Game Information
Buffalo at Cornell
Tip Off: Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013; 1:00 p.m.
Location: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Records: Cornell (6-6, 0-0 Ivy); Buffalo (2-10, 0-0 MAC)
Series Record: Buffalo leads, 9-4
Last Meeting: Buffalo won 64-60 (1/12/04)
Live Stats: www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Audio: www.rlmsports.net
Video Webcast: www.CornellBigRed.com

Game Notes (PDF)

THE MATCHUP: The Big Red will look to earn its first victory of 2013 as it welcomes Buffalo to Newman Arena on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1 p.m. Cornell slipped to 6-6 on the season with a loss to Bucknell on Wednesday evening, and the Bulls fell to 2-10 after a loss to Pitt on Dec. 29.

ABOUT BUFFALO: The Bison are currently 2-10 under the direction of first-year head coach, Felisha Legette-Jack. Junior forward Cherridy Thornton leads the team with 14.5 points per game, but that is over the course of just two games, as the mid-year transfer was finally able to make her UB debut on Dec. 21 after sitting out the fall semester due to NCAA transfer rules.  Prior to that, freshman Rachael Gregory was the team's leading scorer and she is still averaging 11.9 points per game. The duo also averages 7.0 rebounds per contest apiece, second to sophomore forward Christa Baccas, who is averaging a team-best 8.1 boards per contest. The Bulls are extremely young, with just one senior on the roster.

THE SERIES VS. THE BULLS: The Cornell women's basketball series with Buffalo began in the 1972-73 season, as the Big Red rattled off victories in each of the first three meetings (1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75), but since that time, the Bulls have taken a 9-4 lead with Cornell's last victory coming in the 1992-93 campaign. Buffalo is currently riding a six-game winning streak over the Big Red but the two teams have not met since 2003-04.

CORNELL VS. MID-ATLANTIC CONFERENCE: Cornell is 4-13 all-time vs. the current members of the MAC. The Big Red holds a losing record vs. Buffalo (4-9), Bowling Green (0-1) and Eastern Michigan (0-3), but has never faced Akron, Ball State, Central Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo or Western Michigan … Head Coach Dayna Smith is 0-5 against the MAC.

A CORNELL WIN OVER BUFFALO WOULD:
• snap a six-game losing streak against the Bulls.
• give the Big Red a four-game winning streak at Newman Arena.
• cut Buffalo's record to 9-5 in the series.
• improve Coach Smith to 1-2 all-time vs. Buffalo.
• make Cornell 7-6 on the season.
• give the Big Red a 4-2 record in home games in 2012-13.
• give Coach Smith her first victory against the MAC (1-5).

LAST TIME VS. THE BULLS (Newman Arena; Jan. 12, 2004):
• Buffalo withstood a furious 13-point Cornell rally to hold on for a 64-60 victory.
• The Big Red lost its first home game of the season after four straight wins despite 23 points by senior Tanya Karcic and a career-best six steals by classmate Dani Aretino.
• Aretino also had a game-best 12 rebounds.
• Lauren Kilduff added 14 points and six rebounds (five on the offensive end), while Karen Force had nine points and was credited with nine assists in the loss.
• The Big Red tallied 13 steals as a team and assisted on 17 of the team's 23 buckets.
• Kim Kilpela led three double figure scorers for Buffalo with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Jessica Kochendorfer nearly had a triple-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocked shots.
• Brooke Meunier shot 7-of-11 from the floor en route to 14 points.
• The Bulls shot 56 percent in the decisive first half and 51 percent for the game in the win.
• Buffalo held off several second half Cornell rallies, never allowing the Big Red closer than four points and took a 13-point edge into the final five minutes of regulation.
• Cornell made a last-ditch comeback starting with a Force 3-pointer with 5:00 remaining that cut the lead to 59-49  and a basket by Karcic with 10.1 seconds left made it 63-60 game. After nearly getting a steal on the inbounds, Buffalo's Kelly Calderone was fouled and calmly stepped to the line and canned the first free throw to seal the win.

100 WINS AND COUNTING: Head Coach Dayna Smith is already the winningest coach in Cornell history, and she reached the 100-win mark for her career with the team's victory over Manhattan. She has since added to that and has 103 career coaching wins.

HITTING 1,000/500: Senior Clare Fitzpatrick needs just three more points to become the seventh player in Cornell history, and second ever under head coach Dayna Smith, to register at least 1,000 points and 500 rebounds for her career. She hit the 500-rebound plateau with 12 boards against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 18, and currently has 997 career points. 

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: On Dec. 3, Allyson DiMagno earned Ivy League co-Player of the Week after helping the Big Red to a pair of victories against St. Francis (N.Y.) and Morgan State. Over the course of the two games, DiMagno averaged 18.5 points and 11.5 rebounds. She posted her fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 14 rebounds against the Terriers and finished one rebound shy of her fifth double-double with 19 points and nine boards vs. the Lady Bears.. DiMagno is Cornell's first Player of the Week since Lauren Benson shared the award with Harvard's Emily Tay on Feb. 2, 2009.

BEST BOARDS: As of the national rankings on Dec. 30, Allyson DiMagno led the Ivy League and ranked 11th in the nation in rebounds per game (11.5).

IVY LEADERS: In addition to Allyson DiMagno leading the Ivy League in rebounding (11.1 rpg.), several Big Red players are ranked among the top 10 in several categories in the Ivy League, including:
*Allyson DiMagno – fourth in scoring (13.9 points per game)
*Clare Fitzpatrick – 10th in scoring (11.6 points per game)
*Allyson DiMagno – fifth in field goal percentage (.466)
*Clare Fitzpatrick – sixth in field goal percentage (.450)
* Spencer Lane – third in assists (3.3 assists per game)
* Shelby Lyman – 10th in assists (2.3 assists per game)
*Allyson DiMagno – third in free throw percentage (.852)
*Clare Fitzpatrick – ninth in free throw percentage (.732)
*Allyson DiMagno – fifth in steals (1.9 steals per game)
*Shelby Lyman – sixth in 3-point field goals made (1.6 per game)
*Clare Fitzpatrick – 10th in blocked shots (0.6 per game)
* Spencer Lane – second in assist/turnover ratio (1.1 per game)
*Allyson DiMagno – first in offensive rebounds (3.7 per game)
*Allyson DiMagno – first in defensive rebounds (7.4 per game)
*Allyson DiMagno – first in minutes played (35.8 per game)
* Shelby Lyman – sixth in minutes played (31.3 per game)
* Spencer Lane – eighth in minutes played (30.3 per game)

STUDYING THE OPPONENTS: Since the 1980-81 season, the Big Red is 12-20 coming out of Cornell's two-week study break. However, Coach Smith's teams have fared much better, posting a record of 7-4 in the first game back from exams … This season, the Big Red was edged by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 52-49 in its first game following the break.

CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, the Big Red has had 27-of-67 games (40%) decided by eight points or fewer. In those games, Cornell has posted a 14-13 record.

BLOCKS A LOT: Senior Clare Fitzpatrick currently sits in ninth place in Cornell history for career blocks (55), having surpassed classmate Kristina Danielak, who is now sitting in 11th place with 52 blocks.

I'LL TAKE THAT: So far this season, Cornell has averaged 7.6 steals per game, down slightly from last year when the Big Red averaged 8.4 steals per game. Last season's total was the best team average since the 2001-02 team finished the year with 11.0 steals per game.

HELPING HAND: So far this season, the Big Red has assisted on 161-of-234 baskets (68.0%), which is up significantly from last year when Cornell had assists on 366-of-576 baskets (64%).

STARTING STREAK: Junior Allyson DiMagno has a 63-game starting streak, which is by far the longest current active streak on the team. Senior Spencer Lane's 42-game streak ranks second.

LOW PERCENTAGE SHOTS: So far this season, Cornell has held eight of its 12 opponents to below 40 percent shooting from the floor. The Big Red closed the 2011-12 season by holding its opponents to 40 percent or below from the floor in 12 of its final 18 games.

100 THREES: For the past five seasons, Cornell has hit at least 100 3-pointers as a team. 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.

FOR OPENERS: The Big Red is 18-24 all-time in season openers. Coach Dayna Smith improved her record to 2-9 in season openers after defeating Colgate, 69-65 on Nov. 11, 2012. It was the first season-opening victory since the 2004-05 campaign.

WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red graduated two players from the 2011-12 squad – Maka Anyanwu and Allie Munson. A junior college transfer, Anyanwu earned two varsity letters and finished her senior season with 211 points (7.8 ppg.) and 118 rebounds (4.4 rpg.). Munson was a four-year letter winner for the Big Red and played in 93 career games (13.3 mpg.). She averaged 3.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for her career and ranks 12th all-time in Cornell history for career blocked shots (42). 

WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns four starters and nine letter winners from last season's squad. The Big Red returns 84% of its scoring (1,298-of-1,554 points) and 83% of its rebounding (813-of-975) from a year ago.

BASKETBALL PEDIGREE: Junior Stephanie Long isn't the only member of her family to play collegiate basketball. Her father Dennis played basketball for three seasons at UConn.

HOME SWEET HOME: The games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and the University of Texas served as a home coming for Lone Star State natives Kristina Danielak (Georgetown, Texas) and Aspen Chandler (Dallas, Texas).

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Junior 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 plays football for the University of Wisconsin and her grandfather Wayne Long ran track and field in college.

PRESEASON HONORS: Clare Fitzpatrick and Allyson DiMagno were both named to the College Sports Madness Preseason All-Ivy team, with Fitzpatrick earning first-team honors and DiMagno snagging a place on the second-team.

TICKLE THE (ALL) IVY: Forward Clare Fitzpatrick and guard Allyson DiMagno were each named honorable mention All-Ivy League following the 2011-12 season. Fitzpatrick ranked 12th in the Ancient Eight in scoring (10.8 ppg.) and was fourth in rebounding (6.9 rpg.). She also ranked third in the circuit in blocked shots and registered five double-doubles. Her basket with less than four seconds to play helped down Brown. DiMagno was 13th in scoring (10.7 ppg.) and second in rebounding (7.3 rpg.), leading all guards with her work on the backboards. She also ranked 10th in the Ivy in assists (10th) and steals (seventh) and was just outside the top 10 in blocked shots. Her basket with three seconds left pushed the Big Red over Fordham.

HI, MY NAME IS: Cornell has a new face on the bench for the 2012-13 season, as Daan de Heus joins the women's basketball staff as an assistant coach. A native of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, de Heus played for the Dutch national youth basketball teams before going on to serve as an assistant coach for the Netherlands at the 2009 high school basketball world championships, held in Istanbul, Turkey. He was also the head basketball coach of a variety of youth and senior basketball teams at Almonte, from 2005-2011, wining two championships at the U16 and U18 level.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red adds three players to the 2012-13 squad: Allison Bockrath (Dayton, Ohio), Molly Meriggioli (Waunakee, Wisc.) and Jen Wahleithner (Highlands Ranch, Colo). The class of three come from three different states and consists of two guards and one forward.

UP NEXT: Cornell plays its final non-conference game of the season next weekend as it welcomes NAIA opponent Daemen College (N.Y.) to Newman Arena on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 1 p.m.