GAME INFORMATION
GAME #25: Cornell at Brown
GAME TIME: Saturday, Feb. 24, at 4:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Pizzitola Sports Center (Providence, R.I.)
SERIES RECORD: Brown leads, 51-26
LAST MEETING: Cornell, 70-68 (2/9/2018 in Ithaca, N.Y.)
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (6-18, 2-9 Ivy); Brown (14-10, 2-9 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://brownbears.com/sports/w-baskbl/2017-18/boxscores/20180224_6r30.xml   
LIVE VIDEO: www.IvyLeague.tv
 
* GAME NOTES (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red hit the road for the final time this season when it travels to Brown to take on the Bears tonight, Saturday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m. Both teams enter the contest with an Ivy mark of 2-9 as Cornell fell to Yale last night on the road, while the Bears were beat by Columbia in the Pizzitola Sports Center.
 
QUICK HITS:
• Cornell head coach Dayna Smith and Brown assistant coach Tyler Patch both graduated from the University of Rhode Island.
• The teams had one common non-conference opponent – Colgate. Brown defeated the Raiders, while the Big Red dropped a 74-70 decision to its in-state rival.  
• Cornell is looking for its first win in Providence since the 2014-15 season.
• A win will give the Big Red its first season sweep of Brown since the 2013-14 campaign.
• Samantha Widmann enters the contest ranked 10th in Cornell history for steals in a single-season (56).  
• Cornell had its best 3-point shooting performance of the season last night at Yale, connecting on .462 percent.
 
SERIES VS. BROWN: Cornell's rivalry with the Bears began in the 1974-75 season when Brown defeated the Big Red, 34-30.
• The Bears dominated the series for the first 20 years, with Cornell winning only three times prior to the 1994-95 season. 
• Since that time, the series has been far more competitive, with Brown holding the slim one-game lead (24-23).
 
HEAD COACH DAYNA SMITH: In her 16th season, 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 (35th season), ranks ahead of Cornell's Smith.
• She is the winningest coach in Cornell history, ranking fifth in Ivy League women's basketball all-time, with 175 victories.
 
NOTING THE YALE GAME: Cornell used a strong second quarter to erase Yale's early 10-point lead and stayed within a possession of the home team through most of the third, but a 7-0 run by the Bulldogs late in the game proved to be the difference. After building the seven-point lead, Yale hit 10-of-10 free throws in the final 1:12 to account for the 69-56 final.
• Samantha Widmann and Samantha Clement lead Cornell with 15 points apiece.
• Widmann also registered a team-high nine rebounds, three assists and two steals, moving her into the Big Red's top 10 for steals in a single season with 56.  
• Sophomore Reena Olsen had the best game of her career, registering a career-high 12 points on a 5-of-6 performance from the floor.
• The Bulldogs shot an impressive 52.1 percent overall (25-48) but just 11.1 percent from beyond the arc (1-9), a season low by a Cornell opponent.
• Cornell hit just 33.9 percent from the floor (19-56) but was kept in the game by its season-high 46.2 percent 3-point shooting (6-13).
• Yale had the 34-30 advantage on the board but finished with three more turnovers than the Big Red (23-20) in a game that saw a combined 43 turnovers
 
SEASON NOTES TO KNOW:
• Cornell is 4-3 in games in which Samantha Widman has scored 20 points.
• The Big Red's defense has held four opponents – Stony Brook, UNH, NJIT, and Columbia – to fewer than 50 points.
• Samantha Widmann has led Cornell in scoring in 17 of its 24 contests so far this season.
• Samantha Widmann has registered double-digits in 18 of 24 games for the Big Red, including seven 20+ point performances and a career-high 28 points vs. Oakland.
• Samantha Widmann has registered at least three steals in 11 games this season.
• Christine Ehland has grabbed at least five rebounds in all but eight games this season.   
• In the 19 games since becoming a starter, Samantha Clement has posted double-digits nine times, with one 20-point performance.
• Danielle Jorgenson has handed out at least five assists in eight games.
• Elodie Furey has led the team in rebounding in five games this season.
• 12 of Cornell's 13 active players have already set a career-high in points this season. 
• Two Big Red – Dylan Higgins and Stephanie Umeh – saw more minutes in the season-opener than they did all of last season.
• Danielle Jorgenson surpassed her career minutes in the third game of the season.
• The Big Red played seven-straight road games between Dec. 21 and Jan. 20. It was the longest road trip since the Big Red played seven consecutive games away from Newman Arena from Jan. 12 to Feb. 5 during the 2004-05 season.
• The Big Red was 0-4 to start a season for the first time since the 2006-07 squad went 0-7.
• Cornell played Pitt in front of a Big Red record 10,587 fans on the Panthers' School Day event. The crowd surpassed the Big Red's 2008 NCAA Tournament game vs. UConn by 4,000 fans. 
 
