ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell women's basketball team used a smothering defense to get out to a 30-17 halftime lead, and then held off a late flurry by a scrappy Columbia team, to earn a tough 60-51 victory in the Ivy League opener for both teams this morning in Newman Arena. With the win, Cornell's fifth in a row, and seventh consecutive in Newman Arena, the Big Red improves to 7-5 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
 
Despite being dormant after an unexpected 18-day break following the cancellation of its game vs. Vermont Tech, the Big Red showed no signs of rust early on, thanks in large part to Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, who hit her first five shot attempts and matched a career-high 21 points to lead all scorers. The junior forward also grabbed seven rebounds and handed out two assists. Samantha Widmann overcame a slow start to finish with a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double, to go along with three assists, three steals and four drawn charges. Theresa Grace Mbanefo chipped in eight points, while Danielle Jorgenson had five points, a career-high seven rebounds and three assists.
 
Columbia (4-10, 0-1 Ivy) was led by a trio in double-digits – Riley Casey (16), Madison Hardy (15) and Mikayla Markham (13) – and used 12 three-pointers, hitting just six shots from inside the arc, to stay in the contest.
 
The Big Red held the significant 50-33 advantage on the boards and outscored the Lions 32-8 in the paint, with a 20-7 advantage in second chance points, to earn the victory.
 
The home team shot .364 overall (24-66) but just .167 from 3-point range (3-18), while the Lions connected on .316 from the floor (18-57) and was .364 from beyond the arc (12-33).
 
Cornell got out to a hot start, shooting .583 in the first quarter (7-12), as Bagwell-Katalinich got to double-digits by the end of the quarter to stake the home team a 14-9 lead at the first break. Columbia stayed in the contest with three 3-pointers, despites going 0-of-10 form inside the arc.
 
The trend continued in the second quarter with Cornell methodically working for good shots and using solid defense to push its lead to 30-17 at halftime. The Lions shot just .143 in the second stanza, and again was held without a basket from inside the arc, relying on 3-pointers to stay in the game.
 
The roles were reversed after halftime as Columbia found some offense, and the Big Red began to falter. The Lions made it a 10-point game at the end of the third (45-35) and then opened the final stanza on a 13-2 run to take its first lead of the contest with 6:19 to play. The visitors maintained a slim lead until a trey from Caitlyn Smith restored a 52-50 advantage to the Big Red at the 2:43 mark. Moments later Widmann knocked down a tough layup to push Cornell's lead to 54-51 and from there the Big Red relied on its defense, rebounding, and solid free throw shooting to salt away the game.  
 
The Big Red completes the home-and-home series with Columbia when it travels to New York City to take on the Lions in a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday, Jan. 26.  
 
Notes To Know
• The win was the 50th over the Lions in program history, improving Cornell to 50-25 all-time vs. Columbia.
• The Big Red now has its longest winning streak (five) since taking six in a row from Dec. 30, 2014 to Jan. 30, 2015.
• Cornell now has its most consecutive home wins (seven) since winning 10 straight from Jan. 19, 2008 to Dec. 1, 2008.