Women's Basketball Welcomes Canisius On Thursday At 5 PM
 
GAME INFORMATION
Game #10: Cornell vs. Canisius
Tipoff: Thursday, Dec. 22, at 5:00 p.m.
Site: Newman Arena (4,473), Ithaca, N.Y.
2016-17 Records: Cornell (6-3, 0-0 Ivy); Canisius (2-8, 1-1 MAAC)
Series Record: Canisius leads, 7-1
Last Meeting: Canisius won, 62-45, on Dec. 28, 2011 (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Live Video 
Live Stats

Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red women's basketball team closes the 2016 portion of its schedule when it welcomes Canisius to Newman Arena on Thursday, Dec. 22 at 5 p.m. Cornell won its last outing at Youngstown State to improve to 6-3 overall, while the Golden Griffs have lost three straight to slip to 2-8 on the year. Admission to Thursday's game is free, but out of area fans can follow the action via live stats or on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
THE SERIES VS. CANISIUS: Canisius holds the all-time advantage against the Big Red, 7-1, and has won the last four outings, but the teams have not faced off since the 2011-12 season. The series began during the 1988-89 campaign with the Golden Griffins winning the first three meetings before the Big Red took its lone win in the series during the 1999-2000 season … Head Coach Dayna Smith is 0-4 all-time vs. the Griffs.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE GRIFFS: Canisius led wire-to-wire as it defeated the Big Red, 62-45, on Dec. 28, 2011 at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, N.Y. The Griffins got out to a fast start and used an early 10-0 run to build a significant lead that Cornell could not overcome. Cornell (3-7) was led by Taylor Flynn, who came in off the bench to score 10 points and hand out three assists. The forward tandem of Clare Fitzpatrick and Maka Anyanwu scored nine and eight points, respectively, with Fitzpatrick coming up with four of the Big Red's 15 steals and Anyanwu grabbing seven rebounds. Allyson DiMagno also finished with a team-high seven rebounds. Canisius (6-5) had a trio of players finish in double-figures, with Jamie Ruttle leading the way with 20 points, while Ashley Durham and Kayla Hoohuli finished with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Courtney VandeBovenkamp pulled down a game-high eight rebounds and Jen Morabito handed out five assists. The Griffs shot the ball extremely well, finishing the game at 41 percent from the floor (20-49) and 50 percent from 3-point range (8-16), while holding Cornell to just 33 percent overall (16-49) and a mere 29 percent from beyond the arc (4-14). The home team also held the advantage in rebounds (34-32) and posted one fewer turnover than Cornell (20-19).
 
SCOUTING CANISIUS: The Golden Griffins have dropped their last three outings to Buffalo, No. 12 Ohio State, and Morehead State to slip to 2-8 on the season. Canisius is led by Sara Hinriksdottir, who leads the team in points (15.5 p/game) and is second overall in rebounding (5.2 p/game), numbers that were bolstered by her career-high 29 points and nine rebounds in the Griffs' last outing at Morehead State. The sophomore forward is one of two players from Iceland on the Canisius roster, joining junior guard Margret Halfdnardottir, who is third in scoring (9.1 ppg) behind Lauren D'Hont's 12.1 points per game. D'Hont also leads the team in rebounding with 5.4 caroms per contest.
 
CORNELL VS. THE MAAC: Cornell improved to 17-32 all-time vs. the current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference after three consecutive victories, including two against Fairfield in each of the past two seasons. The Big Red holds a winning record vs. the Stags (3-2), Iona (1-0) and Monmouth (2-1), and is tied Manhattan (2-2), but has a losing record vs. Canisius (1-7), Marist (2-7), Niagara (6-10) and Siena (0-3). Cornell has never faced Quinnipiac, Rider or St. Peter's in women's basketball ... Coach Smith's record against teams in the MAAC is 6-9.
 
