GAME INFORMATION
Game #3: Cornell at Colgate
Tipoff: Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Cotterell Court (1,782), Hamilton, N.Y.
2016-17 Records: Cornell (2-0, 0-0 Ivy); Colgate (0-2, 0-0 Patriot League)
Series Record: Cornell leads, 21-15
Last Meeting: Cornell won, 73-60, on Nov. 18, 2015 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
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Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red women's basketball team hits the road for the first time this season, as it takes on in-state rival Colgate on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Cornell picked up a pair of wins over the weekend to open a season at 2-0 for the first time since 2013-14. The Raiders are off to an 0-2 start after an overtime loss to Providence and a 70-57 loss at St. Bonaventure.       
               
THE SERIES VS. COLGATE: Standing at 36 meetings all-time, Cornell's series with the Raiders is the longest in women's basketball history, excluding Ivy League games. The Big Red has won nine of the last 10 games against the Raiders to take the slim lead in the all-time series, 21-15. The series began during the 1978-79 season, a 65-60 overtime victory for the Big Red, but Colgate won 10 of the first 14 overall before Cornell won five straight from 1992-93 to 1996-97. Since the 1992-93 season, the Big Red has gone 17-5 against Colgate and head coach Dayna Smith is 9-3 all-time in the series.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE RAIDERS: Cornell survived a late Colgate push and found its poise in picking apart the Raiders late on its way to a 73-60 victory at Newman Arena on Nov. 18, 2015. Cornell never trailed, but never felt comfortable until running away late. The Big Red led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter, but saw the lead sliced to three (48-45) in the opening two minutes of the fourth. Playing its first game of the season in front of the home crowd, Cornell embarked on a 14-2 run that all but sealed Cornell's second straight win after a season-opening buzzer-beating loss at Hartford. Nicholle Aston registered her eighth career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Maddie Campbell neared the milestone with a strong eight-point, 10-rebound, seven-assist stat line in the win, as did Nia Marshall with 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Freshman Caroline Shelquist connected on four 3-pointers for her 12 points, reaching double figures for the first time in her career. Kerri Moran rounded out four double figure scorers with 11 points, four assists and three steals. Cornell shared the ball, assisting on 21 of its 26 baskets and limited the Raiders to 31 percent shooting overall. Colgate was led by Randyll Butler's 12-point, 14-rebound double-double, while Kateri Stone and Paige Kriftcher finished with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
 
SCOUTING COLGATE: Under first-year head coach Bill Cleary, the Raiders were selected to finish ninth overall in the Patriot League preseason poll. Cleary, who compiled a 164-69 record in his eight-years at Bloomsburg, will look to build upon a program that lost All-Defensive and second-team All-League selection Josie Stockill, but returns senior guard Katie Curtis, who averaged 9.4 points per game and accumulated 41 steals a year ago. The Raiders dropped the first two games of the season, falling to Providence in overtime on Friday night, before losing a 70-57 decision to St. Bonaventure. Freshman guard Rachel Thompson leads the team with 15.0 points per game, while Curtis and freshman guard Haley Greer are adding 12.5 points per game apiece. In the front court, sophomore Mylah Chandler has chipped in 9.0 points per game and leads the team with 11.0 rebounds per contest. 
 
CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE: Cornell is 45-57 all-time vs. the current members of the Patriot League. The Big Red owns the advantage in the series with Lafayette (8-7), Colgate (21-15), and Loyola (Md.) (3-2), but holds a losing mark against American (1-2), Army (5-6), Bucknell (5-19), Lehigh (2-4), and Navy (0-2). Boston University and Holy Cross are the only members of the Patriot League that Cornell has never faced in women's basketball ... Coach Smith's record vs. the conference stands at 20-16 after going 4-1 against the Patriot League over the past three seasons, including a win last weekend over Loyola.
  
