GAME INFORMATION
Game #5: Cornell vs. Howard
Tipoff: Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Newman Arena (4,473), Ithaca, N.Y.
2016-17 Records: Cornell (3-0, 0-0 Ivy); Howard (0-3, 0-0 MEAC)
Series Record: Cornell leads, 2-1
Last Meeting: Howard won, 76-74, on Jan. 2, 2015 (Washington, D.C.)
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Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: After losing its first game of the season at Towson on Saturday, the Big Red women's basketball team will look to rebound when it takes on winless Howard on Tuesday night in Newman Arena at 7 p.m. Cornell was off to a 3-0 start for the first time since the 1993-94 season before dropping a 68-63 decision to the Tigers, while the Bison are 0-3 following a 109-41 loss to Michigan on Friday night.              
               
THE SERIES VS. HOWARD: Cornell has played the Bison just three times before in women's basketball, with the Big Red winning the first two contests before dropping a two-point decision in Washington, D.C. a year ago.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE BISON:  The Big Red erased a 16-point deficit late in the second period and led by a point with 1:09 to play, but couldn't hold on as Howard took a 76-74 victory on Jan. 2, 2015 at Burr Gymnasium. Nicholle Aston finished one-point shy of her career-high with 21 points and added 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season, while Nia Marshall and Megan LeDuc added 13 points apiece. Kerri Moran finished with seven points, seven assists and six rebound and Maddie Campbell chipped in six points and nine rebounds to help the Big Red to a 44-32 advantage on the boards. Howard (3-12) was led by Victoria Gonzales' 22 points and nine rebounds, while Imani Bailey (13) and Jasmine Hill (10) both finished in double figures. The Big Red shot .479 percent from the floor (34-71) and .417 from 3-point range (5-12) but had an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers, 10 more than its season average. Howard shot .435 percent overall (27-62) and .571 percent from beyond the arc (8-14), marks well above its season average of .353 and .237, respectively. The largest disparity came at the free throw line as the Lady Bison knocked down 14-of-17 from the charity stripe, while the Big Red earned just three trips to the stripe and converted 1-of-3 attempts.
 
SCOUTING HOWARD: After opening the season with a narrow 83-78 loss to Brown, the Bison have dropped a pair of lopsided decisions to No. 21 West Virginia (95-49) and Michigan (109-41). Howard was picked to finish ninth out of 13 teams in the MEAC preseason poll and senior forward Sydni Johnson was named to the preseason All-MEAC third team. Johnson ranks second on the team in both scoring (7.3) and rebounding (3.7), as senior guard Te'Shya Heslip leads the squad with 19.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Heslip is also averaging 4.7 assists per contest.
 
CORNELL VS. THE MEAC: Cornell has a 10-7 all-time record against the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, including a mark of 2-1 vs. Howard. The Big Red has faced Bethune-Cookman (0-1), Coppin State (2-3), Delaware State (3-1), Maryland Eastern-Shore (1-0), and Morgan State (2-1), while never having met Florida A&M, Hampton, Howard, Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, Savannah State and South Carolina State. Coach Smith is 6-4 all-time against MEAC teams.
 
A WIN WOULD:
• give the Big Red a 4-1 record for the first time since the 1999-2000 team went 5-1 with wins over Robert Morris, Lehigh, Wagner, Canisius, and Albany.
• improve the Big Red to 3-1 in the series.
• make Cornell to 11-7 all-time vs. the current members of the MEAC and make head coach Dayna Smith 7-4 vs. the conference.
• improve the Big Red to 3-1 overall and 3-0 in Newman Arena.

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.
 
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 1,319 career points. She needs just 332 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 blocked shots (fourth), career points (fifth), career field goals made (fifth), career defensive rebounds (fifth), career free throws made (sixth), career steals (sixth), and career starts (seventh) … Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc are also in the top 10 in career assists, ranking seventh and 10th, respectively.
 
TEAM NCAA RANKINGS: The Big Red ranks among the top 100 in the nation in …
• Assists – 58th (106)
• Free throws made – 27th (63)
• Free throw percentage – 93rd (.724)
• Scoring defense – 81st (57.8)
• Steals – 67th (38)
• 3-point field goal percentage – 64th (.365)
• Turnovers forced – 74th (20.50)
 
INDIVIDUAL NCAA RANKGINGS: Here's how Cornell players stack up nationwide …
Nia Marshall
• Free throws made – 36th (20)
Megan LeDuc
• Assist/Turnover Ratio – 128th (2.13)
• Assists – 73rd (17)
• Assists per game – 147th (4.3)
Free throw percentage – 154th (.833)
• Minutes played – 77th (136:00)
• Steals – 108th (9)
• Steals per game – 234th (2.25)
• 3-point field goals made – 62nd (10)
• 3-point field goals per game – 121st (2.50)
• 3-point field goal percentage – 113rd (45.5)
Kerri Moran
• Assist/Turnover Ratio – 73rd (2.63)
• Assists – 33rd (21)
• Assists per game – 63rd (5.3)
• Free throws made – 91st (15)
• Free throw percentage – 46th (93.8)
Nicholle Aston
• Field goals made – 120th (22)
• Field goal percentage – 96th (55.0)
 
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 week 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 the only player in Cornell women's basketball history to record 1,300 points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 steals and 50 blocked shots in a career.  
 
