NEW YORK – The Cornell women's basketball team (6-9, 1-3) showed its resiliency against Columbia (12-3, 3-0), battling back from a 24-point deficit to cut the Lions' lead to as few as two, but Columbia was able to fight off the Big Red, as Cornell fell to the Lions, 57-46, on Thursday night at Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium in New York.
The Big Red was led in the loss by Ania McNicholas, who posted her first-career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. McNicholas paced Cornell in points, rebounds, and assists on Thursday night, dishing out three helpers. Samantha Will also scored 11 points, marking the first time this season and the second of her career that she has scored in double-figures in back-to-back games. Will added five boards on the night as well.
Shannon Mulroy chipped in eight points, sharing the team-high in assists with McNicholas with three and pulling down three rebounds. Lexi Green scored six points in what was her first-career start while corralling a career-high seven boards.
The first half was a tale of two quarters, with the first belonging to Columbia. Columbia came out of the gates hot, running out to an 11-0 lead over the first 2:35 of play, including shooting a perfect 3-of-3 from behind the arc to open the contest. The Lions kept its foot on the gas from there, leading by as many as 24 points and holding Cornell without a field goal until Mia Beam drained a 3-pointer with 1:39 remaining in the first quarter. A Mulroy trey followed shortly after, but Cornell found itself down by 19, 26-7, after the opening period of play.
After a first quarter that saw the Big Red commit seven turnovers and shoot just 16.7 percent from the floor as compared to Columbia's 53.3 percent, it would have been easy for Cornell to hang its head. Instead, it lit a fire underneath Cornell, whose resiliency was on display. The Big Red turned the tables, outscoring the Lions, 17-3, in the second quarter and holding Columbia to a lone field goal for the entire quarter. The Lions shot just 6.7 percent from the floor in the second, while Cornell shot 50.0.
Back-to-back Will lay-ups to open the second quarter laid the groundwork for Cornell's success, and Green and Mulroy, among others, followed suit. Green scored all six of her points for the contest in the second and Mulroy added four, as the trio combined for 14 of Cornell's 17 second quarter points. The Big Red trailed by just five, 29-24, at the half.
McNicholas kept the momentum going out of the locker room, draining a 3-pointer just seven seconds into the second half to get Cornell within two, 29-27. The basket capped off a 26-4 run for the Big Red from the 38 second mark in the first quarter.
Columbia's Kitty Henderson, who finished the contest with a game-high 18 points, would take over from here, however, single-handedly putting together a 9-0 run for the Lions over the next two minutes of play to extend its lead back to 11, 38-27, with 7:52 remaining in the third.
Cornell regained traction, holding Columbia scoreless for the next three and a half minutes and going on a 7-0 run of its own to get back within four, 38-34. Kaya Ingram knocked down three big free throws in the run, and Will and Theresa Grace Mbanefo added baskets.
The Big Red got as close as three, 42-39, with 2:54 remaining in the third quarter after another McNicholas 3-pointer, but Columbia closed the quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 10-point lead, 49-39, into the fourth quarter. The Big Red hung around in the fourth, but was unable to surge through, as Columbia maintained separation and went on to the 57-46 victory.
In addition to Columbia's Henderson's 18 points, Kaitlyn Davis added 10 to go along with a game-high 18 rebounds for a double-double. Davis also added a team-high five assists.
The Cornell women's basketball team will be back in action when it goes head-to-head with Harvard on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass.