A WIN WOULD:
* give Cornell a 3-0 start for the first time since the 1993-94 squad defeated Colgate, St. Bonaventure, and Davidson.
* be the sixth in a row over Colgate, and 10th win in the last 11 meetings.
* improve Coach Smith to 10-3 all-time in the series.
* make Coach Smith 21-16 vs. the Patriot League. 
* improve the Big Red to 5-1 against the Patriot League over the past three seasons, including a mark of 2-0 this year.

COACHING TENURE: Head coach Dayna Smith, in her 15th season at the helm of the Big Red program, ranks fourth overall in Ivy League women's basketball history in years served as a head coach in the conference. Only one active coach, Harvard's Kathy Delaney-Smith (34th season), ranks ahead of Cornell's Smith.
 
FOR OPENERS: The Big Red is 20-26 all-time in season openers. Coach Dayna Smith saw her record improve to 4-11 in season openers after defeating New Hampshire, 61-56, on Nov. 11 at Newman Arena.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• Samantha Widmann was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Nov. 14 after scoring 14 points to help the Big Red comeback to defeat Loyola, 58-50.
• Caroline Shelquist was one of just eight Cornell women's basketball players to win Rookie of the Week honors twice in a career.
• Last season, Shelquist became the Big Red's first repeat Rookie of the Week winner since Nia Marshall took home the award on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, 2014.
 
SCHOOL RECORD IN SIGHT: Nia Marshall enters the week with 1,300 career points. She needs just 351 to break the school record, currently held by Karen Walker (1987-91).
 
CORNELL TOP 10: Nia Marshall enters her senior season ranked in the top 10 in career points (fifth), field goals made (fifth), career free throws made (sixth), career defensive rebounds (sixth), career steals (seventh), career blocked shots (fourth), rebounds (10th), and career starts (10th) … Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc are also in the top 10 in career assists, ranking seventh and 10th, respectively.
 
THE 400-POINT CLUB: In each of the past two seasons, Nia Marshall scored more than 400 points, becoming just the third player in Cornell history to do it twice in a career – joining Karen Walker (1989-90, 1990-91) and Keri Farley (1994-95, 1992-93). Her 464 points in 2015-16 ranks second overall in Cornell women's basketball history, while her 455 points in 2014-15 is good for fourth overall.
 
TOP 10 ASSISTS:  Arguably the best backcourt duo in Cornell history, Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc enter the weekend ranked seventh and 10th, respectively, in career assists. They are just the third pair of four-year teammates in Ivy League history to finish in the top 10 of their team's assist record list. The other Ivy duos are Brown's Julie Amato and Vita Redding (1995-99) and Dartmouth's Ashley Taylor and Fatima Kamara (2003-07).  
 
10 ASSISTS CLUB: Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc became the 11th and 12th players, respectively in Cornell history to have 10 assists in a single game, with Moran doing so vs. Towson on Dec. 2, 2015 and LeDuc doing so vs. Penn on Feb. 26, 2016 and vs. New Hampshire on Nov. 11, 2016. In total, 12 players have accounted for 24 double-digit assist performances in Cornell history.  
 
PERFECT 10: On Dec. 2, 2015 vs. Towson, Kerri Moran became the first player in Cornell history to post 10 assists, with zero turnovers, in a single game. Just over two months later, classmate Megan LeDuc accomplished the same feat with 10 assists and no turnovers vs. Penn on Feb. 26, 2016 … On four other occasions, LeDuc (10-1 vs. New Hampshire on Nov. 11, 2016), Lauren Benson (12-1 vs. Tennessee State on Nov. 21, 2009), Kacee English (11-1 vs. Penn on Feb. 28, 1997) and Keri Farley (10-1 vs. Colgate on Dec. 6, 1994) have all posted 10+ assist performances with just one turnover.
 
WELL ROUNDED: Nia Marshall is just the second player in Cornell women's basketball history to record 1,200 points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 steals and 50 blocked shots in a career, joining Clare Fitzpatrick '13.  
 
LOW PERCENTAGE SHOTS: Since the beginning of the 2012-13 season, the Big Red has held 61 of its 108 opponents (56 percent) to below 40 percent, including both games so far this season.
 
