STORYLINES
• The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to even its Ivy record and snap Yale's 13-game win streak in the season series when visits the conference unbeaten Bulldogs on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. at John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• It's been a new year, new Big Red since the turning of the calendar, as Cornell is now 3-2 in 2020 after opening the season 1-10.
• The Big Red dropped a 74-63 decision at Brown on Friday evening despite 17 points from
Josh Warren and a fantastic defensive effort from
Bryan Knapp, who limited the Bears' Brandon Anderson to seven points on 1-of-16 shooting, well below the 19.1 ppg. he averaged as the Ivy League's second-leading scorer.
•
Jimmy Boeheim, the Ivy League's third-leading scorer, had 12 points and eight rebounds against the Bears and is now averaging 18.1 ppg.
• Cornell's 4-12 overall start is a little deceiving, as it has lost five games by four points or less.
• The Big Red is 14-14 over its last 28 Ivy contests and earned a spot in the 2019 CIT tournament, its first postseason appearance since its 2010 NCAA Sweet 16 run.
• Cornell joins Harvard, Yale and Penn in finishing in the top four in each of the last two seasons.
ABOUT YALE:
• Yale is 15-4 on the season with a five-game win streak after Friday night's 93-62 win over Columbia.
• The Bulldogs are a perfect 6-0 at home and 3-0 in Ivy League play.
• Paul Atkinson (16.7 ppg., 7.6 rpg., 1.3 spg., 1.0 bpg.) paces three double figure scorers, with Azar Swain (14.7 ppg., 3.8 rpg., 2.0 apg.) and Jordan Bruner (12.3 ppg., 9.4 rpg., 2.1 bpg.) aren't far behind.
• Atkinson is shooting 63 percent from the floor.
• The Bulldogs have been suffocating on defense, allowing opponents to score just 62.6 ppg. on 37 percent shooting from the field and 28 percent from beyond the arc.
• James Jones, in his 21st season on the Yale sidelines, has won more than 300 games and ranks in the top three all-time in Ivy League history in total wins and Ivy wins.
• He has guided the Bulldogs to four Ivy League championships – 2002, 2015, 2016, 2019 - two NCAA Tournament appearances and five postseason appearances.
• A year ago, Yale won the Ivy League regular season and tournament titles, falling in the first round to LSU.
SERIES HISTORY VS. YALE:
Overall: Yale leads 116-110
In New Haven, Conn.: Yale leads 66-45
Current Streak: Yale, 13 games
Last Meeting: Yale won 88-65, 3/1/19 in New Haven, Conn.
Earl vs. Brown: 0-6
Series Notes: Yale was Cornell's first intercollegiate opponent when the two teams met on Feb. 25, 1899 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (Yale won 49-7) • Yale has had the better of it recently, winning 14 of the last 15 meetings between the squads, including 13 straight • prior to that, the Big Red had gone 10-4 over a seven-year stretch (2005-13)
A WIN OVER YALE WOULD:
• make the Big Red's record stand at 5-12 on the season, including 2-2 in Ivy play.
• give Cornell a 4-2 record in 2020.
• improve Cornell to 15-14 record in its last 29 Ivy regular season contests.
• narrow Yale's lead in the all-time series to 116-111.
• snap a 15-game road skid dating back to last year.
• be the 1,274th in program history (1,273-1,452 in 119 seasons, .467).
LAST TIME OUT:
• A 32-10 Brown run that spanned the two halves rocketed Brown past Cornell 74-63 at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
•
Josh Warren led four Cornell double figure scorers with 17 points and added five rebounds, while
Jimmy Boeheim notched 12 points, eight rebounds and three steals.
•
Terrance McBride was credited with 11 points, five assists and three rebounds and
Bryan Knapp had 10 points, four rebounds and two steals while playing lockdown defense on Brown's Brandon Anderson, the Ivy League's second-leading scorer.
• Anderson shot just 1-of-16 from the floor for seven points.
• Brown used its defense and 40-30 rebounding edge, including 14-8 on the offensive glass, to muscle to their first Ivy win of the season.
•Zach Hunsaker had a game-high 20 points and added five rebounds and three steals, while Tamenang Choh (14 points, six rebounds, four assists) and Jaylan Gainey (12 points, eight rebounds) also hit for double figures.
LAST TIME VS. YALE:
• Yale scored the game's first 12 points, made a blistering 11-of-15 3-pointers in the first half and cruised to an 88-65 victory over Cornell at John J. Lee Amphitheater.
• Yale's Miye Oni hit 7-of-9 first half 3-pointers and rang up 25 points of his 30 points before the break as Yale had 18 assists and just two turnovers in the first 20 minutes, playing nearly perfect basketball.
• The loss overshadowed a strong effort by junior big man
Josh Warren, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half.
• Oni ended the night with 30 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Paul Atkinson had 14 points and six boards off the bench.
• Both Alex Copeland and Jordan Bruner chipped in 11 points.
NOTES TO KNOW:
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 876 consecutive games (12th-longest streak in Division I) dating back to a contest against Denison in the 1988-89 season opener (0-for-2). Since the 3-point shot came into effect in NCAA play during the 1986-87 season, the Big Red has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 922 of 926 games (6,031 3-pointers over that span).
• With his 7-of-11 shooting effort last night at Brown,
Josh Warren has moved into the top 10 in school history in career field goal percentage (.508).
• Freshman
Marcus Filien is averaging 4.0 rebounds per game in 14.3 minutes per game in Ivy play — his career high in non-conference games was three boards.
• In Ivy League play, junior captain
Terrance McBride is averaging 13.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per contest.
• In his last two games defending the Ivy League's top two leading scorers (Columbia's Mike Smith and Brown's Brandon Anderson), junior
Bryan Knapp limited them to 6-of-39 shooting (.154).
UP NEXT: VS. PRINCETON:
• The Cornell men's basketball team will welcome home members of the 1988 Ivy Championship team to Ithaca when it hosts Princeton on Friday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Princeton leads the all-time series 148-81 and has won 13 of the last 15 meetings between the programs.
• The Tigers swept last season's contests with a pair of nine-point wins, 70-61 in Ithaca and 68-59 in New Jersey.
