ITHACA, N.Y. – After downing Dartmouth in its Ivy opener last weekend, the Cornell women's basketball team will face an early conference test when it hosts defending Ivy League Champion and preseason favorite Princeton on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
Game Information:
Cornell vs. Princeton
DATE/TIME: Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 at 4 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 6-6, 1-0 Ivy League / Princeton 8-4, 1-0 Ivy League
BROADCAST: ESPN+ (es.pn/31oQYX1)
STATS: cornellbigred.com (bit.ly/3bTZ3oo)
GAME NOTES
SPECTATOR POLICY
What's on Tap:
• After defeating Dartmouth in its Ivy opener last weekend, the Cornell women's basketball team will face an early conference test when it hosts defending Ivy League Champion and preseason favorite Princeton on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
• Cornell's competition this weekend will be steep. After winning the 2019-20 Ivy League regular season title with an undefeated 14-0 conference mark and boasting an overall record of 26-1 when COVID canceled the postseason two years ago, Princeton was once again chosen as the favorite to win the league this year in the 2021-22 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll.
• This weekend's contest is the first of back-to-back home games for the Big Red, who will remain at home for a conference bout with Yale on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The 2021-22 campaign marks the first season that conference play will be over the course of 10 weeks rather than the traditional eight-week slate.
• Under the new structure, there will be six one-opponent weekends and three of the league's signature back-to-back weekends during conference play. Each team will also have a contest on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. League play will conclude with a single-game weekend against each institution's travel partner.
How to Watch:
• The game against Princeton will be broadcast on ESPN+, along with Cornell's entire slate of Ivy League games for the remainder of the season. ESPN+ is available to fans in the U.S. for $6.99/month or $69.99/year (http://plus.espn.com/). A similar international platform at the same price point is available for fans outside of the U.S., featuring both live and archived games.
Last Time Out:
• The Big Red made the most of its long-awaited return to Ivy League competition, defeating Dartmouth, 45-36, in its conference opener on Jan. 2 at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H. to even its record at 6-6 on the season and improve to 1-0 in Ivy play.
• Cornell's win marked just the sixth time in program history that the Big Red beat the Big Green in Hanover and also improved Cornell's record to 8-2 in its last 10 Ivy League openers.
• The Big Red never trailed in the contest against the Big Green, leading from wire-to-wire.
• Theresa Grace Mbanefo led all scorers with 16 points, finishing the game having shot 8-of-13 from the field and adding six rebounds and a pair of blocks. This marks the ninth time in 11 games that Mbanefo has scored in double figures.
• Ania McNicholas finished the game just one rebound shy of a double-double, scoring in double digits for the third time in the last four games with 10 points, a game-high and career-best nine rebounds, five of which were offensive, and a game-high six assists.
• Cornell used a fast start and a strong finish to down Dartmouth. The Big Red utilized a 7-0 run to open the game to create a 17-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Big Red defense stifled the Big Green offense in the opening frame, as Dartmouth shot just 18.8 percent from the floor as compared to an impressive 58.3 showing from Cornell.
• With Cornell leading by just five at the onset of the fourth quarter, 35-30, the Big Red defense would once again shut down Dartmouth, holding the Big Green without a field goal for nearly the first six minutes of the fourth and re-extending its lead to as many as 13, 44-31.
• The Big Red would go on to the 45-36 victory, with the 36 points that the Big Red allowed being the second-fewest that Cornell has given up this season. Cornell limited Dartmouth to just a 28.0 percent shooting percentage from the floor in the contest.
The Series vs. Princeton:
• Princeton leads the all-time series, 60-21, which also started during the 1974-75 season.
• Cornell snapped a series-high 17-game winning streak by the Tigers with a 55-44 victory in 2016-17, but Princeton is once again on a streak, winning the last seven matchups between the two schools.
• Princeton has swept the Big Red in each of the last three seasons, including a 60-29 victory over Cornell on Feb. 7, 2020 in Princeton, N.J. and a 69-50 win over the Big Red in Cornell's 2019-20 season finale on March 7, 2020 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Scouting Princeton:
• Princeton, the 2021-22 Ivy League favorite, enters Saturday's contest with an 8-4 overall record and a 1-0 conference mark after beating Harvard at home, 68-50, in its conference opener last weekend.
• Abby Meyers led the Tigers in the victory, recording her second-career double-double with 19 points and a personal-best 11 rebounds en route to receiving Ivy League Player of the Week distinction.
