Four Big Red players notched double-digit points in Cornell’s 62-54 loss to Princeton on Saturday afternoon in Newman Arena.
Last time these two teams matched up this season, the Tigers dominated the scoring and won 72-39, but Saturday’s contest proved to be different as the Big Red kept the game within reach and only lost by eight.
The loss was largely due to the height of Princeton’s team which allowed the Tigers to come up with 35 rebounds to Cornell’s 24, giving them more opportunities at the basket as Princeton earned 14 second-chance points to the Big Red’s two. Rachel Kaus led the Big Red in rebounds with seven, Kelsey Langston notched four, Clarke Jackson and Emily Pape each had three and Paige Engels and Summer Parker-Hall had one.
Kaus led Cornell in scoring with 16 points on the afternoon. Three other Big Red scored in double digits in the game; Parker-Hall had 11, Engels and Pape each had 10. Jackson also made it on the board with four and Audrey Chen notched three points. The Tigers were led by Parker Hill who had a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
Both teams shot similarly overall with Princeton just nudging Cornell out in each category; the Tigers shot 40.8% from the field to the Big Red shot 40.4%, 26.3% to Cornell’s 21.4 percent from three and 77.3% to the Big Red’s 75% from the line.
Cornell was able to force 11 turnovers by Princeton and steal the ball twice while only turning over the ball nine times and holding Princeton to zero steals. The Big Red did struggle when it came to playing aggressive however as it earned 21 personal fouls including Parker-Hall fouling out in the fourth quarter. Princeton had 15 personal fouls on the night.
The Tigers earned more assisted baskets on the night, having a total of 13 assists to Cornell’s 11. Princeton was led in assists by Ashley Chea who had four. The Big Red were led by Langston who notched four. Lexi Green and Engels each had two assists in the game and Jackson, Kaus and Azareya Kilgoe had one.
Princeton opened the game strong coming out to an 18-5 lead with four-and-a-half minutes left in the first quarter. Parker-Hall made a layup for Cornell, but then Hill was fouled and made both free-throws for Princeton to give the Tigers a 20-9 lead at the end of the first. The second quarter opened with a three-pointer from Fatima Tall to extend Princeton’s lead to 14. Cornell answered with a ten-point run from Cornell to make it a four-point game with five minutes left in the first half. The Tigers hit two three pointers back-to-back to extend its lead to ten, but Cornell showed its grit by having Rachel Kaus make a layup and hit a free-throw to end the first half down by just seven. The third quarter was a battle of resilience as both teams traded baskets with Princeton inching out Cornell to extend its lead to ten heading into the final quarter of play. Parker-Hall opened up the fourth quarter with a layup for the Big Red. Princeton answered with a layup and made a free throw. Cornell then hit back-to-back shots to make it a seven-point game with six minutes left in regulation. Hill hit a jumper for Princeton to extend the lead to 53-44. Cornell then made two free-throws and a jump shot to cut the deficit to five before a foul would earn Princeton’s Skye Beller a free-throw to put the Tigers up 54-48 with four minutes left. Pape was able to drive to the basket and make a layup to make it a four-point game with four minutes left. The teams traded points until there was one minute left on the clock forcing Cornell to foul its way to the end of the game resulting in a 62-54 loss for the Big Red.
UP NEXT
Cornell will next buckle up for its Dartmouth/ Harvard trip where the Big Red will face the Big Green on Friday, Jan.31 at 6:00 p.m. and then head to Harvard to take on the Crimson on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 5:00 p.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].