PHILADELPHIA – For the second night in a row, the Big Red women's basketball team fought back from a double-digit deficit to get within striking distance, but could not overtake Ivy League leader Penn, as the Quakers made 6-of-8 free throws over the final 1:04 to secure the 69-58 victory.
 
Junior Laura Bagwell-Katalinich tallied 20+ points for the second night in a row and the seventh time this season, finishing with 22 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Classmate Samantha Widmman tallied 17 points for her 12th double-digit game of the season, to go along with nine rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal.   
 
Penn (18-4, 8-1 Ivy) was led by Princess Aghayere's 23-point, 10-rebound double-double, while Ashley Russell (17), Phoebe Sterba (13) and Eleah Parker (10) also finished in double-digits.
 
With the two top scoring defenses in the Ivy League squaring off, points were at a premium, as both teams shot below 40 percent. Cornell connected on 37.3 percent overall (22-59) and just 25 percent from beyond the arc (3-12). The Quakers hit 39.7 from the floor (25-63) and 32 percent from 3-point range (8-25).
 
Penn outrebounded Cornell 41-35, including an 18-14 advantage on offensive boards to give Penn a 15-6 edge in second change points. Both teams finished with 13 turnovers but once again the Quakers were able to capitalize with a 20-13 advantage in points off turnovers.
   
The teams battled to six ties through the first six minutes of the contest before a layup by Aghayere opened up a 6-0 Quaker run to put the home team up, 19-13, at the 3:12 mark. The Big Red responded with a five unanswered points from Bagwell-Katalinch (3) and Widmann (2) to make it a one-point game, but the home team pushed its lead back to five points, 23-18, at the first break.   
 
Cornell opened the second quarter with six consecutive points from Bagwell-Katalinch to retake the lead, 24-23, with 6:46 to go before half time. The visitors pushed their lead to three points after a jumper by Halley Miklos and a pair of made free throws from Samantha Clement, but Penn knocked down three connective treys, including two from Sterba, to regain the six-point advantage (34-28) with just over four minutes to go in the quarter. The Big Red used another 5-0 run, which included Samantha Will's first trey of the game, to get back within a single-point, 37-36, but once again the home team responded to take the 41-36 lead into halftime.
 
The Quakers pushed their lead to double-digits (51-40) for the first time on a layup from Michae Jones midway through the third quarter, but Cornell fought back to get within four points twice down the stretch before a bucket from Parker with 15 seconds showing on the clock gave Penn the 55-49 lead at the final break.
 
Cornell used one final push early in the fourth quarter to make it a 58-53 contest after back-to-back layups from Widmann with 6:32 to play. Neither team would score again for nearly four minutes before Parker hit a layup to make it a seven-point contest. From there, the Big Red was forced to foul and the Quakers connected on 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch to account for the 69-58 victory.
 
The Big Red returns to Newman Arena for its final home games of the season when it plays host to Yale and Brown on Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3, respectively. Friday's 6 p.m. game against the