ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell sophomore Samantha Widmann grabbed a rebound off a Brown miss, drove the length of the court, and hit a layup with 1.2 seconds showing on the clock to give the Big Red women's basketball team a 70-68 victory this evening over the Bears. Widmann finished with a team-high 21 points, leading four Cornell players in double-digits.
 
Cornell (6-14, 2-5 Ivy) nearly blew its chance at victory just moments before when miscommunication lead to an unforced turnover and gave the ball to the visitors with :37 to play. Brown brought the ball upcourt and got it to Janie White in the paint, but some tough defense from Janée Dennis forced the shot off the mark and Widmann pulled down her team-high ninth rebound of the night.  
 
"Brown's a very good team and it's a unique system to play against," said head coach Dayna Smith. "I thought we played terrific basketball tonight and we finally got some offense going for us. We hit some shots early … I think we weathered the storm with their three barrage. We took care of the basketball and executed."
 
Offensively, the Big Red had its most productive night since a 71-53 win over UMass-Lowell on Dec. 31 with three additional Cornell players joining Widmann in double-digits. Christine Ehland finished two points off her career high (15) and chipped in eight rebounds, three assists and one steal, while Dennis tallied 13 points, three assists and two steals. Danielle Jorgenson also had 12 points and a team-high five assists to go along with five steals and two blocked shots.
 
Brown (13-7, 1-6 Ivy) also had four players in double-digits, led by Justine Gaziano's 25 points, while White finished with a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double.
 
Both teams shot the ball well with the Bears hitting 46.4 percent for the game (26-56) and 46.7 percent from 3-point range (7-15), while Cornell connected on 41.3 percent overall (26-63) and 38.9 percent beyond the arc (7-18). Brown had the 38-31 advantage on the board, but were forced into 14 turnovers with 10 Cornell steals, giving the home team a 22-3 advantage on points off turnovers. The Big Red turned the ball over just seven times.
 
Cornell got off to a great start, jumping out to a quick 6-0 lead just under two minutes into the contest. The Bears responded late in the quarter, scoring five unanswered, including four from Gaziano, to take its first lead of the game (19-18) at the 2:19 mark. A layup from Widmann returned the lead to the home team and a baseline jumper by Ehland at the buzzer sent Cornell into the first break with a 23-19 advantage.
 
Brown erased the Big Red's lead with the first two buckets of the second quarter, but Jorgenson stopped the run with a layup and the teams traded baskets for the next five minutes until the visitors closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 34-31 lead into the break.
 
The Bears pushed their advantage to a game-high seven points (38-31) at the 8:26 mark of the third quarter, but a trey from Jorgenson helped quell Brown's momentum. Back-to-back layups from Widman and Ehland brought Cornell within two points (42-40) and seven unanswered points late in the quarter restored the lead to the home team (49-46).
 
The teams continued to trade shots throughout the fourth quarter, with neither going up by more than three points. The final 10 minutes featured six ties, including the final stalemate when Gaziano knocked down a trey to make it a 68-68 game with :54 to play.
 
Cornell is back in action tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 10, when it hosts Yale for the team's annual Pink Zone game at 5 p.m.