• Princeton picked up a signature win earlier this season against then-No. 22 Florida Gulf Coast, beating the Eagles, 58-55, on Dec. 1, 2021 for the team's first victory over a top-25 team in 43 years.
• As a team, Princeton leads the Ivy League in a variety of statistical categories, including scoring defense (56.8 ppg), scoring margin (8.5), 3-point field goal percentage defense (0.256), free throw percentage (0.766), rebounding defense (33.1 rpg), and rebounding margin (6.4).
• Princeton is led in scoring by Abby Meyers, whose 17.8 points per game leads the Ivy League. Julia Cunningham is also averaging double figures, as her 14.2 points per game sits fifth in the conference.
• Meyers has done damage from behind the arc, as her .361 shooting percentage from deep sits second in the Ivy League. She's averaging 2.2 3-pointers per game.
• Ellie Mitchell leads the team in rebounding, averaging 10.2 boards per game, a mark which ranks second in the Ivy League and 28th in all of Division I. Mitchell also ranks third in the conference in steals (2.3 spg).
• Kaitlyn Chen leads the Tigers in the assist column, averaging 2.5 helpers per game, a mark which sits sixth in the conference.
A Win Over Princeton Would:
• Improve Cornell's record to 7-6 on the season and give the Big Red a 2-0 start to Ivy League play for the first time since 2016-17.
• Give the Big Red a three-game winning streak.
• Snap a seven-game winning streak for the Tigers against the Big Red.
• Be Cornell's first victory over Princeton since Feb. 25, 2017 when the Big Red beat Princeton, 55-44, in Princeton, N.J. This was also the game in which Nia Marshall '17 became Cornell women's basketball's all-time leading scorer.
• Be Cornell's first win over Princeton at Newman Arena since a 76-59 victory over the Tigers on March 8, 2008 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Ivy League Preseason Predictions:
• The Big Red was predicted to finish sixth overall in the conference this season, per the 2021-22 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll. Cornell received a total of 41 voter points.
• The 2019-20 Ivy League Regular Season Champion Princeton was once again picked as the favorite to win the league this year, collecting 12 of a possible 16 first place votes and 122 points.
• Penn, who returns the 2019-20 Ivy League Rookie of the Year and first team All-Ivy selection Kayla Padilla, was chosen second with three first place votes and 108 points.
• The race for third, fourth, and fifth was close from there, with Columbia being picked third (87 points), Yale being chosen fourth (82 points), and Harvard's single first place vote helping the Crimson come in fifth (81 points).
• Dartmouth (29 points) and Brown (27 points) rounded out the poll in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Big Red Blurbs:
• The Big Red's wire-to-wire victory over Dartmouth on Sunday, Jan. 2 was the second-consecutive game and the third time this season that Cornell led from start to finish in a win, also doing so against Colgate in the team's 53-34 season opening victory on Nov. 10, 2021 and in an 82-48 win over Lock Haven on Dec. 29, 2021.
• Each of the Big Red's six wins this season have come when Cornell has limited its opponents to less than 60 points. The Big Red holds a 6-1 record on the year when doing so.
• Ania McNicholas has been the definition of "filling the stat sheet," all season, but especially as of late. Over Cornell's two games last week, McNicholas averaged 12.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 2.0 steals per game.
• Cornell's effort on the offensive glass so far this season has been relentless, as the Big Red leads the Ivy League at 14.0 offensive boards per game. Theresa Grace Mbanefo (40), Olivia Snyder (31), and Ania McNicholas (25) have accounted for 57 percent of Cornell's offensive rebounds, helping the Big Red hold the advantage in the category in nine of the 12 games it has played so far this season.
• The Big Red has also done a great job of keeping its opponents off the boards, ranking second in the Ivy League as a team in rebounding defense (33.8 rebounds per game).
• Mbanefo (8.6) and Snyder (8.1) both rank among the top-five of the Ivy League in rebounds per game, sitting third and fourth, respectively.
• Mbanefo has also been a blocking machine, as her 1.9 blocks per game ranks third in the conference and 48th nationally. Olivia Snyder sits among the top-10 of the Ivy League in blocks as well, as her 0.7 blocks per game ranks ninth.
• Mbanefo has scored in double figures in nine of 11 games so far this season and is currently shooting .513 from the floor, a percentage which sits second in the Ivy League.
• Shannon Mulroy has done a great job of distributing the basketball so far this season, leading Cornell and sitting third in the conference in assists per game (3.1). Her assist to turnover ratio of 1.2 also ranks third in the Ivy League.
