GAME INFORMATION
Game #21: Cornell at Princeton
Tip off: Friday, Feb. 12, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: Jadwin Gym (Princeton, N.J.)
2015-16 Records: Cornell (13-7, 5-1 Ivy); Princeton (15-4, 4-1 Ivy)
Series Record: Princeton leads, 50-20
Last Meeting: Princeton won, 70-37 (Ithaca, N.Y.) on 3/6/15
Live Video:  http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule
Live Stats: www.GoPrincetonTigers.com
 
Game #22: Cornell at Penn
Tip off: Saturday, Feb. 13, at 7:00 p.m.
Site: The Palestra (Philadelphia, Pa.)
2015-16 Records: Cornell (13-7, 5-1 Ivy); Penn (16-3, 5-0 Ivy)*
Series Record: Penn leads, 53-20
Last Meeting: Penn won, 56-42 (Ithaca, N.Y.) on 3/7/15
Live Video: http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule
Live Stats: www.PennAthletics.com
 
* records prior to Friday, Feb. 12
 
Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: One game separates the three teams sitting at the top of the Ivy League women's basketball standings. Cornell is one of those teams, and the Big Red faces the other two this weekend as it travels to Princeton and Penn on Friday and Saturday, respectively. All three teams swept their Ivy opponents last weekend, with the Big Red defeating Yale and Brown, while both the Tigers and Quakers downed Harvard and Dartmouth. Both games are slated to tip at 7 p.m., and will be broadcast live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
THE SERIES VS. PRINCETON: The Tigers hold a 50-20 edge in the series with the Big Red. The series began in 1974-75 with a 51-33 Princeton victory, but the teams wouldn't meet again until the 1979-80 season. The schools have met every year since 1979-80, and the Tigers have won the last 14 outings. Coach Dayna Smith is 7-19 vs. Princeton.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE TIGERS: No. 13 Princeton improved to 28-0 (12-0 Ivy) on the season with a 70-37 victory over the Big Red on March 6, 2015 in Newman Arena. Cornell was led by Nia Marshall with eight points and six rebounds, while Christine Kline and Kerri Moran added six points apiece. Nicholle Aston chipped in five rebounds. Princeton was led by Michelle Miller and Blake Dietrick with 15 points apiece. Miller also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, while Dietrick handed out a game-high six assists. The Tigers controlled the game with sharp shooting, hitting nearly 52 percent overall (25-52) and 61 percent from beyond the arc (8-13), and by outrebounding the Big Red, 47-29. Cornell connected on just 25 percent from the floor (14-55) and a mere 14 percent from 3-point range (1-7), but took great care of the ball with just seven turnovers. The Big Red also forced Princeton into 15 miscues.
 
THE SERIES VS. PENN: Cornell's rivalry with the Quakers began during the 1974-75 season and the two teams have met every year since, excluding the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons. The Quakers hold the all-time series record, 53-20, but the Big Red has won 11 of the last 20 meetings. Coach Smith, who served as an assistant coach for Penn from 1999-2002, holds a 11-15 record vs. her old squad after a series split last season.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE QUAKERS: The Big Red saw the 2014-15 season come to an end at the hands of Penn, 56-42, as the Quakers ruined Senior Night while earning its 20th victory of the season (20-7, 11-2 Ivy) on March 7, 2015 in Newman Arena. Nia Marshall led the team with 13 points, falling just 12 points shy of the school record for points in a single season (467), set by Mary LaMacchia during the 1995-96 campaign. Marshall finishes her sophomore year ranked third overall with 455 points. She also chipped in six rebounds, two blocks and one steal in 37 minutes of action. Playing her final game in a Cornell uniform, Christine Kline registered 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds to go along with four steals, two assists and one block. Both Kline and Marshall finished the season with 58 steals, good for sixth overall in Cornell history for steals in a single season. Penn was led by Sydney Stipanovich with 16 points, while Kathleen Roche tallied 10. On the boards, Michelle  Nwokedi finished with a game-high nine rebounds, helping the Quakers to the slim 40-34 advantage. Cornell was done in by poor shooting in the first half, hitting just 18.5 percent overall, while Penn connected on 44.8 percent to build a 29-17 halftime lead. The Big Red improved over the final 20 minutes, but finished at just 25.5 percent for the game (14-55), while the Quakers knocked down 42.9 percent overall (21-49).
 
STORY LINES:
• The Big Red enters the weekend having won six of its last seven outings, with the lone loss coming to Harvard in overtime on Jan. 29.
• Cornell enters the weekend with an 3-5 record on the road, but picked up a win in its last road game at Columbia on Jan. 16.
• The Big Red is off to a 5-1 start in Ivy League play, its best start in conference since the 2007-08 team went 8-1 to begin Ancient Eight play.
• Penn swept Harvard and Dartmouth on the road last weekend to improve to 5-0 in League play for the first time since 2003-04, when the Quakers finished 11-3 in League play en route to their second Ivy title.
• Princeton also swept Dartmouth and Harvard on the road to stay a game behind Penn in the Ivy standings. The Tigers held off Harvard in overtime, outscoring the Crimson 20-11 in the extra session.
 
WHERE WE STAND: The Big Red enters the weekend sitting in second place in the Ivy League with a conference record of 5-1. Penn leads the conference at 5-0, while Princeton, despite a record of 4-1, sits in third place overall. 
 