LOW PERCENTAGE SHOTS: Since the beginning of the 2012-13 season, the Big Red has held 62 of its 110 opponents (57 percent) to below 40 percent, including 3-of-4 games so far this season.
 
HOLDING THE LEAD: The Big Red was a perfect 9-0 last season in games in which it led at halftime … Cornell is 1-0 so far this season when leading at the half.   
PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• Nia Marshall has been named the Ivy League Player of the Week (POW) six times in her career, tying Allyson DiMagno and Mary LaMacchia for the most in Cornell history.
• Megan LeDuc (Jan. 18, 2016) and Nicholle Aston (Jan. 26, 2015) are the only current Big Red players other than Nia Marshall to be named Ivy POW.
• In addition to Nia Marshall's POW honors, she was named the Ivy Rookie of the Week (ROW) five times during the 2013-14 season, giving her 11 total Ivy weekly awards to her credit, passing Jeomi Maduka who was honored 10 times by the conference (seven ROW; three POW).
• Nia Marshall was named Ivy League POW four times in 2014-15 (Dec. 22, Dec. 29, Jan. 12, Feb. 15), becoming the first Big Red women's basketball player to be named Ivy POW four times in a single season since Allyson DiMagno did so during the 2012-13 campaign.
• Nia Marshall was also named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Feb. 3, 2014, to become the first-ever Cornell freshman to take home the honor.
 
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 156 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.
 
RACE TO 1,000: Nia Marshall reached the 1,000-point plateau in her 68th career game, faster than any Cornell player other than Karen Walker '91, the leading scorer in Big Red history, who scored her 1,000th point in her 65th career game.
 
30-POINT PERFORMANCES:
• With a 31-point performance vs. Binghamton on Dec. 30, 2015, Nia Marshall became the first player in Cornell women's basketball history to register at least 30 points four times in a career.
• During the 2014-15 season, Marshall became the first player in Cornell women's basketball history to score at least 30 points three times in the same season, doing so with 33 points vs. Howard on Jan. 7; 36 points vs. Vermont on Dec. 30; 31 points vs. Robert Morris on Dec. 20.
• Her career-high 36 points came in Cornell's double overtime victory against Vermont on Dec. 30.
• Marshall's first career 30-point game, coming vs. Robert Morris on Dec. 20, made her the first Big Red player to reach the 30-point plateau since Do Stevens in 2001.
• Marshall is the only player in Coach Smith's tenure to score 30+ points in a game.
• Only three women's basketball players in Cornell history have had at least three 30 point games in their career, with Marshall joining Keri Farley and Karen Walker.
• Only once before has Cornell had two 30-point games in the same season, previously done by Karin Dwyer (Jan. 21, 1984 vs. Yale; Feb. 24, 1984).
 
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 60-of-165 games (36 percent) decided by eight points or fewer. In those games, Cornell has posted a 31-31 record (.500).
 
STARTING STREAK: Senior Nia Marshall has the longest starting streak on the team, standing at 62 games. Marshall has started every game of her career, with the exception of the Big Red's Senior Day on March 1, 2014.
 
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.
 
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.
 
HI, MY NAME IS: Cornell had a new face on the bench for the 2016-17 season, as Bobby Savino has joined the staff as a volunteer assistant coach. Savino comes to Cornell after three years as the Director of Status Pro Athletics, an AAU basketball company featuring six teams and two tournaments. Savino also spent two years as an assistant coach for the boys' varsity team at the Cambridge School of Weston, as well as serving as a private basketball coach, training individuals and teams on the middle school and high school level.
 
WELCOME BACK: The women's basketball staff has a familiar face back among its ranks, as Jim Sheehan returns to the bench after spending the 2015 season as a member of the Big Red men's soccer staff. He had previously spent three seasons with the women's basketball staff working as the team's video coordinator and as an assistant coach.
 
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).
 
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. 
 
WINNING NON-CONFERENCE SLATE: With an 8-6 non-conference record a year ago, the Big Red posted a winning non-conference slate for the fourth straight season. The four consecutive winning non-conference seasons is the most in program history.
 
TICKLE THE ALL-IVY:  Nia Marshall was named second-team All-Ivy following her junior season.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red hits the road for a pair of games this weekend, taking on Pitt on Saturday, Nov. 26, before heading to Saint Francis University on Monday, Nov. 28.