HANOVER, N.H. – Trailing to Dartmouth by three points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Big Red women's basketball team dominated the final 10 minutes of the game, holding Dartmouth without a field goal for the first six minutes as it pulled away for the 57-47 victory. With the win, its first at Leede Arena since 2014, coupled with Princeton's victory over Yale, the Big Red clinches the final spot in the 2019 Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament.
"We just got better as the season went on," said
Dayna Smith, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach. "This group believed in themselves and what we were telling them they were capable of doing. I'm just really, really proud of them and I'm so happy that they get to experience the Ivy League Tournament."
Cornell (12-13, 6-8) was led by
Laura Bagwell-Katalinich and
Samantha Widmann, who each finished with a game-high 15 points. Widmann also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, while Bagwell-Katalinch pulled down six.
Dylan Higgins was the third Big Red in double-digits, chipping in 10 points, with eight coming in the decisive second half.
Dartmouth (13-14, 6-8) was led by Katie Douglas' 10 points.
The Big Red held the 33-29 edge in rebounds and while both teams finished with 18 turnovers, the Big Red registered 13 steals, with four from
Kate Sramac, resulting in a 20-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
Cornell connected on three of its first four shots of the game and stormed out to a 12-2 lead on a traditional three-point play by Widmann at the 4:10 mark of the first quarter, but Dartmouth hit three treys down the stretch to close the gap, 12-11, at the first break.
The home team picked up right where the left off, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to open the second quarter and take its first lead of the game, 17-12, at the 7:44 mark. Cornell head coach
Dayna Smith called a timeout and made the defensive adjustment from zone to man-to-man, slowing the 3-point barrage.
"When they hit the fifth 3-pointer we made the switch to man-to-man," said Smith." We had planned on making the switch at some point during the game, but it was a little sooner than we wanted to. We also shifted Sam [Widmann] to the guard position and that shifted the momentum of the game. On offense she was able to get some baskets against mismatches, but defensively she's very aggressive on the perimeter. That was big for us."
Danielle Jorgenson hit a driving layup to get Cornell its first bucket of the second quarter at the 5:14 mark and moments later Higgins hit a layup to make it a five-point game (21-16). The Big Red continued to chip away at the lead and trailed by two (24-22) when
Halley Miklos hit a reverse layup with 50 seconds to go in the second before Dartmouth hit a pair of free throws to take the 26-22 lead at halftime.
Cornell opened the third quarter on a 7-2 run, punctuated by a steal and finish by Jorgenson to restore the 29-28 lead to the Big Red at the 5:25 mark, but a trey from Isalys Quinones on Dartmouth's next possession handed the lead back to the home team. Higgins knotted the game at 31 apiece with a strong drive to the hoop at the 3:58 mark, but from there Dartmouth closed the quarter on a 6-2 run to take a 37-34 lead into the final break.
Bagwell-Katalinich scored the first bucket of the final quarter before Widmann came up with a steal and the finish to put Cornell up, 38-37 with just over nine minutes to play in the game. The defense continued to make big stop after big stop and the Big Red eventually pushed its lead to double-digits on a pair of free throws from Widman (48-37) with 5:15 to play.
"We played very smart, sound team defense," said Smith. "I thought our penetration defense was really good. I thought we did a nice job of limiting Isalys Quinones. Going man-to-man helped with the rebounding and with limiting their 3-point shooting, which we knew was a big strength of theirs."
Dartmouth finally hit its first field goal of the quarter at the 4:03 mark, and made it two in a row on its next trip down the court to get within seven, 50-43, but Cornell continued to play lock down defense and hit 7-of-10 free throws down the stretch to earn the 57-47 victory.
The Ivy League Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments presented by TIAA will take place Saturday-Sunday, March 16-17, at John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn. Cornell will play the one-seed Princeton at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 16 in the first women's semifinal.
For tickets and more information,
click here.
