ITHACA, N.Y. – The Colgate women's basketball team benefited from an all-around team effort Thursday night as the Raiders held on for the 74-70 win over the Cornell Big Red at Newman Arena in Bartels Hall.
 
For Colgate, it was their first win against Cornell since winning on Dec. 1, 2010 and first win against the Big Red in Ithaca since Dec. 7, 2002.
 
Head coach Bill Cleary has the Raiders off to their best start since the 2009-10 season when the Raiders started 5-0.
 
Four different Raiders were in double figures led by sophomore Rachel Thompson with 13 points and nine rebounds. Tegan Graham tallied a career-high 12 points in the win while Mackenzie Carroll and Kateri Stone each added 11 points. Overall, 10 of Colgate's 12 players to see the floor scored on Thursday night.
 
Colgate dominated the first quarter with a 25-16 advantage. With the Raiders trailing 16-14, first-year Nia Ahart got a lay-up to tie the game and start the Raiders' 16-0 run that carried into the second quarter. Forward Summer King had seven points and five rebounds in the first quarter to pace the Raiders in the opening stanza.
 
The Raiders' 16-0 run carried into the first 1:35 of the second quarter and totaled a span of 4:49 before taking a 42-38 lead into. Graham picked up five of her career-high 12 points in the second quarter as the Raiders maintained their lead.
 
Both teams traded baskets for much of the third quarter before the Raiders scored six straight points to extend their second-half lead to 11 points at 60-49 with 2:59 to play in the third quarter.
 
After a Chelsey Koren layup opened up the fourth quarter to give the Raiders a 68-57 lead, Cornell went on an 11-0 run and tied the game with 3:31 to play, tying the game for the first time since it was 16-16 in the first quarter. Colgate made several big stops on defense and scored the next five points to reclaim the lead.
 
Bottom Line
• Colgate 74, Cornell 70
 
Won-Lost Records
• The Raiders improve to 2-1 on the season for their best start since the 2009-10 season
• The Big Red drop to 0-3 with the loss, their first 0-3 start since the 2010-11 season
 
Facts & Figures
• Colgate's win over Cornell was its first since Dec. 1, 2010 and first in Ithaca since Dec. 7, 2002.
• Thompson paced the Raiders with 13 points and a season-high nine rebounds in the win
• All 12 available Raiders played for the second straight game with 10 different players recording points
• Graham recorded a career-high 12 points while adding four rebounds as she logged a team-high 30 minutes for the second straight game
• Stone dropped two 3-pointers to give her 94 in her career, moving closer to 100 as well as the Top 10 in program history
• Stone had 11 points in the win
• Carroll had a season-high three 3-pointers and 11 points in 16 minutes of action
• As a team, the Raiders had their best shooting performance to date this season at 50.9 percent (27 for 53) and were 8 for 17 (47.1 percent) from three.
• Cornell's Samantha Widmann had a game-high 25 points, including a 12 for 15 day from the charity stripe
 
From the Source
Head Coach Bill Cleary
On Colgate's win over Cornell
"That was just a great team win. You can go down the line, everyone gave us something today which is who we are and who we want to be. We're very tough when we have all of our players playing like that. I'm just very proud of our players, very proud of how they responded after Monday and that's a big win for us."
 
On Contributions from Every Player
"We're going to be a tough scout because there's always somebody different that's going to be able to step up. You take Summer King out, then Rachel Thompson will step up or Tegan Graham's going to step up. Today, Nia Ahart's numbers don't reflect what she did, but she was sick as a dog and gave us everything she had. That's who we are, who we want to be and hope it's what we come to expect of our program."
 
On Colgate's 16-0 run
"They understood in that run that we were reading the defense, finally, for the first time and more importantly, we were doing a great job for us defensively. It was a combination of great things and gives them confidence that they're able to do what we're asking them to do. They always have been, it's just a matter of them being confident in doing it. I'm very proud of them."
 
"We've got to build off this. We've got to build off what we were good at, what we were strong at and the other part is what we need to do to make them better. This group, to their credit, they've done that. They're really buying into what we're trying to do here. We keep telling them, 'You guys can do it and you've got to believe,' and they're starting to believe."
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Newman Arena at Bartels Hall was 212
 
Up Next
• The Raiders continue their six-game road swing to up the season at Arizona State with tip-off on Sunday scheduled for 3 p.m. MT.
• The Sun Devils are 2-0 after wins over UTSA and Fresno State, and will face Sacramento State the day before facing Colgate.