A WIN WOULD:
• improve Cornell to 7-3 this season.
• give Cornell a 4-1 record at Newman Arena.
• make Cornell 2-7 all-time vs. Canisius.
• be the third in a row over a MAAC opponent
• give Cornell an 18-32 record all-time vs. the MAAC.
• give head coach Dayna Smith her first victory over Canisius (1-4).
• make Coach Smith 7-9 all-time vs. the MAAC.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• Nia Marshall was named the Ivy League Player of the Week (POW) on Dec. 19, 2016, giving her seven POW awards in her career.
• Nia Marshall's seven POW awards are a Cornell record, surpassing Allyson DiMagno and Mary LaMacchia, who previously held the record with six honors apiece.
• 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 12 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.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• Danielle Jorgenson was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Weed on Dec. 19 after helping the Big Red defeat Youngstown State, 80-75.
• 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.
• Danielle Jorgenson and Samantha Widmann become the first pair of Cornell freshman to win the award in the same season since Allie Munson and Allison Abt did so during the 2008-09 campaign.
• 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.
 
IVY HONOR SWEEP: Nia Marshall and Danielle Jorgenson were named the Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively, on Dec. 19 to give Cornell its first Ivy League honors sweep since Marshall took home both awards on Feb. 3, 2014.  
 
STUDYING THE OPPONENTS: Since the 1980-81 season, the Big Red is 15-21 coming out of Cornell's two-week study break, thanks mostly to Coach Smith's teams, which have posted a 10-5 mark in the first game back from exams.
 
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.
 
HOLDING THE LEAD: The Big Red has won 13 straight contests when leading at the half, dating back to a loss to Harvard on Feb. 27, 2015. Cornell was a perfect 9-0 last season and is 4-0 so far this season when leading at the half. 
 
SCHOOL RECORD IN SIGHT: Nia Marshall enters the week ranked second in Cornell history, and 34th in the Ivy League rankings, with 1,401 career points. She needs just 250 to break the school record, currently held by Karen Walker (1987-91).
 
CORNELL CAREER TOP 10:
Nia Marshall
Points (2nd; 1,401) – 250 pts to move into 1st
Field goals made (3rd; 528) – 9 FG to move into 2nd
Free throws made (3rd; 340) – 16 FT to move into 2nd
Blocked shots (4th; 85) – 19 blocks to move into 3rd
Defensive rebounds (5th; 412) – 5 defensive rebs to move into 4th
Steals (5th; 178) – 10 steals to move into 4th
Starts (7th; 92) – 3 starts to move into 6th
Career rebounds (10th; 583) – 7 rebounds to move into 9th
Offensive rebounds (11th; 171) – 1 offensive reb to move into 10th
Kerri Moran
Assists (5th; 350) 43 assists to move into 4th
Career games started (11th; 84) – 1 starts to move into 9th
Megan LeDuc
Assists (9th; 284) – 11 assists to move into 8th
3-Point FG (11th; 108) – 2 3FG to move into 10th
 
TEAM NCAA RANKINGS: The Big Red enters the week ranked among the top 100 in the nation in …
• Fewest fouls – 72nd (161)
• 3-point field goal defense – 17th (39.2)
• Turnovers forced – 100th (18.44)
 
INDIVIDUAL NCAA RANKINGS: Here's how Cornell players stack up nationwide as of Monday, Dec. 12 …
Nia Marshall
• Free throws made – 83rd (40)
• Points per game – 220th (14.4)
• Steals per game – 134th (2.11)
Megan LeDuc
• Assist/Turnover Ratio – 226th (1.37)
• Assists per game – 134th (4.1)
• Steals per game – 172nd (2.00)
• 3-point field goals per game – 105th (2.33)
• 3-point field goal percentage – 25th (46.7)
Kerri Moran
• Assist/Turnover Ratio – 111th (1.84)
• Assists – 99th (46)
• Assists per game – 54th (5.1)
 
TOP 10 ASSISTS:  Arguably the best backcourt duo in Cornell history, Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc enter the week ranked fifth and ninth, 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 are 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 Big Red players have accounted for 24 double-digit assist performances in Cornell history.  
 
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 63 of its 115 opponents (56 percent) to below 40 percent, including 4-of-9 games so far this season.
 
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.
 
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 159 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.
 
CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, the Big Red has had 62-of-170 games (36 percent) decided by eight points or fewer. In those games, Cornell has posted a 33-31 record (.515).
 
STARTING STREAK: Senior Nia Marshall has the longest starting streak on the team, standing at 67 games. Marshall has started every game of her career, with the exception of the Big Red's Senior Day on March 1, 2014.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red will play its final game of 2016 when it closes the year at Stony Brook on Friday, Dec. 30 at 1 p.m.