ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's basketball team trailed Yale by three points at the half but used a dominant third quarter, outscoring the visitors 23-8 to take a lead it would not relinquish as it rolled to a 66-56 victory this evening in Newman Arena. The win gives Cornell its second sweep of the Bulldogs in the last three seasons and improves the Big Red to 10-12 overall (4-7 Ivy).  
 
Laura Bagwell-Katalinich finished with a career-high 26 points, reaching double-digits in her 18th consecutive game, and tallied 13 rebounds for her sixth career double-double. The junior forward also registered a career-high five assists in 33 minutes of action. Samantha Widmann was solid, despite playing only 22 minutes due to foul trouble, chipping in eight points, while Kate Sramac had seven points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
 
Cornell received contributions up and down the line up as Caitlyn Smith and Halley Miklos both chipped in seven points. Smith added three rebounds, two assists and one steal, while Miklos grabbed six boards and had three steals. Danielle Jorgenson proved to be a workhorse, playing the entire game and finishing with six points and three assists with no turnovers.
 
Yale (15-11, 5-6 Ivy) was led by Roxy Barahman's 18 points, while Robin Gallagher came off the bench to finish with 13.
 
The Big Red won the game on the boards and with its defense. Cornell held the significant 41-34 rebounding advantage, limiting Yale to just eight offensive boards for a 12-3 edge in second chance points. Cornell also forced the Bulldogs into 19 turnovers with 11 steals, resulting in a 22-14 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
The visitors shot the ball extremely well, hitting 44 percent from the floor (22-50) and 33.3 percent from 3-point range (6-18), while Cornell connected on just 30 percent overall (18-60) and 23.1 percent from beyond the arc (3-13). But the Big Red got a significant boost from the free throw line, making 27-of-34 attempts, including an 8-of-10 performance in the final 50 seconds of the game.
 
The game featured 11 ties and 13 lead changes in the first half of play, but Bagwell-Katalinich scored the first six points of the third quarter and Jorgenson capped the Big Red's run with a trey to take back Cornell's lead for good at 39-33.
 
The home team stretched its advantage to 12 points when Miklos hit a pair of free throws to end the third quarter and send the Big Red into the final break leading, 53-41.
 
Yale, who held a similar lead late in the game against Cornell in New Haven two weeks ago, only to see it disappear into a Big Red victory, looked to reverse the roles with one last push and a trey by Gallagher with 1:11 showing on the clock cut Cornell's advantage to just five points (58-53), but after a series of fouls to get the home team in the bonus, Smith knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Big Red some breathing room at 60-53.
 
The Bulldogs made it a five-point game once again on a 3-pointer from Tori Andrew with 32 seconds to play, but Jorgenson made a free throw before Dylan Higgins snuck into a passing lane and stole Yale's ensuing inbounds pass. The junior was fouled and sank both her free throws to put the Big Red up by eight points with 20 seconds to play.
 
Cornell's defense came up big once more and Bagwell-Katalinich capped the scoring with a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to hand the Big Red the 66-56 victory.
 
The Big Red is back in action tomorrow when it welcomes Brown and honors the team's lone senior – Samantha Clement – at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 2 in Newman Arena.