LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 85, Princeton 82
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE
• Five players reached double figures and Cornell staved off a furious Princeton rally to hold on for an 85-82 victory over the Tigers at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• Dean Noll had 18 points in a return to his home state and Jimmy Boeheim had 14, including a key three-point play that erased a Princeton lead with just over a minute to play en route to the victory.
• Cornell made 11-of-17 3-pointers on the night, and its .647 3-point percentage on the night was the sixth-best single-game average in school history.
• The Big Red shot 59 percent from the floor overall.
• Terrance McBride and Kobe Dickson each netted 12 points, Riley Voss had 11 and Josh Warren, playing his final collegiate game, recorded nine points, four assists and a blocked shot.
• Jaelin Llewellyn had a career-high 30 points for Princeton, who nearly erased a 14-point deficit by taking a lead with under two minutes remaining before Cornell rallied.
• Jerome Derosiers scored 16 points, Ryan Schwieger notched 11 and Richmond Aririguzoh scored six points with 10 rebounds.
• The Tigers were a perfect 16-of-16 from the free-throw line and made 14-of-30 3-pointers.
• In all, Princeton shot 50 percent from the floor and 47 percent from beyond the arc.
NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 887 consecutive games 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 933 of 937 games (6,115 3-pointers over that span).
• In 2019-20, the Big Red lost three games by a single point, five by a single possession, six by four points or less and eight by single digits.
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (VMI) one of three active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley and Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones.
• Junior Jordan Jones’ father Max played in the NFL (Buffalo Bills) and the USFL (Birmingham Stallions), while his uncle Sean Jones played in the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders, Houston Oilers and Green Bay Packers, winning a Super Bowl title in 1997 with the Packers and twice capturing All-Pro honors.
• Senior Dean Noll helped guide Shawnee HS (N.J.), the alma mater of Cornell head coach Brian Earl, to a state title as a senior, earning MVP honors for the championship game. He broke the school’s single-season scoring record with 737 points - besting the previous mark of 675 set by Dan Earl, Brian’s older brother.
• Senior Sarju Patel seat out the 2019-20 season as a transfer and 2020-21 due to the pandemic after averaging 10.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 0.9 steals per game at VMI under head coach Dan Earl.
• Ninth-year assistant coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Four 2020 Cornell graduates — Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice) and Riley Voss (Wright State) — will play at Division I institutions this winter as grad students.
• Cornell has played in 47 different states, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia, France and Spain. The only states the Big Red has not played in are Alaska, North Dakota and Mississippi.
• The Big Red continues to be ranked among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR). The APR measures semester-by-semester records for every individual team in Division I with regard to each team members’ continuing eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation. The NCAA “commends” teams that have APR scores in the top 10 percent within their sport. Cornell has been recognized 10 times in since the APR began in 2005, including seven consecutive (2009-16).
• The Big Red’s 18-man roster represents seven states, with seven players coming from the great State of the New York, three more from both New Jersey and Texas and two from California.
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 41-51 in games that go an extra period. Cornell is 7-10 in multiple overtime games, with the longest game for the Big Red being a five overtime contest against Princeton, won by the Tigers 66-61 on Feb. 24, 1979 at Barton Hall. Cornell is 30-19 in home overtime games, 2-2 in neutral contests and 10-29 in road games.
• Are Cornell Student-Athletes on Scholarship? The easy answer is no. Cornell student-athletes are awarded need-based financial aid, just as any other student who applies to the school. That package can come in the form of student loans and grants. The basic intent of the original Ivy League agreement of 1954 was to improve and foster intercollegiate athletics while keeping the emphasis on such competition in harmony with the educational purpose of the institutions. The Ivy League is nationally recognized for its level of success — absent of athletic scholarships — while rigorously maintaining its self-imposed high academic standards. The Ivy League has demonstrated a rare willingness and ability, given the current national pressures on intercollegiate success, to abide by these rules and still compete successfully in Division I athletics.
CAPTAINS
• A trio of first-year captains will lead the Big Red into the 2021-22 campaign.
• Seniors Kobe Dickson and Sarju Patel and junior Greg Dolan will take primary leadership roles.
