NEW YORK — Junior Janiya Clemmons scored 16 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, and first-year Lilian Kennedy collected a career-high 15 rebounds as the Columbia women's basketball team went up early and held off a second-half rally by Cornell, 65-57, Saturday afternoon at Levien Gymnasium.

Columbia (5-10, 1-1 Ivy) built as large as an 18-point lead in a dominant first half. Cornell (7-5, 1-1 Ivy) outscored the Lions 21-9 in the third quarter to get back within a basket before closing the gap to a single point in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.

Stephanie Umeh had an opportunity to put the Big Red on top for the first time since midway through the first quarter but missed two free throws with 7:29 to go. Clemmons responded for the Lions, connecting on her next two shots to push the lead back to five. She shot 4-for-5 in the final 10 minutes as Columbia bent but did not break. Sophomore Riley Casey hit a timely 3-pointer with 3:43 to go and the Lions hit 5-of-6 at the charity stripe in the final minute to earn their first Ivy League win of the season.

"First of all, it is great to start with a win in your home Ivy Opener," head coach Megan Griffith stated in her postgame interview. "I'm proud of these ladies for sticking together and trusting the process. We had a great first half, our momentum slowed a little bit as Cornell did a nice job combating what we were doing the first half in the third quarter. But we stuck with it and had some big moments from [Clemmons and Kennedy]. This team is here and we are excited to make our mark on the league." 

Kennedy came up big on the glass. A week after Columbia was outrebounded by 17 in Ithaca, Kennedy became the first Lion this season to secure 15 rebounds and muscled her team to a 38-33 advantage on the boards. Columbia's presence inside was felt all game, outscoring the Big Red 32-26 in the paint – Cornell outscored the Lions 32-8 a week ago.

"It felt great," said Kennedy, who came into the game averaging 4.1 rebounds. "I knew I had to step up for my team on the boards definitely. I was just thinking 'I need to find the ball' and rebounding is a big part of my game. It just felt like the ball was falling into my hands tonight."

Columbia recovered from making just one field goal in the third quarter to shoot 54 percent (7-13) in the fourth. Clemmons was responsible for the first eight Lions points. Along with Clemmons' 16, three Lions ended the game in double figures as first-year Sienna Durr scored 13 and sophomore Riley Casey finished with 11.

Cornell was led by junior Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, who posted a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kate Sramac scored 14 and Samantha Widmann completed a trio of double-figure scorers with 11.

The Lions got off to a fast start, hitting their first four shot attempts to set the pace early. Cornell turned it over seven times in the first quarter and the Lions used a 10-0 run capped by a bucket from first-year Sydney Brown to jump ahead.

Bagwell-Katalinich was all that was keeping Cornell in the game in first half. She reached double figures with her first bucket of the second quarter but first-year Mikayla Markham hit a triple to spur another 10-0 Columbia run and push the Lions ahead by 13. Back-to-back baskets by sophomore Imani Whittington gave the Lions their largest lead of the game, 34-16. Cornell went six minutes without a field goal before scoring to slice the margin to 14 at the half.

Kennedy had nine of her 15 rebounds at the break while the Lions were outrebounding the Big Red, 21-15, and outscoring them, 22-12, in the paint.

Cornell put together an 18-4 run through a six-minute span in the third quarter to get back in it. Sramac's three at the 7:11 mark closed out an 8-0 spurt. Columbia got its one basket in the quarter from Durr at the 5:30 mark but Cornell answered with the next six to get within two, 42-40, with 3:01 left in the period. The Lions were able to hit enough free throws to keep the lead entering the fourth before Clemmons put the team on her back to put away the victory.

Columbia's five-game homestand continues next weekend when it welcomes Princeton and Penn to Levien Gymnasium. Friday's game against Princeton is scheduled to tip at 7 p.m., followed by the Quakers on Saturday at 5 p.m.

POST-GAME NOTES
- Mikayla Markham extended her streak of five-assist games to 10.

- Lilian Kennedy's 15 rebounds were the most by a Lion since Camille Zimmerman recorded 16 last season in a win at Brown.

- Columbia's 65 points were the most Cornell has allowed since falling to Lehigh, 67-54, on Nov. 29. The Big Red entered the game ranked 26th nationally in scoring defense (56.4).

- Columbia earned its first home victory over Cornell since 2014 and improved to 26-41 in the series since becoming a Div. I program in 1986.

- The game was Columbia's 450th Ivy League contest since the program officially joined the league in 1986.