ITHACA, N.Y. – Seniors Samantha Widmann and Laura Bagwell-Katalinich each had double-doubles and the Cornell women's basketball team wore down a smaller East Tennessee State squad after halftime to run away with a 71-43 victory on Saturday afternoon at Newman Arena. The Big Red improved to 7-5, while the Buccaneers slipped to 5-10.
With Saturday's victory, Cornell secured a winning non-conference record for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. Even more impressive, Dayna Smith, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, is now just five wins away from reaching 200 for her career.
Cornell's success on Saturday afternoon stemmed from a dominating effort on the boards, an area in which the Big Red has excelled all-season long. Cornell out-rebounded the Bucs, 51-23, corralling nearly two times the rebounds that ETSU did and posting its highest rebound total as a team so far this season. The Big Red shined particularly on the offensive glass, securing 23 offensive boards as compared to ETSU's six. Cornell made the Bucs pay for its lapses on the glass, as the Big Red scored 20 second chance points while holding ETSU to five.
Widmann led Cornell's one-sided rebounding effort, posting a career-high 17 rebounds to go along with 15 points, five steals, and three assists, securing her third double-double of the season. With her 15 points today, Widmann is just now 20 points away from amassing 1,000 for her Big Red career.
Bagwell-Katalinich also notched a double-double, tallying 16 points and 10 boards. With Widmann and Bagwell-Katalinich both posting double-doubles, this marks the first time since the 2016 season that Cornell has had two players accomplish this feat in the same game. The pair is the first to do so since Nia Marshall (15 pts., 10 rebs.) and Nicholle Aston (10 pts., 12 rebs.) did so in a 71-62 win over Delaware State on Jan. 6, 2016.
Kate Sramac was the third double figure scorer for the Big Red with 12 points, marking the second-straight contest that the junior guard has notched double-figures. Sramac continues to be a clutch scorer for the Big Red, as she knocked down three buckets in the first half late into the Cornell shot clock, helping the Big Red put points on the board in possessions that initially looked like it would come away empty handed. She helped Cornell stay afloat offensively while it worked to find its rhythm in the first half.
Several other Big Red guards in addition to Sramac made their presence known, as Shannon Mulroy was credited with eight points and Dylan Higgins had seven. Senior point guard Danielle Jorgenson helped create opportunities for Cornell, recording a game-high five assists and four steals in the Big Red victory.
Cornell was sharp after trailing 17-14 at the end of one in their final non-conference test of the season. The Big Red grabbed the lead a little more than two minutes into the second quarter and never relinquished it.
After heading to the half with a narrow 28-25 lead, the Big Red opened the third quarter on a 9-0 run and never looked back, outscoring the visitors 43-18 after the break and outrebounding them 33-9 in the final 20 minutes. In fact, Cornell had nearly twice as many offensive boards (17) as ETSU had total rebounds (nine) in the second half.
Micah Scheetz led ETSU with 14 points and Shynia Jackson posted 13 points and six boards. Cornell held the visitors to 32 percent shooting overall, including 24 percent (8-of-33) in the final three quarters.
The Cornell women's basketball team will be back in action when it opens Ivy League play at Columbia on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. at Levien Gymnasium in New York.
