ITHACA, N.Y. – Fresh off a big win over Harvard, the Cornell women's basketball team will close out its three-game home stand with a midweek tilt against Penn on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
Game Information:
Cornell vs. Penn
DATE/TIME: Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022 at 5 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-13, 4-7 Ivy League / Penn 10-13, 5-6 Ivy League
BROADCAST: ESPN+ (es.pn/3zoaYFQ)
STATS: cornellbigred.com (bit.ly/3bTZ3oo)
TICKETS: bit.ly/3zB0kf4
SPECTATOR POLICY
GAME NOTES
What's on Tap:
• Fresh off a big win over Harvard, the Cornell women's basketball team will close out its three-game home stand with a midweek tilt against Penn on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
• The game against the Quakers, which is a make-up contest rescheduled from Jan. 7, marks the Big Red's third home game in a six-day span.
• Wednesday's contest is a pivotal one for both the Big Red and the Quakers as the race to Ivy Madness picks up. At this point in time, Penn (5-6 Ivy) and Cornell (4-7 Ivy) are the first two teams out of the Ivy League Tournament, but are still in the hunt for the fourth and final spot. They are chasing fourth-place Harvard, who sits at 6-6 in Ivy play after the Big Red downed the Crimson on Saturday.
How to Watch:
• The game against Penn 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:
• Cornell split its pair of contests over the weekend, losing a heartbreaker in overtime to Dartmouth, 67-64, on Friday, Feb. 18 before bouncing back with a big victory over Harvard, 52-49, on Saturday, Feb. 19 at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
• The victory over Harvard marked just the 14th time in series history dating back to 1974-75 that the Big Red defeated the Crimson. It was also the first time Cornell defeated Harvard in Ithaca since the 2016-17 campaign.
• Junior guard Shannon Mulroy was the catalyst behind the Cornell offense in the Big Red's win over Harvard, scoring a team-high 18 points, including going 3-of-6 from behind the arc and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. She also added five rebounds.
• Eight of Mulroy's 18 points in the contest came during an 11-4 run for Cornell over the final 4:53 of the third quarter that gave the Big Red a 38-34 lead heading into the fourth that it would never relinquish. Mulroy scored the final five points of the quarter on a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws in the final 33 seconds of the period.
• Cornell scored more points in the third quarter against Harvard than it did in the entire first half, outscoring the Crimson 20-12. The Crimson shot just 15.8 percent from the floor (3-of-19) in the frame, while the Big Red shot an impressive 50 percent (7-of-14).
• Seniors Theresa Grace Mbanefo and Samantha Will paced Cornell against the Big Green with 19 points apiece, combining for 38 of Cornell's 64 points in the contest.
• The point total marked a new career-high for Will, who was feeling it from downtown, sinking a career-best five 3-pointers (5-of-10). Mbanefo was one rebound shy of a double-double, pulling down a team-high nine boards while adding three steals and a pair of assists.
• Sophomore guard Kaya Ingram notched the first double-digit scoring game of her career against Dartmouth, notching a career-high 10 points, matching a career-best seven rebounds, and dishing out a game- and career-high six assists.
Big Red Blurbs:
• Head Coach Dayna Smith was an assistant coach at Penn from 1999-2002, helping the Quakers to an undefeated Ivy title in 2000-01.
• Eight of the Big Red's nine wins this season have come when Cornell has limited its opponents to less than 60 points. The Big Red holds an 8-2 record on the year when doing so.
• Two new faces in sophomore guard Kaya Ingram and freshman forward Summer Parker-Hall made their way into Cornell's starting lineup for the first time of their careers against Brown on Jan. 29 and have remained a mainstay since, getting the starting nod in each of the Big Red's last six contests. This marks the fourth different starting lineup that the Big Red has utilized this season.
• Ingram's and Parker-Hall's presence in the starting lineup has been a positive one, as the Big Red is 3-3 since the pair got the starting nod.
• There has been one constant presence among Cornell's starting lineups, as Samantha Will has started all 22 games for the Big Red this season and has played in 31-straight contests.
• Shannon Mulroy has played in 48-straight games over the past two seasons, making an appearance in every game of her collegiate career thus far.
• Highlighted by Theresa Grace Mbanefo's five double-doubles this season, Cornell has had four different players register a double-double this year, including Olivia Snyder (3), Ania McNicholas (1), and Samantha Will (1).
• Theresa Grace Mbanefo has been a blocking machine, as her 1.7 blocks per game ranks second in the conference.
• If Mbanefo continues to stuff shots at this pace, her 1.7 blocks per game would rank second all-time in Cornell women's basketball history for a single season. The single season record of 2.1 was set by Lynell Davis during the 2001-02 season.
• Mbanefo also sits among the top-five of the Ivy League in shooting percentage (.486) and rebounds per game (7.8), marks which rank second and fifth, respectively.
• Ania McNicholas has been the definition of "filling the stat sheet," this season, as the junior guard is averaging 8.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.2 steals per game so far this year.
