* Game Notes (PDF)

GAME 25: Cornell vs. Princeton
TIP OFF: Friday, Feb. 25, at 7:00 p.m. (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 41-20
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 65-43 (Feb. 12, 2011)
2010-11 RECORDS: Cornell (5-19, 2-8 Ivy), Princeton (19-4, 8-1)
LIVE AUDIO: None
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: www.CornellBigRed.com

GAME 26: Cornell vs. Penn
TIP OFF: Saturday, Feb. 26, at 7:00 p.m. (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 48-16
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 51-33 (Feb. 11, 2011)
2010-11 RECORDS: Cornell (5-19, 2-8 Ivy), Penn (10-13, 4-5)*
LIVE AUDIO: None
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: www.CornellBigRed.com

* records prior to Friday night's contests

THE MATCHUPS – The Big Red will play its final home games of the season, as it welcomes Princeton and Penn to Newman Arena on Friday, Feb. 25 and Saturday, Feb. 26, respectively. Both games are slated to tip-off at 7 p.m. Friday evening's game vs. the Tigers will be Cornell's Pink Zone game, as the Big Red teams up with the WBCA to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research. Admission will be free, but fans are encouraged to make a donation to benefit the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes. On Saturday, Cornell's game against the Quakers will be part of the Athletic Department's celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED? – Cornell dropped a pair of games last weekend, losing to Harvard and Dartmouth to fall to 5-19 overall and 2-8 in the conference. Princeton (19-4, 8-1) won both of its games last weekend against Yale and Brown in convincing fashion to stay atop the Ivy League standings, while Penn (10-13, 4-5) defeated the Bears before falling to the Bulldogs to move into fourth place in the conference rankings.

THE SERIES VS. PRINCETON – The Cornell and Princeton series has been one of the more competitive Ivy League matchups in recent years, with the Tigers holding the slim 11-10 lead since the 2000-01 season. The series began in 1974-75 with a 51-33 Princeton victory, but the teams wouldn't meet again until the 1979-80 season. The schools have met every year since 1979-80, and the Tigers hold the edge in the all-time series, 41-20. Coach Dayna Smith is 7-10 vs. Princeton.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS – League-leading Princeton (19-4, 8-1) brings a five-game winning streak into Newman Arena. One of the top offensive teams in the conference, the Tigers average 69.3 points per game and shoot an impressive 44 percent, including 41 percent from beyond the arc. Addie Micir is one of three players in double figures, leading the team with 12.5 points per game, while Devona Allgood and Lauren Edwards average 12.4 and 11.6 points per game, respectively. Allgood also leads the team with 6.7 rebounds per game.

THE SERIES VS. PENN – Cornell's rivalry with Penn began during the 1974-75 season and the two teams have met every year since, excluding the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons. The Quakers hold the all-time series record, 48-16, but the Big Red has won seven of the last 11 meetings, including a sweep over Penn last season. Coach Smith, who was an assistant coach for Penn from 1999-2002, holds a 7-10 record vs. her old squad.

SCOUTING THE QUAKERS – Penn (10-13, 4-5) won three of its last four games heading into this weekend to move up to fourth place in the conference standings. The Quakers are led by Rookie of the Year candidate Allysa Baron who is averaging 16.5 points per game to go along with 4.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Jess Knapp leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game and is the team's second leading scoring with 7.9 points per game.

LAST WEEKEND –
• The Big Red lost a pair of close games on the road last weekend, falling to Harvard (73-68) and Dartmouth (59-51).
• Cornell had one of its best offensive nights of the season against the Crimson, connecting on 44 percent of its shots overall and a blistering 59 percent from beyond the arc.
• Freshman Shelby Lyman and sophomore Clare Fitzpatrick each registered 19 points to lead the Big Red against Harvard, with Allyson DiMagno rounding out the double-digit scorers with 15 points.
• DiMagno also had a team-high eight rebounds against the Crimson.
• The Big Red could not duplicate its hot shooting the next night, as it connected on just 30 percent of its shots against Dartmouth, and only 11 percent from 3-point range.
• Junior Maka Anyanwu scored a career-high 21 points against the Big Green, while Stephanie Long chipped in 10 points.
• The Big Red took care of the ball all weekend, with just 11 turnovers against Harvard before posting a season-low seven turnovers at Dartmouth.

