Game #15: Cornell at Brown
Tip off: Friday, Jan. 30, at 7:00 p.m. (Pizzatola Center)
Series Record: Brown leads, 41-17
Last Meeting: Cornell won, 65-41, on Feb. 23, 2008 (Providence, R.I.)
Live Radio: WVBR, 93.5 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Live Stats: None
Game #16: Cornell at Yale
Tip off: Saturday, Jan. 31, at 6:00 p.m. (Lee Amphitheater)
Series Record: Yale leads, 39-20
Live Radio: None
THE MATCHUP – The Big Red (5-9, 1-1 Ivy) will look for its first road win of the season this weekend as it travels to Brown and Yale on Friday, Jan. 30 and Saturday, Jan. 31, respectively. Cornell will tip off with the Bears at 7 p.m., while game time against the Bulldogs is slated for 6 p.m. Brown (3-13) and Yale (8-8) concluded their home-and-home series with a split to give each team a 1-1 record in the conference.
THE SERIES VS. BROWN – Cornell's rivalry with the Bears began in the 1974-75 season when Brown defeated the Big Red, 34-30. The Bears dominated the series during the first 20 years, with Cornell winning only three times prior to the 1994-95 season. Since that year, however, the series has been tied with each team winning 14 games, as Brown holds the advantage in the all-time series with a record of 41-17. Cornell has swept the Bears for the last two seasons.
SCOUTING THE BEARS – Brown is 3-13 on the season and 1-1 in the Ivy League after splitting a pair of games with Yale. Karly Grace is the team's leading scorer with 7.7 points per game, while Natalie Bonds is pulling down a team-high 5.0 rebounds per game. Courtney Lee is running the offense with 3.4 assists per game and is doing some damage on defense with 2.4 steals per game.
LAST TIME VS. BROWN – The Big Red's record-breaking season continued with a 65-41 victory over Brown at the Pizzitola Center. Cornell earned back-to-back season sweeps of the Bears for just the second time in the history of the series.
Lauren Benson led Cornell with 11 points and four assists, while
Gretchen Gregg and
Shannan Scarselletta registered 10 points apiece. Gregg also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and Scarselletta pulled down seven. Moïna Snyder chipped in nine points and grabbed seven rebounds and
Kayleen Fitzsimmons was a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc for nine points. Brown was led by Shae Fitzpatrick with nine points and Ashley Alexander with eight rebounds.
THE SERIES VS. YALE – Cornell first faced the Bulldogs in the 1974-75 season, with Yale taking the 31-23 victory. Cornell has dominated the series for much of this decade (leading 11-5), winning seven-straight from 2000 to 2003, and splitting the series in 2005-06 and 2006-07, before sweeping Yale last year. Still, the Bulldogs hold the lead in the all-time series history, 39-20.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS – Yale is 8-8 on the season and 1-1 in the Ivy League after splitting a pair of games with Brown. The team is led by Melissa Colborne's 17.1 points per game, but has a balanced scoring attack with three others averaging more than nine points per game – Yoyo Greenfield (10.0), Haywood Wright (9.6) and Jamie Van Horne (9.3). Mady Gobrecht is pulling down a team-high 7.9 rebounds per game and leading the team with 3.7 assists per game.
LAST TIME VS. YALE – The Big Red had four players reach double figures as it defeated Yale, 74-64, at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. With the win, the Big Red earned its first season sweep of the Bulldogs since 2002-03. Cornell was led by
Jeomi Maduka with a team-high 22 points.
Lauren Benson matched a career-high with 15 points and handed out eight assists, while Moïna Snyder and
Allie Fedorowicz chipped in 12 points each. Snyder, along with junior
Shannan Scarselletta each pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Yale was led by Melissa Colborne with 22 points. Cornell shot 49 percent from the floor and knocked down 66.7 percent from beyond the arc (6-for-9). Yale shot 46.2 percent from the floor for the game, but made only two 3-pointers. The Bulldogs held the slight advantage on the boards, 32-29, but turned the ball over three times more than Cornell (18-15). The Big Red led by as many as 20 points early in the second half and fought off a late surge that saw the Bulldogs cut the lead to just two points as the visitors held on for the victory.
ON THE AIR – Big Red fans can enjoy a new way to follow the squad for the 2008-09 season, as the Cornell Department of Athletics and Physical Education has teamed up with WVBR 93.5 FM (Ithaca) to provide coverage in 23-of-26 Big Red women's basketball games this season. The broadcast team of Jay Sage and Jared Feldman will provide the call for every game for the remainder of this season. Every game will be broadcast live on either WVBR 93.5 FM (Ithaca), on www.WVBR.com, or as part of the Cornell RedCast package at
www.CornellBigRed.com. Please check the women's basketball schedule page at
www.CornellBigRed.com for details.
