And then there were two.
Last weekend, the five senior starters on the women’s basketball team (9-16, 4-8 Ivy) put together a stellar performance against Princeton to close out their careers on the East Hill with a 71-61 win over the Tigers. This weekend, Cornell travels to New Haven and Providence, where these seniors will finish off their Ivy League careers on the road in two heated conference match-ups.
The first of the two final games will be Cornell vs. Yale (6-19, 3-9). The Elis have been consistently at the bottom of the conference standings all season long, but have had a few surprisingly good performances, including wins over fourth place Harvard and second place Dartmouth.
The last time Cornell met Yale, the Red was trailing 32-27 after the Elis had controlled the first half. The Elis shot 46 percent from field goal range and 36 percent from behind the three-point arc. In addition, Yale’s ability to get scoring from a wide range of players off the bench hurt Cornell throughout the game. However, the Red made one of its classic comebacks in the second half, scoring 43 points to take a 70-63 win.
Tomorrow, the Red will head to Providence to face Brown (13-12, 9-3), who, in contrast to Yale, has consistently been near the top of the Ivy League standings all season long. The last time these two teams met, the Red endured dominating performances by Brown guard Tanara Golston, who put up 17 points and six rebounds, and forward Nyema Mitchell, who scored 15 points in addition to collecting five blocks and seven rebounds. The Bears won that game, 69-56.
The Red also suffered early in the first half in that contest, giving up 43 points by the time the halftime buzzer sounded. So, in addition to failing to contain Golston and Mitchell, arguably Brown’s two biggest threats, the Red was unable to play team defense on the whole, particularly in the first half.
For Cornell’s five starting seniors, this will be their last chance to prove themselves against two familiar foes. The Red meets Yale at 7:00 p.m. tonight and Brown at the same time tomorrow.
Archived article by Michael Pandolfini