GAME INFORMATION
GAME #25: Cornell at Dartmouth
GAME TIME: Saturday, March 9, at 5:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Leede Arena (Hanover, N.H.)
SERIES RECORD: Dartmouth leads, 59-21
LAST MEETING: Dartmouth, 63-56 (2/8/19 in Ithaca, N.Y.)
2018-19 RECORDS: Cornell (11-13, 5-8 Ivy); Dartmouth (13-13, 6-7 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: https://bit.ly/2UgltpO 
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2HntJAq 
 
Full Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: Despite its loss to Harvard last night, the Big Red women's basketball team still has an opportunity to clinch the in final spot in the Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament when it travels to Dartmouth to take on the Big Green this evening. The winner of the contest will have a chance, but will also need a little help in the form of Ivy League leader Princeton defeating Yale on its Senior Night in New Haven.
 
WHERE WE STAND: With its sweep of Yale and Brown last weekend, the Big Red remains in contention for one of the last two spots in the Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament. At this point, Penn, Princeton and Harvard have secured a spot in the tournament, while Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale all have an opportunity to claim the final spot.
 
WHAT'S THE SCENARIO?: With one game to play, three teams are in contention for the final spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
• CORNELL – In with a win over Dartmouth, coupled by a loss by Yale to Princeton … As a result, Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale would all be 6-8 and the Big Red would get in thanks to its 3-1 record against the other two teams in the tie.
• DARTMOUTH – In with a win over Cornell, coupled by loss by Yale to Princeton … As a result, the Big Green would be 7-7, while Yale would be 6-8 and Cornell would be 5-9.
• YALE – In with a win over Princeton … As a results, the Bulldogs would be 7-7 and would own tiebreak over Dartmouth thanks to two wins over Princeton.
 
QUICK HITS:
• Dartmouth won the first meeting between the two teams this season, 63-56, at Newman Arena.
• Cornell and the Big Green have split the last four seasons.
• Both teams have an alumni on staff with Big Red assistant coach Shelby Lyman (Cornell, 2014) and Dartmouth assistant coach Lakin Roland (Dartmouth, 2016).
 
CHARTING BAGWELL-KATALINICH: Laura Bagwell-Katalinich is putting together one of the best seasons in Big Red basketball history and is on pace to finish in the top 10 in points, field goals made, and rebounds …
• 17th in season points (395) … Needs 18 more to reach the top 10.
• 10th in season FG made (156) … Needs six more to move into ninth place.
• 20th in season rebounds (193) … Needs 12 more to reach the top 10.
 
SEASON NOTES TO KNOW:
• Cornell is 11-2 when allowing less than 60 points.
• The Big Red is 10-3 when making more free throws than its opponents.
• Cornell is 8-1 when leading at halftime.
• Danielle Jorgenson and Samantha Widmann have started 51 straight games.
• Laura Bagwell-Katalinich has scored in double-digits in 20 consecutive games.  
• Laura Bagwell-Katalinich has lead Cornell in scoring in 16 consecutive games.
• Samantha Widmann has scored in double-digits in six of the last eight games.  
• Bagwell-Katalinich and Widmann have combined to lead Cornell in scoring in 23-of-24 games.
 
THE SERIES VS. DARTMOUTH: Cornell's rivalry with Dartmouth began in the 1976-77 season with a 50-49 Big Red victory.
• Dartmouth holds the advantage in the all-time series, 59-21, but Cornell holds the 12-11 lead over the past 23 meetings, with six of those games being decided by four or fewer points.
• The Big Red had a five-game winning streak, the longest by Cornell in the history of the series, ended in 2014-15 at Leede Arena, and the teams have split the home-and-home series in each of the last four seasons.
 
A WIN WOULD:
• split the season series with the Big Green for the fifth consecutive season.
• give Cornell its first win in Hanover since 2014.
• keep Cornell in the hunt for an Ivy Madness spot.
 
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 187 career victories.
 
NCAA STATS:
• Cornell ranks inside the top 100 in fewest fouls (18th – 407), field goal percentage defense (61st – .373); scoring defense (60th – 59.3); steals per game (68th – 9.2), 3-point field goal defense (31st – .283), and turnovers forced (77th – 17.71).
• Laura Bagwell-Katalinich ranks 133rd in field goal percentage (.463), 48th in free throw percentage (.847), 118th in points per game (16.5), and 127th in rebounds per game (8.0).
• Danielle Jorgenson ranks 187th in assist/turnover ratio (1.45).
 
DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE: The Big Red has proven to be one of the top defensive teams in the Ivy League, ranking second in the conference in scoring defense (59.2), fourth in field goal percentage defense (.373), second in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.283), first in rebounding defense (36.1), and third in steals (9.2).
 
INDIVIDUAL IVY RANKINGS: Here's how the Big Red stacks up in the Ivy League … 
Laura Bagwell-Katalinich
• Third in scoring (16.5)
• Third in rebounding (8.0)
• Ninth in field goal percentage (.463)
• First in free throw percentage (.847)
• 11th in steals (1.5)
• Second in offensive rebounds (3.3)
• Eighth in defensive rebounds (4.8)
Samantha Widmann
• 18th in scoring (10.6)
• Eighth in rebounding (6.9)
• Eighth in field goal percentage (.466)
• 10th in free throw percentage (.648)
• Sixth in steals (1.6)
• 10th in offensive rebounds (2.3)
• 10th in defensive rebounds (4.6)
Danielle Jorgenson
• 10th in assists (3.1)
• Sixth in steals (1.6)
• Sixth in assist/turnover ratio (1.5)
Theresa Grace Mbanefo
• Fifth in blocks (0.9)                
 
STARTING STATS: The Big Red has used five different starting line-ups this season.
• Samantha Widmann and Danielle Jorgenson lead the team with 51 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.
• Caitlyn Smith made her first career start at Brown on Feb. 15.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Theresa Grace Mbanefo was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Dec. 31
• She is the first Big Red player this season to take home a league honor, and is the first ROW for Cornell since Samantha Widmann on Feb. 20, 2017.
• Mbanefo won the award after a stellar effort against Hampton with career-highs in points (12) and rebounds (9) in just 19 minutes of action off the bench.
 
NON-CONFERENCE WINS:
• With its 6-5 record in non-conference play, the Big Red secured a .500 or better non-conference record in six of the last seven seasons.
• In Coach Smith's 16 seasons with the Cornell women's basketball program she has led the Big Red to seven non-conference seasons in which the team has posted at least a .500 record.
 
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 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 picked 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 chosen fifth (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. 
• Two games were broadcast on the Patriot League Network (Lehigh, Lafayette).
• Cornell had 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.