The women’s basketball team suffered two more heartbreaking losses over the weekend, as both Harvard and Dartmouth conquered Cornell on its home court.
Head coach Dayna Smith attributed the loss mainly to poor execution and turnovers.
“In the Harvard game, we took some poor shots, and Harvard does a good job of capitalizing on that,” she said. “Our turnovers and poor shot selection gave them some easy baskets.”
However, despite the loss, several Red players still managed to put in some solid performances. Freshman guard Taylor Flynn had a particularly successful night, putting up a game-high 25 points for Cornell.
Flynn’s performance gave the team a boost, and although the Red was not victorious, Smith still expressed her approval of the freshman’s accomplishment.
“[Flynn] played very composed basketball … she was offensive minded, and she took good shots,” she said. “We’re going to need that in the future.”
On Saturday night, Cornell nearly defeated Dartmouth (9-13, 4-4 Ivy), but instead the Red fell, 64-61, to the Green in the final minutes. Though Cornell shot 45.3 percent from the floor (compared to Dartmouth’s 39.3 percent), the Red lost its momentum in the end, and failed to execute on a few critical plays. As the clock wound down, Dartmouth’s Margaret Smith was fouled and sent to the free throw line, where she made both shots. After that, a traveling call sent the ball back to the Green with very little time left to play. Finally, on the Red’s last possession, an inbounds pass was deflected to the backcourt, ruining any chance for a final Cornell shot.
“We missed open shots down the stretch … and Dartmouth was able to go on a nice run,” Smith said. “We just didn’t knock the shots down, but Dartmouth did.”
Taylor Flynn credited both of the Red’s opponents with having strong versatility.
“With both teams, knowing personnel was really important,” she said. “We had to know who we were guarding, what their strong points were … and every person was totally different.”
Although the two losses were tough to handle, the struggling Cornell team refuses to give up.
“This weekend we still made critical mistakes at critical moments,” Smith said. “But there was improvement as a team, and you have to take the positives wherever you can.”
Flynn also emphasized that the team is doing its best to remain positive.
“We all came into this weekend with the mindset that we had a really big opportunity to win, and maybe turn our season around a little bit,” she said. “But we’ve just got to keep pushing through this and know that with what we’re doing we’ll eventually get out of this slump.”
Original Author: Hannah Fillas