The Canisius College women's basketball team broke open the game by scoring 10 straight points midway through the first half, en route to a 62-45 victory over Cornell University in the Koessler Athletic Center on Wednesday evening. The Golden Griffins win their third straight to finish non-conference play with a 6-5 record.

Sophomore Jamie Ruttle led Canisius with a career-high 20 points. Junior Ashley Durham had 14 points and five rebounds. Sophomore Courtney VandeBovenkamp had seven points, eight rebounds and five blocks. Canisius also made all 14 of its free-throw attempts in the game and shot 8-for-16 from behind the arc.

"We played some really good basketball in the first half. We made some 3-pointers early, and when we got an inside presence, I felt that made it really hard on Cornell," Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. "The shots didn't fall as much in the second half we were sloppy with the basketball. We can't let open looks that don't fall affect the rest of our game.

"It's always good to come away with a win, and I feel this team has been working hard to get itself ready for conference play."

Canisius scored the first six points - getting 3-pointers from Ruttle and VandeBovenkamp - and never trailed in the game. Cornell would tie the game at 13-13 with two free throws, but the Griffs would build a double-digit lead by scoring 10 consecutive points. Four Canisius players scored during the run, capped by a pull-up 3-pointer from Durham. Canisius pushed the lead to as many as 17 points in the first half and took a 37-22 lead into the locker room.

Canisius held Cornell without a field goal for more than five minutes to start the second half, building a 44-23 lead on another 3-pointer from Durham. The Griffs wouldn't score for the next six minutes until two free throws from Durham ended the scoreless streak and put Canisius up by 19. Canisius didn't allow Cornell get closer than 15 points the rest of the game.

Taylor Flynn led Cornell (3-7) with 10 points. Clare Fitzpatrick had nine points while Maka Anyanwu had eight points and seven rebounds.

Canisius starts conference play on Monday, Jan. 2, when the Golden Griffins take on Siena College. Game time in Loudonville is set for 7 p.m.

The Canisius-Cornell game will be shown on Time Warner SportsNet on Friday, at 10 p.m. and on Sunday, at 6 p.m.

Notes: Canisius had a winning record in non-conference play for the third time under Zeh and first time since 2008-09... Canisius has won three straight for the first time since Jan. 11-18, 2010... Canisius and Cornell met for the eighth time in program history, with Canisius now holding a 7-1 lead in the all-time series. The Griffs have won all four meetings between the teams in Buffalo... Morabito matched her career high with five assists (Jan. 30, 2011, against Loyola)... The five blocks from VandeBovenkamp were the most by a Golden Griffin since Laura Buetow had six blocks on Jan. 25, 2008, against Manhattan... Canisius had a season-high with nine blocks, the most since they had nine at Rider (Jan. 12, 2003)... Durham went 3-for-3 from behind the arc after coming into the game with three 3-pointers made on the season... Canisius had 15 or more assists for the third straight game and for the sixth time this season... Canisius made all of its free-throw attempts in a game (10 or more attempts) for the fourth time since going to the Division I level (1986-87) and for the first time since going 10-for-10 at Siena on Feb. 21, 2003.