PINK ZONE – On Friday, Feb. 25 Cornell will take part in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Pink Zone initiative as it plays host to Princeton. Pink Zone 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. Fans will be admitted free to the game, but are asked to make a donation that will benefit the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes. Last year, the Big Red raised more than $1,500 for the CRC.

SENIOR DAY SALUTE – Saturday's game vs. Penn marks the final home game for Cornell senior Susie Doyle. A native of Dublin, Ireland, Doyle is a co-captain of the 2010-11 squad. Despite missing her entire junior season with an injury, she enters the weekend having seen action in 54 career games with 17 starts. For her career, she has averaged 1.3 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. She also has 42 career assists and 17 career steals.

100 THREES – For the fourth straight season, Cornell has reached the century mark for 3-pointers, with exactly 100 on the year. The Big Red has registered at least 100 3-pointers in all but one season under head coach Dayna Smith, with the 2006-07 squad coming up just short with 98 treys.

BLOCKS A LOT – Junior Allie Munson is hovering just outside of Cornell's all-time blocks leader list with 39 in her career. She needs just one more to move into 10th place with Denis Hylton (40; 1987-91).

20 POINT PERFORMANCE – Cornell has had a player score 20 points or more in four Ivy League games this season. Freshman Stephanie Long became the first Big Red player this season to rack up 20 points with a career-high against Columbia on Jan. 15. In the weeks since, freshman Allyson DiMagno has posted a season-high 20 points against Dartmouth on Jan. 28, sophomore Clare Fitzpatrick scored a team season-high 23 points against Brown on Feb. 5 and Maka Anyanwu had a career-best 21 points vs. Dartmouth on Feb. 19.

FRESHMAN THREES – Four members of Cornell's freshmen class – Stephanie Long, Shelby Lyman, Allyson DiMagno and Aspen Chandler – account for 81 percent of the Big Red's 3-pointers. The quartet have made 81 of the Big Red's 100 3-pointers on the season, while sophomores Taylor Flynn (17) and Clare Fitzpatrick (1) are the only Big Red upperclassmen to hit a shot from beyond the arc this season.

CLOSE CALLS – The Big Red has been in many close games this season, with seven contests being decided by eight points or less. In those games, Cornell has posted a 4-3 record.

BLOCK PARTY – The Big Red is averaging 2.7 blocks per game, putting the squad on pace to finish in the top 10 in program history for blocks in a single season. Leading the charge are sophomores Kristina Danielak and Clare Fitzpatrick, with 18 and 14 blocks, respectively. Of the 12 players on the roster, 10 have registered at least one block, with seven tallying three or more.

PRESSURE FREE THROWS – Cornell has seen its free throw percentage improve significantly at the end of close games. Overall on the season, the Big Red is connecting on just 66 percent of its free throws. However, in the final five minutes of games decided by 10 or fewer points, Cornell has shot 73 percent (32-of-44) from the foul line. Even more impressive is that in the final two minutes of games decided by 10 or fewer points, the Big Red has shot 77 percent (23-of-30) from the charity stripe.

STARTING STABILITY – With so many new players on the roster, the Cornell starting line-up saw some fluctuation early on, resulting in four different sets of starters in the first seven games. In the 17 games since, the Big Red has started the same line-up in each contest.

TURNOVER TURN AROUND – Through the first six games of the season, the Big Red had turned the ball over more than 20 times in 5-of-6 games and averaged 23.3 turnovers per game. Since, Cornell has had more than 20 turnovers in just 6-of-18 games and has averaged 17.2 turnovers per game.

OFFENSIVE BOARDS – Freshman guard Allyson DiMagno has a knack for coming up with offensive boards, with an impressive 40 percent of her rebounds (56-of-139) coming on the offensive glass.