LIVE VIDEO – The Big Red's home contests will all be broadcast live with streaming video as part of the RedCast subscription service. Visit www.CornellBigRed.com for all the latest information on Cornell broadcasts.
LIVE STATS – Cornell will use SIDEARM Live Stats for each of the Big Red's home games in 2008-09. Visit www.CornellBigRed.com for all of the official statistics.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK – Cornell freshman
Allie Munson was been named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Monday, Jan. 26 after a career-best performance on Saturday, Jan. 24, as she helped the Big Red snap a six-game losing streak and earn its first conference win as it defeated Columbia, 58-53. Munson was dominant inside the paint, connecting on 8-of-9 shots from the floor as she recorded a career-high 17 points. The 6-2 forward also grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots. A native of Southington, Conn., she scored 11 points in the decisive second half as the Big Red rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit. Among her 17 points were six straight early in the second half during a crucial 8-0 scoring run which pulled the Big Red within two points with just under 14 minutes to play.
COACHING HISTORY — With her victory over Bryant on Nov. 29, Coach Smith surpassed Linda Lerch (1981-88) to move into second place in Cornell women's basketball history in number of wins by a coach. Smith currently has 67 wins with the Big Red, sitting behind only former coach Marnie Dacko (1995-2002), who ranks first all-time in wins with 80.
HELPING HAND – With her 10 assists at the URI Classic,
Lauren Benson jumped into seventh place in Cornell history with 261 career assists. Benson currently has 294 assists, sitting just one assist behind
Breean Walas. Benson's career total comes in large part thanks to a sophomore season in which she averaged a team-high 5.4 assists per game, good for first in the Ivy League and 24th in the country. She also set the school record for assists in a single-season (156) that year, breaking the old mark of 140.
DOUBLE THE DOUBLE-DOUBLE – One game after
Shannan Scarselletta registered the first double-double of the season for Cornell with an 11-point, 10-rebound performance against Binghamton,
Allie Fedorowicz responded with her first career double-double with 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds at Bucknell. Scarselletta is currently the only member of the Big Red to have multiple double-doubles to her credit, having previously tallied one against Yale during the 2006-07 season.
SCORELESS STRETCH – In a 56-51 loss to Binghamton, the Big Red overcame an early 13-0 deficit by forcing the Bearcats to miss 13 straight shots and holding BU without a point for 11:08. That has proven to be the longest scoreless stretch of the season for any of Cornell's opponents. The previous long came in the second game of the season when Cornell held Albany scoreless for 7:37 late in the second half to secure the 50-46 victory.
HOME SWEET HOME — Cornell had an 11-game home winning-streak snapped by Binghamton on Jan. 5. The streak dated back to a 73-57 victory over Columbia on Jan. 19, 2008. That span is the longest in Cornell women's basketball program history, eclipsing the previous mark of five straight home victories, set twice previously. The first run took place between Dec. 1, 1985 and Jan. 4, 1986 (Princeton, St. Francis (N.Y.), St. Bonaventure, Marist and Ithaca College), while the most recent streak happened between Feb. 23, 2007 and Nov. 30, 2008 (Yale, Brown, Lafayette, Bucknell, Gardner-Webb).
CRASH THE BOARDS – Cornell outrebounded Miami, 45-30, on Jan. 2, the best rebounding margin of the season for the Big Red. During Coach Smith's tenure, Cornell has outrebounded its opponents by at least 15 boards on 12 occasions. The Big Red has won all of those contests, except the game at Miami.
SUNSHINE STATE – Over the holiday break, Cornell made its first trip to the state of Florida since the 2001-02 season when it defeated Stetson, 73-63.
21 DAYS – The Big Red ended a 21-day study break with a loss to St. Bonaventure on Dec. 22. This year's break was the longest during Coach Smith's tenure. In fact, since the 1991-92 season, Cornell has endured a 21-day study break just once, coming during the 2001-02 season. Following that break, the Big Red defeated Stetson, 73-63.
STUDYING THE OPPONENTS – With the loss to St. Bonaventure on Dec. 22, Coach Smith's record following the study break fell to 5-2 overall. Since the 1980-81 season, the Big Red is just 11-18 coming out of the study break.