• McNicholas ranks among the top-10 of the conference in two of those four categories, sitting fifth in the Ivy League in steals per game (2.2) and seventh in assists per game (2.6).
• McNicholas has collected multiple steals in 15 of 21 games so far this season. If she can keep up this pace for the remainder of the season, her 2.2 steals per game would rank seventh all-time in program history for a single season.
• Shannon Mulroy has done a great job of distributing the basketball so far this season, ranking fourth in the Ivy League in assists per game (2.9).
• The Big Red has done a good job of keeping its opponents off the boards this season, ranking third in the Ivy League as a team in rebounding defense (36.3 rebounds per game). Cornell also sits third in the Ivy League in offensive rebounds per game (14.2).
The Series vs. Penn:
• Penn leads the all-time series, 63-21, which started during the 1974-75 season.
• Cornell's longest winning streak in the series came when the Big Red won three consecutive games from 2010-12.
• Penn has won 15 of the last 17 meetings between the two schools, including the last nine.
• The Quakers have swept Cornell in the previous four seasons and will have its sights set on doing so again this year, having won the two teams' first matchup of the year by a score of 71-61 on Feb. 5 at The Palestra in Philadelphia.
• Shannon Mulroy paced three Cornell scorers in double figures with 16 points in that contest. She was on fire from downtown in the contest, draining a season-best 4-of-5 from behind the arc and accounting for four of Cornell's six 3-pointers in the game.
• Theresa Grace Mbanefo (12) and Ania McNicholas (11) joined Mulroy in double figures. Mbanefo added six boards and a pair of blocks, while McNicholas contributed three rebounds and a pair of assists and steals.
Scouting Penn:
• Penn enters Wednesday's contest having picked up momentum since the two teams last met. Heading into the first matchup of the season between Cornell and the Quakers, Penn had lost four-straight. Since defeating Cornell on Feb. 5, Penn has won three of its last four games, including a 67-53 victory over Brown in its last outing on Feb. 19.
• The Quakers own a 10-13 (5-6 Ivy) record on the season.
• Penn sits second in the Ivy League as a team in a trio of statistical categories, including blocked shots per game (4.13), rebounds per game (40.6), and free throw percentage (0.715).
• Kennedy Suttle leads the Quakers in rebounds per game (8.2), while Jordan Obi leads the team in blocks per game (1.2). The pair sits fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Ivy League in those statistical categories.
• Kayla Padilla, the 2019-20 Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a first team All-Ivy selection, leads the team in scoring, averaging 18.8 points per game in her 17 appearances this season. Jordan Obi (14.1 points per game) and Mia Lakstigala (10.6 points per game) are also averaging double figures.
• Padilla also leads Penn in assists per game (4.5).
• Similar to Cornell head coach Dayna Smith, Penn head coach Mike McLaughlin also picked up his 200th Ivy League victory earlier this season in the Quakers' season-opening victory over Hartford on Nov. 14. McLaughlin and Smith are the fifth and sixth winningest head coaches, respectively, in Ivy League women's basketball history.
A Win Over Penn Would:
• Improve Cornell to 10-13 on the season and 5-7 in Ivy League play.
• Put the Big Red in a tie for fifth place in the Ivy League standings with Penn at 5-7 in conference action, just one game back of fourth-place Harvard at 6-6.
• Snap a nine-game winning streak for the Quakers against the Big Red.
• Be Cornell's first victory over Penn since Feb. 26, 2016 when the Big Red beat Penn, 51-46, in Ithaca, N.Y.
CoSIDA Academic All-District:
• Theresa Grace Mbanefo was named to the 2021-22 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Women's Basketball Team, as was announced by the organization on Thursday, Feb. 17
• The 2021-22 Academic All-District Men's and Women's Basketball Teams, selected by CoSIDA, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom.
• With Mbanefo's selection, the Big Red has landed a student-athlete on the team in each of the last three seasons in which it has competed, as Laura Bagwell-Katalinich '20 earned the distinction in back-to-back years in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
• Mbanefo is just the fifth student-athlete in Cornell women's basketball history to earn a spot on the Academic All-District team.
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 years).
• She is also fourth all-time in years served as a head coach in the Ivy League.
• Smith's record sits at 207-306 for her career.
Team Leaders:
• Points – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 11.7 points per game
• Field Goals Made – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 5.1 per game
• Field Goal Percentage – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, .486
• 3-point Field Goals Made – Samantha Will, 1.1 per game
• 3-point Field Goal Percentage – Samantha Will, .352
• Free Throw Percentage – Shannon Mulroy, .719 (46-of-64)
• Rebounding – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 7.8 rebounds per game
• Assists – Shannon Mulroy, 2.9 assists per game
• Assist-to-Turnover Ratio – Shannon Mulroy, 1.1
• Blocks – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 1.7 blocks per game
• Steals – Ania McNicholas, 2.2 steals per game
• Minutes – Samantha Will, 31.0 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.
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 play its final road contest of the regular season at Yale on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. in New Haven, Conn.
