HAMILTON – An explosive third quarter and a game-high 22 points from
Taylor Golembiewski sent the Colgate women's basketball team past Cornell, 71-60, in the Raiders' season opener Tuesday night at Cotterell Court.
After Colgate entered the halftime break with a 28-27 edge over the Big Red, the hosts stepped on the gas to begin the third quarter. The Raiders scored seven of the first nine points in the second half and then enjoyed a 7-0 run, which covered just 57 seconds of clock time, to push their lead to 43-35.
Colgate's lead reached a game-high 14 points with 6:17 to play in the fourth and Cornell's deficit never got back into single digits the rest of the way, as the Raiders notched their second straight season-opening win over the Big Red.
"I'm proud of our players," said head coach Ganiyat Adeduntan after the win. "We've put a lot of work in over the last eight months and that was a tough-nosed, resilient Cornell team. Any game is going to find its own challenges, so we had some challenges that we had to push through, but eventually we did, which helped us get the result we wanted."
Tiasia McMillan was a key factor down the stretch, as the senior scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half and ended the game just one rebound shy of a double-double. She also had a career-high five blocks and tied for the team-high in assists with four.
The visitors from Ithaca got off to a quick start and had a six-point lead just under three minutes into the contest. Colgate scored six of the final nine points in the opening quarter to turn the tide, then took its first lead of the evening with 2:58 to play in the half on a Madison Schiller drive.
After the teams traded buckets, Golembiewski knocked down a three with less than a minute to go to give Colgate a 28-27 edge, a lead that it did not surrender the rest of the way.
"It took us some time to get settled but we got there eventually," Adeduntan said. "That's all you can ask for is to stay resilient. It was nice to see us start to make the plays we've been making for the past few months. This was a team win. We were really tough defensively. We did a lot of good things as far as giving ourselves more opportunities for us to open it up. We were able to knock some down and kept building truly because of our defense."
Morgan McMahon (12) and Alexa Brodie (11) also finished in double-digit scoring for the Raiders, as the 71 team points matched the third-highest offensive output for Colgate from the 2022-23 campaign.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Cornell's last lead of the game came with 1:27 to play in the first half, then the Raiders outscored the Big Red by a 46-33 margin to close the night. The Colgate lead was narrowed to just one point on two occasions in the third quarter, but the lead never changed hands. There were four ties, all in the first half, throughout the contest and a combined 12 lead changes.
The 26 points by the Raiders in the third quarter was the most in a single quarter since Dec. 21, 2022 when Colgate matched that output on the way to a 66-52 win at St. Bonaventure. That offensive outburst also occurred in the third quarter of that game against the Bonnies.
Colgate took advantage of Big Red mishaps throughout the evening, as the Raiders ended the game with a 23-13 edge in points off turnovers.
The win continued the Raiders' recent string of success against the Big Red, as Colgate has now won four of the last five meetings between the Empire State foes.
UP NEXT
The Raiders trek to Baltimore, Md., on Saturday for a 1 p.m. tip against America East opponent, UMBC.