20-POINT PERFORMANCE —
Shannan Scarselletta is the only current Big Red player to have registered 20 points during her career, accomplishing the feat for the first time against Princeton on Jan. 14, 2006, before tallying 21 points vs. Fairfield on Dec. 1.
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR – Prior to Scarselletta's 21-point performance against Fairfield, 19 points had been the team-high with a Cornell player scoring 19 points on three occasions –
Allie Fedorowicz (vs. Albany) and
Lauren Benson (vs. IUPUI and vs. Bryant).
HALL OF FAMER – Coach
Dayna Smith will be inducted into the University of Rhode Island Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb. 14. Smith, one of the top point guards in Atlantic 10 history, started starting for Rhode Island from 1992-96 and is currently just one of 11 players at the NCAA Division I level to record more than 1,000 points and 750 assists. Smith will be inducted with five other Rhody greats, most notable among them is 10-year NBA veteran Cuttino Mobley.
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM –
Lauren Benson was named to the URI Classic All-Tournament team after helping the Big Red split a pair of games as it fell to Central Connecticut State, 74-66, before defeating Bryant, 66-55. Against the Blue Devils, the junior point guard registered 11 points, five rebounds and six assists. The next day against the Bulldogs, Benson led Cornell by matching a career-high 19 points, going perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe over the final 1:30 to seal the victory. She also grabbed six rebounds and handed out four assists.
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN – Only seven Big Red players saw the court vs. Bryant on Nov. 29. That marks just the second time during Coach Smith's tenure that only two substitutes were used. The first occurrence happening on March 3, 2007 vs. Dartmouth.
CRAZY EIGHTS – Twice this season, against IUPUI and Bryant, junior
Lauren Benson has gone 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Against the Bulldogs, her eight free throws all came in the final 1:14 of the contest to help seal the Big Red victory.
HAIL ALMA MATER – Head coach
Dayna Smith returned to her alma mater, the University of Rhode Island, as the Big Red took part in the URI Classic from Nov. 28-29. Smith played for the Rams from 1992-96. One of the top point guards in Atlantic 10 history, Smith helped lead the Rams to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 1996, capping a season where URI also captured its first A-10 East Division crown. A two-time first team all-conference pick, Smith was one of only 11 players in Division I history to score more than 1,000 points and record 750 assists. She rewrote the Rhode Island record book, graduating as the program's all-time assist and 3-point field goal leader. She finished second in the nation in assists as a sophomore and ranked fourth as a junior. She ranks among the NCAA top 20 all-time in career assists (20th, 793) and assists per game (12th, 7.14).
FOLLOW THE LEADER – With her 19 points against both IUPUI and Bryant, junior
Lauren Benson led the Big Red in scoring. It marked just the fourth and fifth times, respectively, in Benson's career that she has led the team in scoring.
HOOSIERS –
Lacey Workman returned to her home state of Indiana when Cornell took on IUPUI and played a season-high 20 minutes in front of family and friends. The senior guard hails from Indianapolis and attended Ben Davis High School. She was an all-county, all-league and all-state basketball player and helped lead her team to a Section 12 championship as a senior.
CAREER DAYS – When
Lauren Benson handed out a career-high 10 assists against Albany on Nov. 19, it marked the most assists in a single game for a Cornell player since Karen Force dished out 10 assists at Duquesne on Jan. 20, 2004 (123 games). In the Big Red's next game at IUPUI on Nov. 22, Benson registered a career-high 19 points to lead Cornell is scoring against the Jaguars.
THE HOT HAND – Junior
Allie Fedorowicz tallied a career-high 19 points against Albany to lead the Big Red to victory against the Great Danes. It marked just the third time in her career that she was the team's leading scorer in the game.
NET ZERO – The Big Red didn't attempt a single free throw against Miami on Jan. 2, 2009 and didn't make a single free throw against Albany on Nov. 19, 2008, going 0-for-3 from the charity stripe. Prior to this season, the last time Cornell didn't make a free throw during game came against Harvard on Feb. 9, 2002 when the team went 0-for-2.
SLIM WIN – When Cornell defeated Fairfield, 58-54, on Dec. 1, it marked the 10th time during Coach Smith's tenure that the Big Red has won a game by four points or less. Of the 10 games, nine have come since the beginning of the 2005-06 season.
50 FOR THE WIN – With the Big Red's 50-46 win over Albany on Nov. 19 it marked the third straight season in which Cornell won at least one game during the year despite scoring 50 points or less. Since Coach Smith took over the program prior to the 2002-03 season, the Big Red has won four games while scoring 50 points or less.