DANIELAK RISING – Through the first seven games of the season, Kristina Danielak was averaging just 7.6 minutes per game and ranked 10th on the team with 1.0 points per game, while registering 1.4 rebounds per game. Since moving into the starting lineup after the study break, she has averaged 26.5 minutes per game and ranks fourth on the team in points (6.2) and third overall in rebounds (4.6) per game.

SUDDEN IMPACT – Three of the Big Red's top four scorers so far this season are freshmen. Rookie Allyson DiMagno ranks second on the team with 8.0 points per game, while Stephanie Long (7.4) and Shelby Lyman (5.3) rank third and fourth, respectively.

I'LL TAKE THAT – The Big Red is averaging 6.7 steals per game. That is the best average since the 2006-07 team registered 8.0 steals per game. Clare Fitzpatrick (30) and Shelby Lyman (26) lead the team.

HELPING HAND – So far this season, the Big Red has assisted on 289-of-455 baskets (63.5 percent). That is just down from last season when Cornell assisted on 67.7 percent of its made shots (364-of-537), which is the best percentage during Coach Smith's tenure.

STARTING STREAK – Clare Fitzpatrick has started the last 37 games for the Big Red, dating back to Jan. 29, 2010. That is by far the longest current active streak on the team, with freshman Allyson DiMagno's 19-straight starts ranking second.

FITZPATRICK LEADING THE WAY – Sophomore forward Clare Fitzpatrick has led the Big Red in scoring in half (12-of-24) of its games this season. Over the course of 27 games last season, Fitzpatrick led the team in scoring just three times.

OFFENSIVE SHIFT – Last season, Cornell had only five games in which a forward led the team in scoring, with Clare Fitzpatrick doing it three times and Allie Munson leading the team twice. So far this season, forwards have led the team in scoring in 13-of-24 games.

BACK-TO-BACK Ws – With victories against Columbia on Jan. 22 and Dartmouth on Jan. 28, the Big Red posted back-to-back wins for the first time since beating Colgate and Manhattan last season. It was Cornell's first consecutive Ivy wins since beating Brown and Dartmouth in 2008-09.

COACHING HISTORY — With the victory over Ithaca, head coach Dayna Smith became the all-time winningest head coach in Cornell women's basketball history with her 81st career win. Smith surpassed Marnie Dacko (1995-2002) to take the record.

FRESH START – A pair of guards, sophomore Spencer Lane and freshman Shelby Lyman, made their first career starts for the Big Red vs. Cleveland State … Junior college transfer Maka Anyanwu and freshman Stephanie Long earned their first starts of the season vs. Winston-Salem ... Freshman Allyson DiMagno made her first career start at Oakland … Sophomore Kristina Danielak started the first game of her career against Canisius.

40-MINUTE WOMAN – Freshman Shelby Lyman played a full 40 minutes vs. Cleveland State, becoming the only player in Coach Smith's tenure to play a full game in their first collegiate start … On Dec. 19 against Canisius, freshman Stephanie Long also played a full 40 minutes.

YOUTH WILL BE SERVED – With just one senior and two juniors, the Big Red squad boasts nine sophomores and freshmen, meaning that underclassmen comprise 75 percent of the roster. That makes Cornell the youngest team in the Ivy League by percentage with Brown (73 percent) and Columbia (70 percent) slightly trailing. The average age of the Big Red is 19 years, four months. Senior Susie Doyle is the oldest member of the team at 21 years, eight months, while freshman Stephanie Long is the youngest, at 18 years, three months. Long is just 12 days younger than fellow freshman Allyson DiMagno.

DANIELAK DOUBLE-DOUBLE – Kristina Danielak had a career day against Ithaca College, registering a career-high 14 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Big Red to a 58-55 victory.

RING IN THE NEW YEAR – The win over Ithaca on Jan. 1 gave the Big Red a victory to ring in the New Year for the first time in three seasons.

