The Cornell women’s red-hot-shooting Big Red built a big lead over Penn and held on for a 62-58 win Friday night at the Palestra – breaking a 16-game losing streak to the Quakers, climbing to 3-3 in league play and taking another step on the road to relevance in the Ivies.
Just six days after a nightmare of a 46-point loss to Harvard, Cornell led for all but a brief stretch early in the first quarter – a quarter Cornell players should relive in their dreams for years to come.
They set the pace, moved the ball smoothly and shot the lights out: They scored 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting – 60% — including 3-for-4 on threes, and they had assists on seven of their nine baskets.
For the rest of the night, Penn made repeated runs to within a handful of points but never caught Cornell.
The Big Red had a 9-0 run in the third quarter to build its biggest lead at 47-31, then hit a seven-minute scoring drought thanks mostly to turnovers forced by a persistent Penn defense. The Quakers scored 12 straight, and for the night they benefited from 14 Big Red turnovers. But Cornell kept setting up good shots inside and out, finishing the night hitting 48% of them, and 47% from deep. Those are almost always winning numbers.
Senior Emily Pape led the scoring for Cornell, as she often does, this time on 8-for-15 shooting for 20 points; junior Rachel Kaus nearly matched her with 6-for-12 shooting and 18 points.
Penn junior guard Mataya Gayle did match Pape with 20 points of her own on 8-for-16 shooting, including 4-for-9 from deep. And sophomore Katie Collins had a double-double with 12 rebounds and 13 points for Penn, including two baskets in a last-minute surge that got the Quakers within three but no closer, as Cornell players hit their last four foul shots to seal the win.
The first half of the Ivy season wraps up Saturday. Cornell (8-11, 3-3 Ivy) faces Princeton (17-2, 5-1), which is smarting from its loss at home to Columbia. Penn (12-7, 2-4) will host the Lions (14-5, 5-1) at the Palestra.