The women’s basketball team (8-11, 1-6 Ivy) fell 66-61 in a close loss to Cornell (9-11, 2-5 Ivy) Saturday afternoon.
The team is “definitely disappointed,” said guard Gracie Arnolie ’26. “I think this was a game that we could have (won) if we just tightened up our playing on both offense and defense, but (we) couldn't pull it out.”
The Bears were led by guard Isabella Mauricio ’25, who shot 9-23 and 3-14 from three-point range, scoring 21 points with two steals.
“I knew that this was a big game (and) we wanted to treat it like a playoff experience, so I needed to come out strong,” Mauricio said. The “coaches gave me a lot of confidence to just shoot the ball.”
The Bears went on short scoring runs, at points combining them with strong defense. But overall, they struggled to find consistency in their play.
“There were times where we had great energy,” said Coach Monique LeBlanc. “There (were) other times that we were really stagnant and not running around on defense really hard. That combination is really tough to overcome.”
The game started off with a quick 6-0 run by the Big Red. The Bears fought back, closing the gap to 12-10, but another strong 8-2 Cornell run to end the quarter put Bruno back in a 20-12 deficit.
Brown’s offense came out strong in the second quarter, outscoring Cornell 17-11. The Bears shot 54% from the field and 60% from behind the arc while the Big Red went cold, shooting 16.7% from the field and 20% from three-point range. A 5-0 Bears run to close the quarter put them just two points behind Cornell, with a halftime score of 31-29.
The game remained close through the third quarter, which concluded with the Bears trailing 48-47. But in the second half, Cornell found a response for Mauricio, who scored just two points in the third after putting up thirteen in the first half. Brown instead began feeding the ball to center Gianna Aiello ’25, who scored seven points and gathered two rebounds in the quarter.
In a fourth-quarter adjustment, Mauricio drove to the basket more effectively, as Cornell pressured her three-point shooting.
“I think in the second half they started to face guard me,” Mauricio said. “I heard the (Cornell) coach saying, ‘no shots for her,’ so I tried to get to the basket (and) backdoor a lot. Thankfully we were able to get the inside game with Gianna going.”
The Bears gained the lead twice in the opening of the 4th quarter on a layup by Aiello and a jumper by Mauricio, but the Big Red stormed back with a dominant offensive run that put the Bears down eight with just under four minutes remaining in the game. Despite a handful of steals by Arnolie and Ada Anamekwe ’26, the Bears were unable to overcome the deficit, ending the game with a 66-61 loss.
“These situations are tough because we're all so emotionally invested right in this moment,” LeBlanc said. “You just feel so disappointed … The only option is to put our head down and keep working on our toughness, keep working on our execution and get our confidence from how hard we're practicing.”
The Bears will look to bounce back as they open the second half of Ivy Play at home against Dartmouth on Friday night. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Dennis Carey is a Sports editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
