PHILADELPHIA – The Penn women's basketball team jumped out to a quick 10-point lead and never looked back as it defeated the Big Red, 68-48, this evening at the Palestra. With the win, the Quakers improve to 7-5 overall (1-1 Ivy), while Cornell slips to 4-10 on the season (0-1 Ivy).
 
Samantha Clement led the Big Red, as she finished with a career-high 23 points, knocking down 5-of-8 from 3-point range, to go along with five rebounds and one steal. Freshman Kate Sramac tallied a career-high nine points, all of which game after halftime, and Christine Ehland chipped in seven points, five rebounds, and three assists.
 
Penn's forward core of Eleah Parker (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Michelle Nwokedi (9 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six blocked shots) were outstanding, while guard Laura Whitlatch knocked down three treys en route to 11 points.
 
The Quakers connected on nearly 50 percent for the game (46.4 percent overall) and hit 34.6 percent from beyond the arc. The home team also assisted on 19-of-26 baskets. Cornell finished the game at 31.5 percent from the floor (17-54) a number bolstered by a 50 percent third quarter, and hit 42.9 percent from 3-point range (9-21), thanks in large part to Clement (5-of-9) and Sramac (3-4), who combined for 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) from beyond the arc.
 
Penn held the 39-32 edge on the boards and finished with one few turnover (20-19).
 
Cold shooting and turnovers doomed the Big Red early as the home team jumped out to a 12-2 lead just over five minutes into the contest. The Quakers pushed their lead to as many as 17 points late in the quarter, but a trey by Caroline Shelquist on the Big Red's final possession made it a 22-8 Quaker lead at the first break.
 
The teams traded turnovers and baskets early in the second quarter before 11 unanswered points gave Penn a 20-point lead (35-10) at the 3:27 mark. Back-to-back treys from Clement ended the Big Red drought, but the home team took the commanding 38-18 lead into the intermission.
 
At the half, all of Cornell's points had come from three players – Clement (8), Ehland (7), and Shelquist (3), while the Quakers had nine players in the book with at least two points.
 
After the break, Penn used a 13-0 run to go up, 51-18, before Cornell finally cracked the scoreboard with Clement's third 3-pointer of the game with just under 6:00 to go in the third. The Big Red continued to battle and closed the quarter on a 15-2 run to close the gap to 58-39 at the final break. During the run, Clement accounted for eight points, while Sramac chipped in her first six points of the game.
 
Cornell cut the Penn lead to 16 with a trey from Sramac on its first possession of the fourth quarter but back-to-back layups from Nwokedi and Parker pushed the Quaker lead back to 20-points and ended the Big Red threat.
 
Cornell is back in action tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 14 as it travels to Princeton to take on the Tigers at 4:30 p.m.