NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Cornell women's basketball team used a strong second quarter to erase Yale's early 10-point lead and stayed within a possession of the home team through most of the third, but a 7-0 run by the Bulldogs late in the game proved to be the difference. After building the seven-point lead, Yale hit 10-of-10 free throws in the final 1:12 to account for the 69-56 final.
 
Samantha Widmann and Samantha Clement lead Cornell with 15 points apiece. Widmann also registered a team-high nine rebounds, three assists and two steals, moving her into the Big Red's top 10 for steals in a single season with 56.  Cornell sophomore Reena Olsen also had the best game of her career, registering a career-high 12 points on a 5-of-6 performance from the floor.
 
Yale (14-10, 7-4 Ivy) also had three players in double-figures –Tamara Simpson (14), Jen Berkowitz (13), Roxy Baraham (12) – while Megan Gorman finished with eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
The Bulldogs shot an impressive 52.1 percent overall (25-48) but just 11.1 percent from beyond the arc (1-9), while Cornell hit just 33.9 percent from the floor (19-56) and was kept in the game by its 46.2 percent 3-point shooting (6-13). Yale had the 34-30 advantage on the board but finished with three more turnovers than the Big Red (23-20) in a game that saw a combined 43 turnovers.
 
Yale scored the first six points of the game and extended its lead to 10 points (16-6) early in the second quarter before a trey by Widmann sparked an 8-2 Cornell run. During the run, Widmann tallied seven points to make it a four-point game (18-14) at the 7:31 mark. The Bulldogs pushed its lead back to eight points with under five minutes to play in the quarter but a late rally by the visitors, which included four points from Olsen, made it a 32-28 Bulldog lead at the half.
 
Cornell completely erased the Bulldogs' advantage midway through the third quarter as a pair of free throws from Clement gave the Big Red its first lead of the contest, 36-35, with 6:08 to go in the quarter. From there the teams traded baskets the rest of the way before Mary Ann Santucci hit a layup at the buzzer to send Yale into the final break with a 48-47 lead.
 
Yale quickly pushed its lead to five points to start the fourth quarter, but back-to-back treys from Clement cut the Bulldogs' lead to 54-53 with 7:31 to play. That was as good as it would get as the Big Red went cold from the field, going 0-of-9 down the stretch.
 
Cornell (6-18, 2-9 Ivy) is back in action tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 24, at is travels to Brown for a contest at 4 p.m.