NCAA STATS:
• Cornell ranks inside the top 100 in fewest fouls (54th – 408), steals per game (77th – 9.2) and turnovers forced per game (88th – 17.71).
• Samantha Widmann ranks 84th in steals per game (2.35).
• Samantha Widmann ranks 184th in field goal percentage (.443).
• Samantha Widmann ranks 213th in points per game (15.0).
• Danielle Jorgenson ranks 203rd in assists per game (3.7).
• Janée Dennis'.889 (8-of-9) 3-poin­t FG percentage vs. Lafayette is the eighth best in the NCAA this season for a single game.
­­
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Samantha Widmann earned the Big Red's first Ivy League Player of the Week award of the season, and the first of her career, when she took home the honor on Jan. 22. 
• Widmann earned the honor after leading Cornell to its first Ivy League win of the season with a 22-point, 12-rebound double-double at Columbia.
• Widmann was named Ivy Rookie of the Week twice during her freshman campaign.
 
CLOSE NON-CONFERENCE CALLS: In 11 of its 13 non-conference games, Cornell either held the lead, or was tied with its opponent at some point in the fourth quarter, including a pair of overtime decisions.
• Of those 11 games, the Big Red won four (Canisius, Stony Brook, UMass-Lowell, NJIT) with five of the losses (Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette, Oakland, UNH) being decided by a combined total of just 15 points.
 
STATING STARTERS: The Big Red graduated all five starters from the 2016-17 squad.
• Cornell had five brand new starters to start a season for the first time in a season since the 2004-05 campaign. 
• Of Cornell's 20 opponents this season, 16 return at least three starters, including all seven Ivy League foes.
• Stony Brook (one starter), Drexel (two), UMass-Lowell (two) and Loyola (two) are the Big Red's only four opponents to return fewer than three starters.
• Nationwide, only Savannah State returns zero starters from the 2016-17 season.
• So far this season, Cornell has used four different starting line-ups, with just Danielle Jorgenson, Christine Ehland and Sam Widmann making all 24 starts.
 
WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red graduated all five starters from the 2016-17 squad, and lost one other letter winner, as well as one non-letter winner. The seven players accounted for 82 percent of Cornell's points, 71 percent of the team's rebounds and 99 percent of the Big Red's assists.
 
WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns four players that saw action in at least 15 games a year ago, including Samantha Widmann, the first forward off the bench in 17 contests and Christine Ehland, who returned from injury, to play in 17 of the final 20 games of the season.
• Widmann is the only Big Red returner to average more than 10.0 minutes per game during the 2016-17.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added five players to the 2017-18 squad, including the first-ever Ivy League transfer (Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, Penn) under Coach Smith.
• The group hails from four different states – California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania.
• The group consists of two forwards (Elodie Furey, Halley Miklos), two guards (Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, Kate Sramac) and one student-athlete that can play either position (Ariana Abdulmassih).
 
IVY PRESEASON RANKINGS: The Big Red was picked sixth overall in the 2017-18 Ivy League media preseason poll.
• Penn was selected to three-peat, as the Quakers garnered 129 points and 12 first-place votes to hold off Princeton, which totaled 120 points and five first-place votes.
• The four teams that earned spots in the inaugural Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament were picked to return, as Harvard was selected to finish third with 98 points, followed by Brown in fourth with 87 points.
• Yale was picked to place fifth with 64 points, followed by Cornell (48), Columbia (42) and Dartmouth (24).
 
LIVE FROM ITHACA: The Big Red will have 24 of its regular season games broadcast on national or regional television networks and/or available on the Ivy League Network this season.
• A subscription to ILN, which is available through the ILN mobile app on Apple and Android devices as well as Apple TV and Roku, will get you 20 Big Red contests this coming season, including every home and away contest in the Ivy League 14-game round robin.
• Seven games will be broadcast on ESPN3 and one game will air on SNY via tape delay with all eight of those contests also being simulcast on ILN.
 
DON'T I KNOW YOU?: Shelby Lyman '14 has returned to Cornell as an assistant coach for the 2017-18 season.
• One of the most prolific 3-point shooters in Cornell history, Lyman returns 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.
 
HI! MY NAME IS: The Big Red has pair of newcomers on the sidelines as David Elliott (assistant coach) and Caroline Nuckolls (basketball operations) have joined Coach Smith's staff. 
• Elliott is a seven-year veteran of the collegiate coaching ranks, with stints at the University of Denver, Knox College, Columbia, and St. John Fisher College.
• A native of Arizona, Elliott received a bachelors' degree in microbiology from the University of Arizona in 2009, before going on to earn a masters' degree in organizational learning and human resource development from St. John Fisher College in 2012.
• Nuckolls brings seven years of Division I athletics experience to the position, having most recently served as the Women's Basketball graduate assistant at the University of Louisiana-Monroe for the past two seasons. 
• A native of Katy, Texas, Nuckolls graduated from LSU with a bachelor's degree in Sport and Fitness Administration/Management in 2014 before going on to obtain an Master's in Public Administration from ULM in 2017.
 
RECAPPING THE 2016-17 SEASON: Cornell finished the 2016-17 season in fourth place in the Ivy League standings with a record of 16-11 overall and 7-7 in the conference, the most wins and conference wins in a season since the 2007-08 team went 20-9 overall and 11-3 in the Ivy League.
• Following the season, Nia Marshall was named first-team All-Ivy, while Megan LeDuc took home honorable mention accolades.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red will play its final games of the season and honor its three seniors – Janée Dennis, Christine Ehland, and Jamie Hill – when it plays host to Harvard (Friday, March 2 at 6 p.m.) and Dartmouth (Saturday, March 3 at 5 p.m.) next weekend at Newman Arena.