Men's Hoops Looks To Rebound In Home Opener vs. SUNY-Delhi

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• The Cornell men’s basketball team will kick off its home slate while looking to extend its non-conference win at Newman Arena when the Big Red welcomes SUNY-Delhi on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m.
• Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor '05 will be on the call on ESPN+.
• The Big Red enters Thursday's contest sporting a seven-game non-league home win streak.
• In fact, it's nearly three full calendar years since the Big Red lost at home to a non-league opponent (Dec. 7, 2019 vs. Lafayette, 62-59).
• Over the past 28 seasons, Cornell has posted a perfect 30-0 record against non-Division I opponents, winning those games by an average of more than 30 points.
• Included were two victories last season where the Big Red averaged 114.5 points, including a school-record 122 points vs. Keuka. 
• Cornell is coming off a heartbreaking 79-77 loss at Boston College on Monday night in the season opener.
• BC's Prince Aligbe scored 16 points, including the game-winning basket with 0.9 seconds remaining to clip the Big Red.
• The loss ruined a performance that saw Cornell hit 13 3-pointers, dish out 18 assists and register 13 steals.
• It was the second time in its past seven games dating back to last season that a last-second bucket sunk the Big Red (Brown's Jaylen Gainey with a putback dunk with three seconds left for an 81-80 victory. 

THE SERIES 
Overall: First Meeting
In Chestnut Hill, Mass.: First Meeting
Current Streak: N/A
Last Meeting: N/A
Earl vs. SUNY-Delhi: 0-0
Series Notes: Cornell has almost annually played and beaten a non-Division I team, going 30-0 with an average margin of victory of more than 30 points per game in the past 28 seasons • the 2010-11 season was the only one in the last 24 years where the schedule was made up completely of Division I teams • each of the team’s 30 wins have come by double figures except for one • this is the first of two games scheduled against non-Division I teams this season. 

A WIN OVER SUNY-DELHI WOULD ... 
• even Cornell's record at 1-1 on the season.
• give the Big Red a victory in the first-ever meeting with the Broncos.
• extend its non-conference home win streak to eight games.
• up Cornell’s non-conference record to 11-4 over its past 15 contests.
• be the 1,293rd in program history (1,292-1,471 in 121 seasons, .467).

LAST TIME OUT: Boston College 79, Cornell 77
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY I HIGHLIGHTS
• Prince Aligbe's driving layup with less than a second left lifted Boston College over Cornell  at the Conte Forum in the season opener for both teams.
• Nazir Williams scored 17 points to lead three Big Red players in double figures, with Greg Dolan adding 13 and Keller Boothby chipping in 11. 
• Dolan added six rebounds, three assists and two steals. 
• Chris Manon scored nine points with four assists, three rebounds and three steals and Sean Hansen had nine points and six rebounds. 
• In his Cornell debut, Max Watson scored seven points, including the game-tying 3-pointer with 20 seconds remaining. 
• Cornell assisted on 18 baskets, hit 13 3-pointers and collected 13 steals in the loss.
• It was 24 Cornell turnovers and slow starts to begin both halves that doomed the visitors. 
• The Big Red fell behind by 12 less than seven minutes into the game, then connected on just one basket in the first 4:30 of the second half as the Eagles stretched out their lead. 
• Cornell missed its first nine treys of the night.
• Boston College got 16 points from Aligbe, and a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double from T.J. Bickerstaff that also included five steals, four assists and two blocked shots. 
• Makai Ashton-Langford was credited with 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals and assisted on Aligbe's game-winning layup. 
• CJ Penha came off the bench for 15 points and Jaeden Zackery scored 11 with seven assists and four steals. 
• Boston College shot 47 percent from the floor for the game, but its 16 steals led to 21 points off turnovers.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 913 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 959 of 963 games (6,371 3-pointers over that span).
• The Big Red’s five-game win streak to start the 2021-22 was its longest since walking off the floor victorious in nine consecutive contests late in 2009-10.
• Its six-game non-conference roll was its longest since winning 10 consecutive during the 2009-10 season when it advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (Chattanooga) 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.
• Tenth-year assistant coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• After the Ivy League didn’t compete during the 2019-20 season, Cornell’s first game of the 2021-22 season against Binghamton, a 76-67 Big Red victory, was its first in 612 days.
• The Big Red’s home win over Colgate on Nov. 16, 2021 was its first contest at Newman Arena since a 67-58 defeat at the hand of Harvard on Feb. 29, 2020 - a span of 627 days.
• 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).
• 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.

Photos by Dave Burbank, Madison Epperson, Eldon Lindsay, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr