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GAME INFORMATION
Game #2: Cornell at Drexel
Tip off: Sunday, Nov. 16, at 2:00 p.m.
Site: Daskalakis Athletic Center (2,509), Philadelphia, Pa.
2014-15 Records: Cornell (0-1, 0-0 Ivy); Drexel (0-0, 0-0 CAA)
Series Record: Drexel leads, 5-0
Last Meeting: Drexel won, 69-44, on Dec. 30, 2013 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
TV: None
 
THE MATCHUP: After dropping a 48-46 heartbreaker to Hartford in its season opener on Friday evening, the Big Red women's basketball team hits the road for a contest at Drexel on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. The game will be the Dragons' season opener.
 
THE SERIES VS. DREXEL: The Dragons are a perfect 5-0 in the series with Cornell. The series began during the 1982-83 campaign, a 63-58 decision, and the squads last played a season ago when Drexel earned the 69-44 victory at Newman Arena.
 
SCOUTING THE DRAGONS (courtesy www.DrexelDragons.com): Drexel was picked to finish third in the Colonial Athletic Association, according to a poll of the league's coaches. The Dragons finished fourth last season and will be looking to return to the postseason for the sixth time in seven years after a one-year absence. In addition to placing third in the preseason poll, the Dragons saw junior guard Rachel Pearson selected to the Preseason Second Team All-CAA squad. Pearson, who led the Dragons with 10.3 points per game last season, returns after a breakout season which saw her earn a Third Team All-CAA spot last spring. She scored in double figures 15 times, and put together her first double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds at St. John's, part of an MVP performance in the St. John's Chartwells Holiday Classic. Pearson started all 31 games for the Dragons last season. She is one of three returners to boast All-CAA accolades during their career, joining junior Meghan Creighton (2013 CAA All-Rookie) and sophomore Sarah Curran (2014 CAA All-Rookie). 
 
LAST TIME VS. DREXEL: Drexel made its first five shots, all 3-pointers, and held Cornell to 33 percent shooting for the game en route to a 69-44 victory on Dec. 30, 2013 at Newman Arena. The Dragons made connected on 11-of-17 shots from beyond the arc (65 percent) and connected on 55 percent of its shots overall form the floor while assisting on 21 of its 26 baskets. Rachael Pearson hit 7-of-9 from 3-point range for Drexel for 23 points and Abby Redick had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists for the visitors. Allyson DiMagno had a team-best 14 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Nia Marshall chipped in nine points and five boards. Stephanie Long tallied eight points and four rebounds in the loss. Drexel made their first six shots, including five in a row from 3-point range, but Cornell was able to hang tough despite trailing by as many as 13 (21-8) in the opening minutes. Drexel went 8-of-9 and had pushed its lead to as much as 20 (28-8) before Cornell came storming back with a 14-2 run to get within 30-22 with 3:43 left in the half. Not to be outdone, the Dragons closed strong by scoring the final 11 points in the half with Pearson connecting on three 3-pointers in the final 3:16 to send Cornell into the break trailing 41-22. The second half was more of the same as the Big Red wasn't able to sustain a run. Drexel pushed its lead to as many as 30 and the closest Cornell could get was 19 early in the stanza.
 
CORNELL VS. CAA: Cornell has a 3-12 all-time record against the current members of the Colonial Athletic Association with its only victories coming against Hofstra (1-3), James Madison (1-1) and William & Mary (1-1). The Big Red has also faced Drexel (0-5), Northeastern (0-2), but has never played the College of Charleston, Delaware, Elon UNC-Wilmington, or Towson in women's basketball ... Coach Smith is 2-5 all-time against CCA with victories against JMU and William & Mary.
 
A CORNELL WIN WOULD:
• even the Big Red's  record at 1-1.
• be its first in the series with Drexel.
• improve head coach Dayna Smith to 3-5 all-time vs. the CAA.
 
FOR OPENERS: The Big Red is 19-25 all-time in season openers after its 48-46 heartbreaking loss to Hartford on Nov. 14. Coach Dayna Smith is now 3-10 in season openers.
 
WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red graduated five players from the 2013-14 squad – Aspen Chandler, Joelle Davidson, Allyson DiMagno, Stephanie Long, and Shelby Lyman – and lost one other non-letter winners. The six players accounted for an average of 37.7 points and 19.0 rebounds per game.

WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns two starters and six letter winners from last season's squad. The Big Red returns 42% of its scoring (751-of-1,768 points) and 49% of its rebounding (488-of-988) from a year ago.
 
THE 2013-14 SEASON: The Big Red posted its best overall record since its Ivy League championship campaign, going 14-14 overall and finishing fifth in the Ivy League at 6-8. Cornell was highly competitive in conference play, with half of its losses coming by eight or fewer points. During the season, Allyson DiMagno established herself as one of the greatest players in Ivy League history, becoming just the 10th player ever, and first at Cornell, to accumulate 1,300 points and 900 rebounds. Following the season, she was named second-team All-Ivy. The 2013-14 campaign also featured the emergence of Nia Marshall '17, who was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week five times during the course of the season and became the first Cornell freshman women's basketball player to ever earn a Player of the Week honor. DiMagno graduated as the all-time career rebounding leader in Big Red history, and she also set the career records for offensive rebounds (347), defensive rebounds (591), games played (112) and minutes played (3663). She ranks second in Cornell history for career free throw percentage (.837) and is third all-time in career points (1329), behind only Karen Walker and Keri Farley. Additionally, she ranks in the top-10 in free throws made (fourth – 328), steals (fifth – 173), field goals made (sixth – 457), 3-point field goal percentage (seventh –.354) and field goal percentage (ninth – .440).
 