SWAT TEAM – Senior
Shannan Scarselletta is currently sitting in eighth place in Cornell history, with 55 career blocks. She needs just eight more blocks to surpass Heidi Johnson (1982-86), who sits in seventh place with 62 career blocks.
TEAM ASSISTS — The Big Red proved to be very efficient on the offensive end in its first nine games of the season, registering assists on 60.0 percent of its made shots (165 assists, 275 field goals). Still, that mark is behind what the Big Red did last year, as Cornell assisted on 66.1 percent of its made shots (436 assists, 659 field goals).
FIRST ACTION – Cornell's three freshmen all saw action in the first game of the season at Duquesne.
Allison Abt had a strong showing with seven points (3-for-5) in just 13 minutes of action, while
Allie Munson matched a team-high with six rebounds in 20 minutes.
Christine Vlasic saw the floor for nine minutes and pulled down two rebounds.
IRISH NATIONAL – Sophomore
Susie Doyle has been a member of the U16, U17, U18 and U20 Irish national teams. She led her U16 and U18 Irish National Teams to the European Championships and was named captain of the U16 squad in 2004 and the U18 in 2006. She was named MVP of the U18 team and finished the 2006 season with the national team as the leading rebounder with 8.3 caroms per game.
FOUR-YEAR FOREIGNERS –
Susie Doyle will have the opportunity to be the first of her kind – a foreign student that uses all four years of her eligibility at Cornell. The Big Red has had three foreigners in program history: Jumana Salti (Amman, Jordan),
Sarah Lee (Deep River, Ontatio) and Moïna Snyder (Nice, Frace), but all three only played two years for Cornell.
DON'T I KNOW YOU? – There is a familiar face on the sideline for the Big Red this season as Moïna Snyder '09 has returned to serve as a volunteer assistant for her former team. A two-time All-Ivy selection, Snyder helped Cornell to the first Ivy League championship and NCAA tournament berth in women's basketball history during the 2007-08 season. Despite only playing two seasons for the Big Red, she finished her career ranking in the top 10 of 10 season and career categories at Cornell, including career field goal percentage (.500 – second), career rebound average (5.8 – ninth), career blocks (66 – fifth), season field goal percentage (.513 – third, .489 – 10th), season blocks (36 – fourth, 30 – sixth), season block average (1.3 – fifth), season games played (29 – first) and season games started (29 – first). Snyder, a native of Nice, France, is pursuing a degree in biological sciences in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences.
SWEET 70 – When Cornell defeated Princeton, 76-59, on March 8, 2008, it marked the 16th-straight game in which the Big Red scored at least 70 points and went on to win the contest. The last time Cornell scored 70 or more points and lost was on Feb. 4, 2006, when the Big Red dropped an 80-71 decision at Harvard.
AWKWARD TURTLE – Senior
Shannan Scarselletta currently writes one of the most popular Op-Ed articles in the school paper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Her column, entitled Awkward Turtle, appears alternate Mondays throughout the school year.
PACK THE HOUSE – This season, Cornell will take part in the NCAA's Pack the House Challenge. The event, which will take place on Saturday, Feb. 7 as the Big Red plays host to Penn, allows NCAA member schools to compete against schools in their own conference, as well as all Division I schools, for a chance to win prizes by setting an attendance record.
PINK ZONE – Once again, the Big Red will take part in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Pink Zone initiative on Saturday, Feb. 21 as it plays host to Brown. Pink Zone, formerly known as Think Pink, is a global, unified effort for the WBCA nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. Last season, over 500 fans came out to support the cause and watch Cornell defeat Dartmouth, 50-43.
BIG D – Cornell has held opponents to less than 45 points in a game on 11 occasions since Coach Smith took over the program, including four times during the 2007-08 season and four times during the 2006-07 season. When the Big Red held Brown to just 37 points on Feb. 1, 2008, it was the second-lowest point total by a Cornell opponent during Smith's tenure, a distinction that also belongs to the Bears, who managed only 36 points on Feb. 24, 2007.
FOR OPENERS – With the loss to Duquesne on Nov. 16, the Big Red fell to 17-21 all-time record in season openers. Coach
Dayna Smith has posted a 1-6 record in season openers during her time with Cornell.
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS — Cornell was chosen to finish third in the Ivy League, earning three first-place votes, according to the preseason media poll. Harvard and Dartmouth were selected to finish ahead of the Big Red, with the Crimson tabbed to win the conference with 10 of a possible 17 first-place votes. The Big Green picked up four first-place votes to finish 13 points ahead of Cornell. Yale was selected fourth overall with 83 points, while Columbia finished right behind in fifth-place with 74 points. Penn (52), Princeton (46) and Brown (18) rounded out the bottom three.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS – The 2007-08 Cornell women's basketball team won the first Ivy League title in program history, finishing the year with an 11-3 conference record.
