GAME INFORMATION
GAME #11: Cornell vs. St. Bonaventure
GAME TIME: Monday, Dec. 31, at 1:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Series tied, 6-6
LAST MEETING: St. Bonaventure, 70-49 (12/22/2008; St. Bonaventure, N.Y.)
2018-19 RECORDS: Cornell (5-5, 0-0 Ivy); St. Bonaventure (3-0, 0-0 A10)
LIVE STATS: https://bit.ly/2PYqZhG
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2QWMroh
 
Full Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red women's basketball team closes 2018 when it welcomes St. Bonaventure to Newman Arena for a 1 p.m. contest on Monday, Dec. 31. Cornell has won three in a row, and five straight in Ithaca, to even its record at 5-5 on the year after a dominant 79-53 win over Hampton on Saturday. St. Bonaventure has lost three straight to slip to 3-9 overall, but has been idle since a 90-43 loss to Buffalo on Dec. 23.
 
QUICK HITS:
• The Big Red has played St. Bonaventure more than any other team in the Atlantic 10 with 12 meetings.
• The Bonnies are the first A10 opponent the Big Red has faced since playing Fordham during the 2012-13 season.
• The Big Red's last win vs. the A10 came against Fordham during the 2011-12 season.
• Cornell head coach Dayna Smith, who played for A10 member Rhode Island, still ranks fourth all-time in A10 history for career assists and fifth in career steals.  
• Cornell won its third straight contest with a dominant 79-53 win over Hampton on Saturday afternoon.
• The Big Red had a season-high 23 assists and forced a season-high 28 turnovers vs. the Lady Pirates.
• Cornell had three players in double-digits against Hampton, led by Laura Bagwell-Katalinch's career-high 21 points.   
• Bagwell-Katalinich and Widmann have combined to lead Cornell in scoring in 9-of-10 games this season.
 
THE SERIES VS. ST. BONAVENTURE: Cornell and the Bonnies first met during the 1983-84 season, but the teams have met just 12 times in program history.
• The series is tied at 6-6 after four consecutive wins by the St. Bonaventure.
• Cornell has had two separate three-game winning streaks in the series, winning three in a row from 1983-86 and again with wins in  1993-93, 1998-99, and 2000-01.
 
A WIN WOULD:
• be the fourth in a row and give the Big Red a winning record at 6-5.
• be the sixth in a row at Newman Arena.
• snap a four-game losing streak to St. Bonaventure.
• make Cornell 9-16 vs. the Atlantic 10.  
• give Coach Smith a 2-11 record against the conference.
 
CORNELL VS. THE ATLANTIC 10: Cornell has an 8-16 record all-time vs. the current members of the A10.
• The Big Red's series with St. Bonaventure (6-6) and Davidson (1-1) is tied.
• Dayton (0-1), Duquesne (0-4), Fordham (1-2), Richmond (0-1) and UMass (0-1) all have a winning record vs. the Big Red.
• Cornell has never played George Mason, George Washington, LaSalle, Rhode Island, Saint Louis, Saint Joseph's or VCU.
• Head Coach Dayna Smith is 1-11 all-time vs. the A10.
 
HEAD COACH DAYNA SMITH: In her 17th season at the helm of the Big Red program, head coach Dayna Smith 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 (36 yrs), ranks ahead of Cornell's Smith.
• 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 181 career victories.
 
WINNING OPPONENTS: Lafayette was the sixth opponent, out of 10 for the Big Red, to own at least a .500 record or better entering the contest. 
 
NCAA STATS:
• Cornell ranks inside the top 100 in 3-point field goal defense (52nd – .272), scoring defense (70th – 58.2); turnovers forced (91s – 18.7); field goal percentage (91st – .427); rebound margin (98th – 4.0).
• Laura Bagwell-Katalinich ranks 161st in rebounds per game (7.5) and 113th in field goal percentage (.488).
• Samantha Widmann ranks 176th in steals per game (2.0) and 213th in assist/turnover ratio (1.36).
• Danielle Jorgenson ranks 210th in steals per game (1.9) and 242nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.26).
 