SMARTY PANTS: Cornell led all Ivy League teams and ranked 20th nationally when the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced its Academic Top 25 for the 2013-14 season. Head coach Dayna Smith's team posted a cumulative grade point average of 3.420 in 2013-14. Cornell was one of three Ivy League schools in the rankings, joining Yale (23rd, 3.397) and Brown (24th, 3.394). The University of Missouri-Kansas City led the way with a 3.628 grade point average.
 
RULE FOLLOWERS: Last season, the Big Red ranked second in the Ivy League and 20th in the nation in fouls per game (15.8).
 
I'LL TAKE THAT:
• Cornell posted 253 steals (9.0 per game) during the 2013-14 season, which was up from the previous season when the Big Red registered 8.1 steals per game.
• Cornell finished the year ranked first in the Ivy League and 69th in the nation for steals per game.
• Cornell ranked second in the Ivy League and 69th in the nation in turnover margin (+2.29). 
• The Big Red's 18 steals vs. Seattle were the most since the 2001-02 season, and the most ever during head coach Dayna Smith's time at the helm of the program.
• In Cornell's next game vs. Binghamton, the team finished with 16 steals, good for second overall during Coach Smith's tenure.
 
MAY I ASSIST YOU?: During the 2013-14 season, the Big Red has assisted on 423-of-615 baskets (68.8 percent). So far this season, Cornell has assisted on 14-of-19 baskets (73.8).
 
IVY LEADERS: Several Big Red players were ranked among the top 10 in various categories in the Ivy League last season, including:
*Nia Marshall – 10th in scoring (12.6 points per game)
*Nia Marshall – fourth in field goal percentage (.511)
*Kerri Moran – third in assists per game (3.5)
*Nia Marshall – third in steals (1.8 steals per game)
*Nia Marshall – fourth in blocked shots (1.2 blocks per game)
*Kerri Moran – fifth in assist/turnover ratio (1.2)
*Nia Marshall – 10th in defensive rebounds (3.8 per game)
 
STARTING STREAK: With the graduation of Allyson DiMagno, sophomore Nia Marshall has the longest starting streak on the team, standing at just three games. Both Marshall and Kerri Moran started every game in 2013-14, with the exception of the Big Red's Senior Day on March 1.
 
CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, the Big Red has had 40-of-112 games (36 percent) decided by eight points or fewer. In those games, Cornell has posted a 20-21 record (.497).
 
LOW PERCENTAGE SHOTS: Since the beginning of the 2012-13 season, Cornell held 29 of its 57 opponents (51 percent) to below 40 percent shooting from the floor.
 
FRESHMAN [FOUR]CE: With two starters and two others contributing significant minutes, four members of last season's freshman class – Kerri Moran, Nia Marshall, Nicholle Aston and Megan LeDuc – put their stamp on the 2013-14 season. All four averaged more than 11 minutes per game and as a group, they shot 42 percent (253-of-605) from the floor. The quartet also contributing an average of 24.1 points, 12.1 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 3.6 steals and 1.6 blocks per game.
 
100 THREES: The Big Red has amassed at least 100 3-pointers in each of the last seven seasons … Cornell 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.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK NOTES
• In total, Nia Marshall was named Rookie of the Week  five times last season (Dec. 2, Dec. 9, Jan. 13, Feb. 3, Feb. 10) becoming the first Big Red player to earn five Rookie of the Week selections since Jeomi Maduka was chosen seven times during the 2005-06 season.
• Nia Marshall was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, becoming the first Cornell women's basketball player to receive back-to-back Rookie of the Weeks awards since Jeomi Maduka in 2005-06.
• Nia Marshall was the first Cornell player to receive two Rookie of the Week awards in a single season since Lauren Benson in 2006-07.
 
WINNING NON-CONFERENCE SLATE: The Big Red finished the non-conference portion of its 2013-14 season with an 8-6 record for the second straight year, giving Cornell a winning non-conference record in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1999-2000/2000-01. It is just the third time in program history that the Big Red has had back-to-back winning non-conference records (1982-83/1983-84).
 
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 on Nov. 20, 2012. She has since added to that and has 124 career coaching wins.
 
HI, MY NAME IS: Cornell has a pair of new faces on the bench for the 2014-15 season – assistant coaches Todd Goclowski and Brendan Burke. A coach with 15 years of experience, Goclowski came to East Hill after eight highly successful years Lebanon Valley College, where he was the winningest coach in the history of the program. Burke came to Cornell after three seasons at Boston University, where he served as the Director of Basketball Operations for two seasons.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red adds six players to the 2014-15 squad – Janée Dennis (Burlington, N.J.), Christine Ehland (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Jamie Hill (Montville, Conn.), Marisa Knox (Memphis, Tenn.), Janelle Odionu (Newmarket, Ala.) and Paige Samuelson (Rock Hill, S.C.). The class comes from six different states and consists of three forwards and three guards.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road when it heads to instate rival Colgate on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.