BIG RED DANCERS – Cornell, which won a share of the Ivy League title along with Dartmouth and Harvard, earned the right to represent the Ancient Eight in the 2008 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament by defeating the Big Green, 64-47, in a playoff game held at Columbia's Levien Gym on March 16, 2008. It was the first postseason berth in the history of the Big Red women's basketball program.
HONORABLE MENTION –
Lauren Benson was named All-Ivy honorable mention last season. Benson was the Big Red's most improved player during the year, leading Cornell and the Ivy League and ranking 24th in the nation with 5.38 assists per game. She also chipped in 6.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, while shooting a conference-best 46.2 percent from 3-point range. Her assist/turnover ratio was second-best in the league (1.44) and she ranked 10th in the conference in 3-pointers made per contest (1.24 pg).
NON-CONFERENCE RECORD — With the 75-60 victory over NJIT last season, the Big Red finished the non-conference portion of its schedule with an 8-5 record. That matched the most non-conference wins in school history and is the most since the 1999-2000 squad went 8-4. Since the formation of Ivy League women's basketball, the Big Red has won eight non-conference games on just five occasions (1982-83, 1983-84, 1986-87, 1999-2000, 2007-08).
D-E-F-E-N-S-E — Cornell finished the 2007-08 season ranked 55th out of 326 Division I schools in scoring defense, allowing opponents only 58.9 points per game. The Big Red held opponents to less than 60 points in 18 of its 29 games that season.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE –
Lauren Benson finished the 2007-08 season ranked first in the Ivy League in assists per game (5.4). That was a huge improvement from her rookie season, when she ended the year ranked 10th in the conference in that same category with 2.67 assists per game.
GOING STREAKING – Cornell enjoyed an eight-game winning streak before falling to both Dartmouth and Harvard on Feb. 29 and March 1, 2008, respectively. The eight games proved to be a school record, eclipsing a mark that was set when the Big Red closed the 1972-73 season and opened the 1973-74 season with seven victories in a row. At the time that the streak was broken, the eight straight wins was good for 16th in the nation.
THE BIG SCORE – Cornell averaged 65.8 points per game during the 2007-08 season, the most ever under coach Smith.
POINT PRODUCTION — The 85 points scored by Cornell vs. Harvard on Feb. 15, 2008 was the highest point total scored by the Big Red since Coach Smith took over the program. Earlier during the season, Cornell hung 82 points on Colgate, which ranks fourth overall for the most points scored by a Coach Smith team.
GET A GRIP – The Big Red turned the ball over a season-low six times last season at Penn on Feb. 9, 2008. That matched the school record for the lowest number of turnovers by Cornell in a single game, which was accomplished just once previously, at Princeton on March 9, 1985.
21-OF-21 – Cornell set an NCAA team-high for the season last year when it connected on 100 percent of its free throw attempts (21-of-21) at Penn on Feb. 9, 2008. Last season, 10 schools made 100 percent of its free throw attempts (min. 15 made), but only Cornell made more than 20, with the next highest being Manhattan (19-of-19) vs. Fairfield.
WINNING BIG — When Cornell defeated Colgate, 82-47 on Dec. 18, 2007, it was the largest margin of victory (35 points) for the Big Red in over eight years. Just over one month later, Cornell nearly matched that output when it beat Brown by 33 points, 70-37. Prior to the 2007-08 season, the last time Cornell defeated a team by more than 30 points came on Nov. 11, 1999 when it outpaced Canisius, 85-50.
MILESTONE WINS — With Cornell's 75-60 victory over NJIT last season, Coach Smith earned the 50th win of her career. The victory was also the 300th win in the history of the Cornell women's basketball program.
ON THE BOARDS — Last year, the Big Red grabbed a season-high 59 rebounds vs. Texas A&M-CC, the most rebounds in a single game by a Cornell team during Coach Smith's tenure.
UP NEXT – The Big Red will return to the cozy confines of Newman Arena to take on Princeton and Penn on Friday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 7, respectively. Both games are slated to tip off at 7 p.m. The game vs. the Quakers will be part of the NCAA's Pack the House Challenge. The event allows NCAA member schools to compete against schools in their own conference, as well as all Division I schools, for a chance to win prizes by setting an attendance record.
