back in action tomorrow when it takes on Princeton at Jadwin Gymnasium at 6 p.m.