PHILADELPHIA – The Drexel women's basketball team took a slim six-point lead into the final intermission but opened the fourth quarter on a 13-2 run to pull away for the 61-39 victory this afternoon over the Big Red at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.
 
Cornell (2-8) was led by Christine Ehland's 13 points. The senior forward also grabbed five rebounds, handed out two assists and registered one steal. Janee Dennis finished with nine points, while Samantha Clement and Dylan Higgins chipped in six points apiece. Freshman forward Elodie Furey grabbed a game-high eight rebound.
 
The Big Red shot just .283 from the floor (13-46), but had a season-high performance from beyond the arc to stay in the game early on, knocking down .462 percent (6-13). Cornell also assisted on 11-of-13 baskets.
 
Cornell's defense was impressive through the first 30 minutes, holding Drexel to just .333 shooting overall (15-45), but couldn't keep up the pace and the Dragons hit 8-of-11 shots in the fourth quarter to finish at .411 percent for the game (23-56) and .348 from 3-point range (8-23).
 
The home team also held the advantage in rebounds (37-32) and forced 19 Big Red turnovers with 11 steals.
 
Drexel jumped out to an 8-2 lead but the Big Red clamped down on defense and slowly worked its way back into the contest when a trey from Dennis made it a 10-7 game.
 
Another 3-pointer by Dennis early in the second quarter made it a two-point contest (12-10). The teams traded baskets before the Dragons used a 10-0 run to take a 24-12 advantage with 2:24 to play in the first half. Cornell responded and finished the half strong to make it a 24-17 game at the intermission.
 
The home team pushed its lead back to double-digits (28-17) with four straight points to open the third quarter and managed to maintain a least a six-point lead throughout the stanza, including a 37-31 advantage at the final break.
 
Drexel opened the fourth quarter with a 13-2 run and never looked back en route to the 61-39 victory.
 
The Big Red will be back in action with a pair of games in New England, facing the University of New Hampshire on Friday, Dec. 29, before closing the 2017 portion of its schedule at UMass-Lowell on Sunday, Dec. 31.