BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team got off to a fast start in its season opener at Binghamton, but a tough whistle for Cornell, coupled with a 60% three-point shooting night by the Bearcats helped the home team comeback to earn the 72-61 victory this evening at the Events Center.
Junior transfer Laura Bagwell-Katlinich and sophomore
Halley Miklos both finished with a career-high 14 points to lead the Big Red. Miklos also finished with a game-high nine rebounds to help Cornell to a 35-28 advantage on the boards.
Samantha Widmann and
Danielle Jorgenson chipped in nine points apiece before both fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Freshman
Theresa Grace Mbanefo was impressive in her first career action with eight points and seven rebounds in just 10 minutes of action.
Binghamton improved to 2-0 on the season thanks to Kai Moon's 22 points, which included a 15-of-15 performance from the foul line. Rebecca Carmody (14) and Lizzy Spindler (11) also finished in double-digits, with Carmody pulling down a team-high seven rebounds.
In total, the Bearcats scored 23 points off of free throws (23-of-26) and connected on 9-of-15 treys to overcome a slow start.
Cornell shot .439 from the floor (25-57) but hit just .222 from beyond the arc (4-18). The Big Red also took far fewer free throws, connecting on 7-of-10 from the charity stripe.
The Big Red used some tough defense to hold Binghamton scoreless for the first 4:42 of the contest and jumped out to a 9-3 lead with just over five minutes to play in the first quarter. Widmann was on fire early on hitting her first three shots to account for seven of the Big Red's first nine points.
The teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter as Cornell took the 13-7 lead into the first break.
Moon opened the second quarter with a traditional three-point play and then answered a layup by
Dylan Higgins with a 3-pointer to bring the home team within two points (15-13). Cornell responded with some timely shooting, including a pair of treys from Jorgenson and a couple of highlight reel shots from Mbanefo to put the Big Red up 28-20 at the 6:05 mark.
The Bearcats took advantage of four consecutive Cornell fouls over a span of 1:28 late in the quarter to knot the score at 31-31 on a Carmody free throw at the 2:12 mark. Binghamton took its first lead of the game a moment later (33-31) on a steal and finish by Spindler before taking the 35-33 advantage into halftime.
Consecutive buckets to open the third quarter by Miklos and Bagwell-Katalinich restored the lead to the visitors (37-35) but foul trouble continued to plague the Big Red and five straight made free throws put Bimghamton up, 45-39.
A layup from Widmann ended the Bearcat run, but on Cornell's next possession her fourth foul sent her to the bench, where she joined Jorgenson, who had been chased from the game moments earlier with her fourth of the day.
Bagwell-Katalanich hit a tough layup to pull Cornell within 45-43 with 2:53 to go in the quarter but the Bearcats scored the final five points of the stanza to take the 50-43 lead into the final break.
The fourth quarter was all Binghamton as the home team stretched its lead into a 72-61 victory.
The home opener is on tap as the Big Red plays host to Albany at Newman Arena at 7 p.m., on Monday, Nov. 11.