STARTING STATS: The Big Red has used three different starting line-ups this season.
• Samantha Widmann and Danielle Jorgenson lead the team with 34 consecutive starts.
• Laura Bagwell-Katalinich made her first career start in the season opener at Binghamton.
• Dylan Higgins made her first career start in the contest vs. UAlbany on Nov. 12.
• Kate Sramac made her first career start vs. Delaware State on Dec. 15.
 
STUDYING THE OPPONENTS: Since the 1980-81 season, the Big Red is 16-22 coming out of Cornell's two-week study break. However, Coach Smith's teams have fared much better, posting a record of 11-6 in the first game back from exams, a mark that was raised with a 94-59 win over Delaware State.
 
GET A GRIP: Cornell turned the ball over just four times at Colorado State, matching the school record of four turnovers vs. Yale on Feb. 6, 2016.
 
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Four new players saw their first action for the Big Red in the season opener at Binghamton – Laura Bagwell-Katalanich, Theresa Grace Mbanefo, Caitlyn Smith and Samantha Will.
• Freshman Annika Hoff saw her first collegiate action in her home state when she played six minutes vs. No. 23 Minnesota. She finished with six points and five rebounds.
 
WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red graduated two seniors from the 2017-18 squad, and lost two other letter winners, as well as one non-letter winner.
• The five players accounted for just 25 percent of Cornell's points and rebounds.
 
WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns three starters and 10 letter winners from a year ago.  
• The team returns its top scorer and rebounder in Samantha Widmann, as well as its second leading scorer, Samantha Clement.
• Overall, the squad returns 75% of its scoring and rebounding
• All but one returning letter winner played in at least 20 contests. 
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added four players to the 2018-19 squad, three freshman and one junior college transfer.
• The group hails from three different states – Minnesota (2), Florida and New Hampshire.
• The group consists of two forwards (Annika Hoff, Theresa Grace Mbanefo), one guard (Samantha Will) and one point guard (Caitlyn Smith).
 
IVY PRESEASON RANKINGS: The Big Red was picked eighth overall in the 2018-19 Ivy League media preseason poll.
• Princeton was selected to repeat, as the Tigers garnered 133 points and 14 first-place votes.
• Penn and Harvard were neck-and-neck for second and third, respectively, with the Quakers earning two first-place votes and 107 points and the Crimson receiving one first-place vote and 104 points. 
• Yale took fourth with 89 points, as the voters selected a repeat of last year's top-four teams.
• Brown was picked to place fifth with 66 points, followed by Dartmouth (55), Columbia (30) and Cornell (28).
 
LIVE AND ON THE AIR: The Big Red will have all 27 of its regular season games broadcast this season.
• 20 games, including 12 Ivy League contests, will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Two Ivy League games will be broadcast on ESPN3.
• ESPN+ is available through the ESPN app and ESPN.com for $4.99 / month and $49.99 / year. The subscription includes over 175 Ivy League men's and women's basketball games as well as thousands of other live events from other collegiate conferences and professional sports leagues. 
• Three games will be broadcast on the Patriot League Network (Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette).
• Cornell will have one game each on the Big Ten Network Plus (Minnesota) and the Mountain West Network (Colorado State).
 
DON'T I NOW YOU?: Shelby Lyman '14 returned to Cornell as an assistant coach prior to the 2017-18 season.
• One of the most prolific 3-point shooters in Cornell history, Lyman returned to East Hill after a successful three-year stint as an assistant coach at Division III powerhouse St. John Fisher College, helping the Cardinals to an Empire 8 championship in 2015 and a pair of NCAA DIII Tournament appearances.  
• Lyman still ranks among the top 20 in Cornell history in assists (14th – 219), steals (14th – 122), and minutes played (13th – 3096). She finished her career with 718 career points.
• A native of Snohomish, Wash., Lyman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government, before obtaining an MBA from St. John Fisher.
 
RECAPPING THE 2017-18 SEASON: The Big Red finished the season with a 7-20 record overall and a mark of 3-11 in the Ivy League.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red continues its four-game home stand when it welcomes Vermont Tech of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association to Newman Arena for a 7 p.m. contest on Monday, Jan. 7.