FOUR STRAIGHT IVY HONORS: For the fourth straight week, the Big Red women's basketball team has taken home one of the Ivy League weekly honors, as Nia Marshall was named the conference's Player of the Week on Feb. 8. Marshall joins Cornell's previous winners this season – Megan LeDuc (Player on Jan. 18) and Caroline Shelquist (Rookie on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1) – with the sixth Player of the Week honor of her career.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• Nia Marshall was named the Ivy League Player of the Week (POW) on Feb. 8, 2016 … It was the sixth POW honor of her career, tying Allyson DiMagno and Mary LaMacchia for the most in Cornell history.
• Megan LeDuc became the first Big Red player this season to be named the POW when she took home the honor on Jan. 18 … She joins Nicholle Aston (1/26/15) as the only current Cornell player 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 last season (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.
 
COMEBACK KIDS: Cornell has tailed at some point in nine of its 13 victories this season, including three games in which it trailed by double-digits. The largest lead the Big Red has overcome was a 17-point deficit to Columbia on Jan. 16. The Lions led, 30-13, early in the second period before the Big Red fought back to win, 66-59. Cornel has also trailed by 11 to Yale on Feb. 6, before winning 74-63, as well as 10 points vs. Bryant, before outscoring the Bulldogs, 26-15, in the final quarter of action to steal a 70-62 victory.
 
150 WINS AND COUNTING: Head Coach Dayna Smith is already the winningest coach in Cornell history, and she reached the 150-win mark for her career with the team's overtime victory vs. Dartmouth on Jan. 30, 2016. She enters the weekend with 152 career victories.
 
SCHOOL RECORD IN SIGHT: Nia Marshall is on pace to break the school record for points in a single season (Mary LaMacchia – 467 in 1995-96). The junior forward, who averages 17.8 points per game, enters this weekend with 355 points on the season and needs to average just 14.1 points over the final eight games to set the new standard … A year ago, Marshall fell just 13 points shy of breaking the school record, finishing the year with 455 points to rank third behind LaMacchia and Rhonda Anderson (462 in 1982-83).
 
WELL ROUNDED: Nia Marshall is just 18 rebounds shy of joining Clare Fitzpatrick '13 as just the second player in Cornell women's basketball history to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 steals and 50 blocked shots in a career. Marshall, who is currently averaging 6.1 rebounds per game, is on pace to reach the mark during the Dartmouth/Harvard weekend (Feb. 19-20).   
 
FREE THROW FRENZY: Kerri Moran knocked down 13 free throws vs. Brown on Feb. 5, a mark that ranks second all-time in Cornell history for made free-throws in a single game, tied with four others, behind Karen Force (15 at Yale on Feb. 1, 2003). 
 
TOP SERIES SCORES: Twice already this Ivy League season, Cornell has set program highs for points vs. an Ancient Eight opponent. The 85 points scored by the Big Red vs. Brown on Feb. 5 were the most ever scored by Cornell in the history of the series vs. the Bears … Cornell's 84 points vs. Columbia on Jan. 23 was the most ever scored by the Big Red in the history of the series with the Lions. 

DOUBLE THE OVERTIME: Cornell went to overtime in back-to-back nights vs. Harvard and Dartmouth on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, respectively. The consecutive overtime games were the first-ever for the Big Red in Ivy League play, and the first for the program since the 1972-73 season.

LOW PERCENTAGE SHOTS: So far this season, Cornell has held 14-of-20 opponents (70 percent) to below 40 percent shooting from the floor. Since the beginning of the 2012-13 season, the Big Red has held 58 of its 102 opponents (57 percent) to below 40 percent.
 
TIGHT LOSSES: So far this season, four of Cornell's seven losses have come by nine or few points. A year ago, eight of the Big Red's 13 losses came by nine or fewer points.
 
HANDLE WITH CARE: The Big Red is second in the Ivy League and fifth in the nation in fewest turnovers (259) … Cornell ranks first in the conference and is 15th in the country with a 1.24 assist/turnover ratio … The Big Red is also second in the conference and 17th in the nation in turnovers per game (13.0).
 
MAY I ASSIST YOU: Cornell ranks second in the Ivy League and 32nd in the nation in assists per game (16.1) … Kerri Moran ranks second in the Ivy League and ranks 59th nationally with a 2.02 assist/turnover ratio ... Moran leads the conference and ranks 86th in the country with 4.5 assists per game.
 
MAKING THE CONNECTION: Cornell ranks second in the Ivy League and 65th in the nation in field goal percentage (.425) … The Big Red is even better from beyond the arc, ranking first in the conference and 16t in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.369).
 
RULE FOLLOWERS: The Big Red ranks 19th in the nation in fewest fouls (323).
 
SCORES A LOT: Nia Marshall leads the Ivy League and ranks 67th in the nation in points per game (17.8) … The junior forward also ranks third in the conference and 75th in the country in field goal percentage (.504).
 
CORNELL TOP 10: Junior Kerri Moran has moved into the top 10 in career assists (9th), while Nia Marshall has moved into the top 10 in career field goals (7th), career free throws made (8th), career defensive rebounds (8th), career steals (8th) and career blocked shots (4th).
 
HOLDING THE LEAD: The Big Red has a perfect 8-0 record this season in games in which it has led at halftime.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road for a pair of games at Dartmouth and Harvard, taking on the Big Green on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m., before facing the Crimson on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 6:00 p.m.