WELCOME BACK – After suffering a season-ending injury prior to the start of last season, senior Susie Doyle made her return to the court vs. Cleveland State.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN – Senior Susie Doyle and junior Allie Munson will serve as team captains for the 2010-11 season.

FOR OPENERS – With its loss to Cleveland State, the Big Red fell to 17-23 all-time in season openers. Coach Dayna Smith has posted a 1-8 record in season openers during her time with Cornell.

IVY OPENERS – Since Ivy League round robin play began in the 1982-83 season, Cornell has posted a 15-14 record in conference openers. The Big Red has lost its last three Ivy openers against Columbia, making coach Dayna Smith's record 4-5 in the first game of Ancient Eight play. Cornell has faced the Lions more than any other team, opening the season against Columbia 13 times.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – The Big Red added six players to the 2010-11 squad: Maka Anyanwu (Oakland, Calif.), Aspen Chandler (Dallas, Texas), Joelle Davidson (Hyattsville, Md.), Allyson DiMagno (Fairport, N.Y.), Stephanie Long (Norwich, Conn.) and Shelby Lyman (Snohomish, Wash.). The class of six players come from six different states and consists of four guards, one forward and one player that could see action at guard or forward.

UMPQUA COMMUNITY CONNECTION – Junior college transfer Maka Anyanwu comes to the Big Red after a successful season at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. Fans of the Big Red should know UCC, as it was the two-year home of former Cornell standout Moina Snyder '07.

ALL IN THE FAMILY – Freshman Aspen Chandler comes from a long line of athletes. Her father, Brian Hopgood, had a successful professional basketball career playing in the various domestic and overseas leagues. Collegiately, he played at University of Louisville and Oklahoma City University. While at OCU, he led his team to the NAIA national championship and was a two-time All-American. Her cousin Shelton Johnson currently plays football for the University of Wisconsin and her grandfather Wayne Long ran track and field in college.

IRISH NATIONAL – Senior 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.

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.

WELCOME BACK – Former Cornell women's basketball standout Gretchen Gregg '08 has returned to East Hill to join head coach Dayna Smith's staff for the upcoming 2010-11 season. Gregg brings two years of coaching experience, as well as an unparalleled passion for Cornell, with her to her new position. Gregg comes to Cornell following two very successful seasons with the Lehigh women's basketball program, where she served as a graduate assistant. During her time in Bethlehem, the Mountain Hawks won back-to-back Patriot League championships, advanced to two straight NCAA tournaments, and set a new school and Patriot League record for wins (29) during the 2009-10 season. As a player at Cornell, Gregg capped a successful career by helping the Big Red to its first-ever Ivy League Championship and the program's first berth to the NCAA Tournament.

HI, MY NAME IS – Cornell had a new face on the bench for the 2010-11 season, as Ryan Woerner joined the women's basketball staff as an assistant coach. Despite having just graduated from nearby Ithaca College this past May, Woerner brings with him significant coaching experience. In addition to interning with the Cornell men's program last spring, he has served as an assistant coach at Xavier high school, as well as coaching at the Boston College Elite Camp and the West Point Basketball Camp. He was also a coach for the Five Star Basketball Camp and The Hoop Group. Additionally, Woerner served as the assistant basketball camp director at Molloy College.

SMARTY PANTS – For the second straight season, the Big Red has been named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll. Cornell was the only Ivy League institutions on the list, ranking 25th overall with a team GPA of 3.308.

TICKLE THE (ALL) IVY – Two members of the Big Red earned All-Ivy honors following the 2009-10 season, highlighted by Lauren Benson's second-team selection. Joining Benson was All-Rookie team pick Claire Fitzpatrick.

REVIEWING THE 2009-10 SEASON – Cornell wrapped up the 2009-10 season with a 7-20 record overall and a mark of 2-12 in the Ivy League, good for seventh in the conference.

UP NEXT – Cornell wraps up the 2010-11 season on the road as it travels to Brown and Yale on Friday, March 4, and Saturday, March 5, respectively. Both games are slated to tip-off at 7 p.m.