ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team used as smothering defense and a fourth quarter run to defeat UMass Lowell, 63-54, this afternoon in Newman Arena. With the win, its third straight at Newman, Cornell improved to 2-1 on the year, while the River Hawks evened their record at 2-2.
 
Junior co-captain Samantha Widmann went 8-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to finish with a game-high 20 points, including nine in the decisive fourth quarter as Cornell turned a two-point advantage (45-43) into a double-digit lead (57-45) midway through the stanza. Widmann also tallied a team-high eight rebounds, handed out a career-high seven assists and registered four steals.
 
Danielle Jorgenson was the only other Big Red in double-digits (14), as Laura Bagwell-Katalinich chipped in seven points, and Caitlyn Smith tallied a season-high six. Jorgenson and Bagwell-Katalinich both finished with four steals and Halley Miklos added three as Cornell finished with 19 steals, the most since the Big Red posted 20 steals at Columbia on Jan. 26, 2002.
 
Cornell shots .479 overall (23-48) and .313 from 3-point range (5-16) while holding UML to .353 overall (18-51) and a mere .176 from beyond the arc. The River Hawks held the 35-28 advantage on the boards but turned the ball over 25 times under the Big Red's defensive pressure.
 
UML was led by Brianna Rudolph's 14 points, while Ren'Cla Rolling posted a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with five assists.  
 
Widmann scored the Big Red's first seven points before coming up with a steal and feeding Jorgenson for the easy lay-in to give the home team its first lead of the contest at 9-7. The teams traded buckets down the stretch before back-to-back buckets gave UML a 17-13 lead at the first break.
 
Cornell hit four of its five 3-pointers of the contest during the second quarter, including a pair by Smith late in the stanza to give the Big Red a 32-29 halftime lead.
 
The teams stayed within four points of each other throughout the third quarter, with the River Hawks taking its only lead on a traditional three-point play from Rudolph at the 4:20 mark, before a jumper from Widmann and a layup from Theresa Grace Mbanefo restored a lead the Big Red would not relinquish.
 
The fourth quarter was all Cornell as the team embarked on a 12-2 run, including five straight points from Widmann to go up, 57-45, with 4:55 to go in the contest. The River Hawks managed to cut the lead to eight points twice, and eventually got within seven (61-54) on a trey from Linda Svenne with :18 to play but a pair of Jorgenson free throws sealed the 63-54 victory.
 
Cornell is back in action with a pair of games next week as it travels to No. 25 Minnesota for a 4 p.m. EST contests on Friday, Nov. 23 before heading to Colorado State for a 2 p.m. EST contest on Sunday, Nov. 25.