EMMITTSBURG, Md. -- The Cornell women's basketball team finished its four-game road trip to open its 2023-24 campaign with a 54-47 win over Mount St. Mary's (Md.) Saturday night from Knott Arena. The Big Red improved to 2-2 (0-0 Ivy), while the Mountaineers fell to 1-2 (0-0 MAAC). 

Senior Kaya Ingram led the Big Red offense with 15 points and five rebounds. Upperclassmen counterpart Mia Beam was right behind Ingram with 11 points. Summer Parker-Hall had seven points and five boards to round out the top scorers for Cornell, who outrebounded Mount St. Mary's 33-26 in the victory. 

Jo Raflo had a career night for the Mountaineers, netting a career-high 26 points on nine of 13 shooting, including eight three-pointers. Jessica Tomasetti also had six points and a game-high seven rebounds for the Mount, who fall to 0-3 all-time against the Big Red dating back to the team's first matchup during the 2004-05 season.

FIRST QUARTER

• An administrative technical was administered to Mount St. Mary's before the opening tip. Summer Parker-Hall drilled the free throw to put the Big Red up 1-0. 
• Kaya Ingram drove to the basket and forced the foul call on Jessica Tomasetti, knocking down both from the charity stripe to extend Cornell's lead to 3-0.
• The Mountaineers would tie it up at three on the next trip down the offensive end, as Jo Raflo knocked down the first three-pointer of the night. 
• Both teams traded misses until Mia Beam found Emily Pape alone for her first three of the evening, putting Cornell back up by three. 
• Cornell would continue to crash the boards early as Beam cleaned up a missed jumper by Pape and forced a foul call. The senior knocked down both to give Cornell a 7-3 advantage. Pape would then follow up with a jumper to give Cornell its largest lead of the first at 10-3.  
• Mount St. Mary's would claw back, as back-to-back threes by Raflo cut the Big Red's lead to one.
• Both teams would go a minute without a bucket until Beam picked up a steal and went coast-to-coast with a layup, putting Cornell back in front. Raflo and Beam would continue to be the hot hands for their respective sides, as both hit three threes combined to keep the scoring knotted at 15. 
• Rachel Kaus and Azareya Kilgoe closed out the scoring for the first half, knocking down three free throws to put Cornell up 18-15 after the opening frame. 

SECOND QUARTER

• Kaya Ingram snagged the opening bucket of the second quarter, taking a Vivienne Knee pass and weaving through the Mountaineers' defense for an easy layup, extending the Big Red's lead to five. 
• Both teams' offenses struggled after the Ingram bucket, going over three minutes without a point scored. Parker-Hall would break the dry spell with two free throws at the six-minute mark left in the half, matching Cornell's largest lead.
• The Big Red defense continued to clamp down, forcing a tough Mount St. Mary's floater in the lane that came up short. Clarke Jackson would follow up the miss with a slice-and-dice layup under the basket to put Cornell up by nine. 
• Jada Lee finally broke the scoring drought of over 10 minutes by the Mountaineers, scoring three straight points to cut Cornell's lead down to six. 
• Tomasetti would head to the free throw line after a technical foul was assessed to Cornell. The senior knocked down both from the charity stripe to close the first half, but Cornell would still hold a 24-20 lead heading into the halftime break. 

THIRD QUARTER

• The Mount opened the second half with the first basket, as Raflo scored her first bucket since the opening quarter to cut Cornell's lead to two. Mount St. Mary's eventually tied the game up at 26 via a Tomasetti scoop and score after forcing Kaus' second turnover.
• A minute dry spell ensued until Mia Beam broke the stretch with her second three-pointer off the inbounds from Kilgoe, putting Cornell back up three. Raflo would respond as the floor general knocked down consecutive three-pointers to give the Mount its first lead of the night. Isabella Hunt added another three-pointer of the night to put the Mountaineers up by five, forcing a Big Red timeout.
• Cornell came out of the break energized, going on a 4-0 run to cut the deficit to one and force the Mountaineers to take a 30-second timeout. The stoppage did nothing to slow down the Big Red, as a Knee three paired with Ingram's first three-pointer of the night pushed the team ahead by three at 38-35.
• The Mount would match with another bucket to tie things up at 38 until a pull-up jumper by Kaus gave Cornell a 40-38 lead heading into the final 10 minutes. 

FOURTH QUARTER

• Both teams opened up the fourth with no points for almost three minutes until Ingram knocked down two free throws to put Cornell back up four. The senior followed that up with two more from the charity stripe about a minute later to extend the lead to six. 
• The Mount would snap its scoring drought of over five minutes with a running layup by McKenzie Matheny as part of a 6-2 run to pull within two. 
• That was as close as the Mountaineers would get in the final frame, as two Kaus free throws and a layup by Ingram helped the Big Red stay the course and secure the 52-47 victory. 

UP NEXT

• Cornell will finally open up its 2023-24 home slate as it hosts UAlbany on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 2:00 p.m. from Newman Arena.