TIGHT LOSSES: During the 2015-16 season, six of Cornell's 14 losses came by nine or few points.
 
HANDLE WITH CARE: Megan LeDuc ranks 31st in the nation with a 5.00 assist/turnover ratio.

MAY I ASSIST YOU: Megan LeDuc ranks 30th in the country with 5.0 assists per game.
 
RULE FOLLOWERS: The Big Red ranks 81st in the nation in fouls per game (16.5).
 
HOLDING THE LEAD: The Big Red was a perfect 9-0 record last season in games in which it led at halftime.
 
150 WINS AND COUNTING: Head Coach Dayna Smith is the winningest coach in Cornell history, and reached the 150-win mark for her career with the team's overtime victory vs. Dartmouth on Jan. 30, 2016. She currently stands at 155 career victories.
 
1,000-POINT CLUB: With a 31-point performance vs. Binghamton on Dec. 30, 2015, Nia Marshall became the 14th 1,000-point scorer in Cornell women's basketball history.
  
40-MINUTE WOMEN:  Megan LeDuc has played at least 40 minutes in 10 contests during her career. Only Karen Walker (27 games), Kacee English (17 games) and Lauren Benson (16 games) have played more 40-minute games in their career than LeDuc.
 
CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, the Big Red has had 59-of-164 games (36 percent) decided by eight points or fewer. In those games, Cornell has posted a 31-30 record (.508).
 
STARTING STREAK: Senior Nia Marshall has the longest starting streak on the team, standing at 60 games. Marshall has started every game of her career, with the exception of the Big Red's Senior Day on March 1, 2014.
  
PRESEASON IVY STANDINGS: The Big Red was picked to finish in fourth place in the 2016-17 Ivy League preseason media poll, the highest preseason poll ranking for the Big Red since the 2008 squad was tabbed to finish third. Defending Ivy League women's basketball champion Penn was unanimously selected to repeat as Ivy champs. The Quakers swept the first-place votes for a total of 136 points, the fifth team to accomplish the feat in League history and first since Princeton in 2010-11. The Tigers, the runners-up and NCAA Tournament at-large team a year ago, finished second with 110 points, followed by Harvard (104), Cornell (76), Dartmouth (66), Yale (56), Brown (40) and Columbia (24).

WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red graduated one player from the 2015-16 squad – Maddie Campbell – and lost one other letter winner, as well as one non-letter winner. The trio accounted for an average of 9.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
 
WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns four starters and three additional letter winners from last season's squad. The Big Red returns 84% of its scoring (1,451-of-1,725 points) and 77% of its rebounding (771-of-996) from a year ago.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added eight players to the 2016-17 squad, the largest class ever brought to East Hill by Coach Smith. The group hails from eight different states and boasts four guards and four forwards.
 
NOTING THE 2015-16 SEASON:
• The Big Red finished the year with a 14-14 record (6-8 Ivy).
• With its 8-6 non-conference record, Cornell earned a winning non-conference record for the fourth straight season, a feat that has never been accomplished in Cornell women's basketball history.
• As a team, the Big Red finished the year ranked in the top 50 of the NCAA in fewest turnovers (third – 350), assist/turnover ratio (21st – 1.22), fewest fouls (26th – 454), and assists per game (49th – 15.2).
• The Big Red finished the season ranked fifth in the Ivy League for the sixth consecutive season.
• Nia Marshall came just four points shy of setting the school record for points in a single season.
• Megan LeDuc finished the year with 118 assists, good for eighth all-time in Cornell for assists in a single season. 
• Caroline Shelquist wrapped up her rookie season with 43 3-pointers, good for 10th in Cornell history for 3-pointers in a single season. 

TICKLE THE ALL-IVY:  Nia Marshall was named second-team All-Ivy following her junior season.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road this weekend, travelling to Towson on Saturday, Nov. 19 for a contest at noon.