The women's basketball team (3-21, 1-9 Ivy league) traveled to New York this past weekend to take on Columbia and Cornell. The Bears fell 88-57 on Friday night to the Lions of Columbia (13-11, 6-4 Ivy), then dropped a 68-58 contest to the Cornell Big Red (9-13, 5-5 Ivy).
Columbia 88, Brown 57
As the first half ended, the Bears were lagging 49-27, and were unable to close the gap in the second half.
Columbia's superior rebounding performance was a major factor as the Lions out-rebounded Bruno 47-27. Columbia's Judie Lomax, the nation's leading rebounder, grabbed 17 boards in the game - only ten less than the entire Brown team.
"Columbia is a very strong team with a solid inside presence on both ends of the court, but we worked extremely hard as a team to fight for every board and to contest each shot," said Shae Fitzpatrick '10.
Fitzpatrick led the Bears in the first half with nine points, including two three-pointers. The Lions started the second half on a 14-5 run to extend their lead to 30 with 15 minutes remaining. The Lions ended the game with 88 points to Brown's 57.
Columbia shot 51 percent from the field in the game, also shooting well from behind the arc. For the Bears, Fitzpatrick finished the game with 13 points. Sarah Delk '11 and Christina Johnson '10 each grabbed five rebounds for the game.
"Columbia shot well from the floor, and when you are on the road in front of a packed house, it is as if you are already working to overcome a deficit," Fitzpatrick said. "As a team, we had a good offensive performance, working well to get each other open and capitalize on our individual strengths."
Cornell 68, Brown 58
The game on Saturday night was tightly contested, though it ended with the Bears on the losing end.
Just five minutes in, the game was already proving to be a close match-up. Karly Grace '11 contributed to the Bears' offensive play, knotting the game at 10 early on. Brown and Cornell dueled for the lead, but the Bears ended the first half with a two-point advantage, 32-30.
"Our focus going into the game was to contain 23 (Lauren Benson) and 53 (Shannon Scarselletta), and the emphasis was on getting three defensive stops in a row as many times as possible," said Courtney Lee '10. "So doing both of those things allowed us to stay focused, which kept it a close game."
The Bears started the second half on a 9-2 run to take a 41-32 lead in the first three minutes. With just over four minutes remaining in the game, Cornell was able to take the lead for the first time in the second half. The Big Red tacked on an extra jumper to take a three-point lead, forcing Brown to start fouling in the last minutes of the game. Clutch free throws from Cornell continued to build the lead at the end of the game to put Brown away after a close match. The game ended with Cornell on top, 68-58.
"In the last part of the second half, we lost our focus of three stops in a row," Lee said.
Lee led the Bears with 13 points and six rebounds, followed by Fitzpatrick and Delk with 12 points each. Although the Bears were once again out-rebounded, 37-29, Betsy Jacobson '11 was able to pull down a team-high eight.
"We played some great team ball and executed at both ends of the floor. Of course, we certainly wish we could have made the long trip home with a victory, but we showed great resiliency and fight on the weekend," Fitzpatrick said.
Next weekend the Bears will play their final home games of the season, hosting Princeton (9-14, 4-5) on Friday and Penn (6-17, 3-6) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Pizzitola Center.