• Ania McNicholas' pesky defense has wreaked havoc on her opponents, as the junior's 2.6 steals per game sits second and the Ivy League and ranks 40th in all of Division I. McNicholas has collected at least three steals in half of Cornell's contests so far this season. Her 2.7 assists per game sits fourth in the conference, just one spot behind Mulroy.
The Big 2-0-0:
• Dayna Smith, The Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, who is in her 20th year at the helm of the program, notched her 200th career victory on Nov. 17 with the Big Red's 67-57 victory over Binghamton in Vestal, N.Y.
• With her 200th victory, Smith became only the sixth coach in Ivy League women's basketball history to amass 200 career victories at an Ivy school.
• The winningest coach in Cornell women's basketball history and the sixth-winningest in Ivy League history, she is the second-longest tenured active women's basketball coach in the conference (Harvard's Kathy Delaney-Smith, 40 seasons).
• She is also fourth all-time in years served as a head coach in the Ivy League.
• Smith's record sits at 204-299 for her career.
Team Leaders:
• Points – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 12.5 points per game
• Field Goals Made – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 5.5 per game
• Field Goal Percentage – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, .513
• 3-point Field Goals Made – KC Carter, 1.1 per game
• 3-point Field Goal Percentage – KC Carter, .371
• Free Throw Percentage – Olivia Snyder, .760 (19-of-25)
• Rebounding – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 8.6 rebounds per game
• Assists – Shannon Mulroy, 3.1 assists per game
• Assist-to-Turnover Ratio – Shannon Mulroy, 1.2
• Blocks – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 1.9 blocks per game
• Steals – Ania McNicholas, 2.6 steals per game
• Minutes – Olivia Snyder, 31.5 minutes per game
A Look Back in Time:
• The last season the Big Red was in action in 2019-20, Cornell finished the year with a 10-16 overall record and a 3-11 mark in conference play, finishing seventh in the Ivy League.
• The Big Red will look to get back to the Ivy League Tournament this year for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when the team qualified for its first conference tournament after its creation in 2016-17.
Starting from (Almost) Scratch:
• The Cornell women's basketball team has a new look this season, returning only 27 percent of its minutes, 27 percent of its scoring, and 22 percent of its rebounding from the 2019-20 season.
• Of the 14-player roster, eight suit up for the Big Red for the first time in the 2021-22 campaign.
Oh Captain, My Captain (s):
• Senior forward Theresa Grace Mbanefo, senior guard Samantha Will, and junior guard Shannon Mulroy have been elected as tri-captains of the team for the 2021-22 season.
• Mulroy is the team's top returning scorer from 2019-20 when she averaged 8.3 points, 2.5 assists, and 2.1 rebounds per game. She appeared in all 26 games and made 23 starts while averaging 25.2 minutes of playing time per game, the most among all returners. She led the Big Red in 3-point makes (35) and shooting percentage from behind the arc (33.0) in her rookie season. She also ranked second on the team in assists and free throw percentage (.750) in 2019-20.
• A guard with a calming presence on the floor, Will came into her own at the end of the 2019-20 season when she scored double-digits in back-to-back games for the first time of her career against Yale on Feb. 21, 2020 and Brown on Feb. 22, 2020.
• Mbanefo is one of two forwards that returns from the 2019-20 roster. She played in all 26 games as a sophomore, making four starts and averaging 18.2 minutes per contest. She led Cornell in blocks (18) and ranked third on the team in rebounding, averaging 5.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per contest.
The Lay of the Land:
• In addition to Mbanefo, Mulroy, and Will, junior guard Ania McNicholas, junior guard KC Carter, and junior forward Anna Hovis return invaluable collegiate experience to a roster that is laden with newcomers.
• Junior transfer Olivia Snyder adds an offensive mentality and knack for scoring the basketball to the Big Red roster.
• Sophomore guards Mia Beam, Val Garcia-Martinez, and Kaya Ingram, as well as freshmen Jada Davis, Lexi Green, Arianna Linoxilakis, and Summer Parker-Hall all take the floor for Cornell for the first time this season.
Up Next:
• The Cornell women's basketball team will remain at home next weekend when it squares off against Yale in an Ivy League bout on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
*Due to COVID-19 concerns and safety protocols within the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball program, the first game of the Cornell women's basketball team's originally-scheduled back-to-back against the Quakers slated for Friday at 6 p.m. at Newman Arena has been postponed. The game will be rescheduled for a date and time to be determined.
