ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell women's basketball team will play its final road contest of the 2022 Ivy League slate when it squares off against Yale on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. at the John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.
Game Information:
Cornell at Yale
DATE/TIME: Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022 at 2 p.m.
SITE: John J. Lee Amphitheater – New Haven, Conn.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-14, 4-8 Ivy League / Yale 14-10, 7-5 Ivy League
BROADCAST: ESPN+ (es.pn/3BRPPoO)
STATS: yalebulldogs.com (bit.ly/3slalLk)
TICKETS: bit.ly/3t7uJyS
GAME NOTES
What's on Tap:
• The Cornell women's basketball team will hit the road one more time during the 2022 Ivy League slate when it squares off against Yale on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. at the John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.
• The Big Red will be back at Newman Arena the following weekend to host Columbia on Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m. in what will serve as Cornell's Senior Day. The Big Red will take time that day to recognize its two seniors, Theresa Grace Mbanefo and Samantha Will, for all that they've contributed to the program over the past four years.
How to Watch:
• The game against Yale 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 and Penn were neck-and-neck for three quarters, but Penn pulled away in the fourth, outscoring the Big Red, 19-7, in the final frame to defeat Cornell, 70-57, on Wednesday night at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
• With the loss, Cornell fell to 9-14 on the season and 4-8 in Ivy League play.
• Senior forward Theresa Grace Mbanefo's sixth double-double of the season headlined three scorers in double figures for Cornell. Mbanefo finished the contest with 14 points and 11 rebounds, shooting an efficient 7-of-10 from the floor.
• Junior guard Ania McNicholas (11) and sophomore guard Kaya Ingram (10) joined Mbanefo in double figures. McNicholas added seven boards and three assists, while Ingram dished out a team-high six assists and scored in double figures for the second time in Cornell's last three games.
• The Big Red offense was a total team effort against the Quakers, as eight of the nine Cornell student-athletes who saw the floor scored at least a basket. Junior guard Shannon Mulroy and senior guard Samantha Will chipped in six points apiece, and Will added five rebounds.
Big Red Blurbs:
• 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 seven contests. This marks the fourth different starting lineup that the Big Red has utilized this season.
• There has been one constant presence among Cornell's starting lineups, as Samantha Will has started all 23 games for the Big Red this season and has played in 33-straight contests.
• Shannon Mulroy has played in 49-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 six 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 1.6 blocks per game ranks second in the conference.
• If Mbanefo continues to stuff shots at this pace, her 1.6 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 (.496) and rebounds per game (7.9), 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 8.8 points, 5.6 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 eighth in assists per game (2.6).
• McNicholas has collected multiple steals in 15 of 22 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 sixth in the Ivy League in assists per game (2.8).
• 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. Yale:
• Yale leads the all-time series, 55-29, dating all the way back to 1974-75.
• The series has been neck-and-neck since 2000, however, with Yale holding a slim 20-19 advantage.
• The last four seasons that Yale and Cornell have gone head-to-head have been an "all or nothing" ordeal, with the Big Red completing the season sweep of the Bulldogs in 2016-17 and 2018-19 and Yale sweeping Cornell in 2017-18 and 2019-20.
• Yale will be seeking its second-consecutive season sweep of the Big Red on Saturday, having defeated Cornell, 62-44, in the two teams' first matchup of the season on Jan. 15 in Ithaca, N.Y.
• Samantha Will led the Big Red in the loss that day, netting a game-high and (at that point in time) season-high 14 points. Will was feeling it from deep, knocking down three 3-pointers and shooting 4-of-6 from the floor in the contest.
• Yale has currently won three-straight against the Big Red. Cornell will look to snap that streak on Saturday.
Scouting Yale:
• Yale enters Saturday's contest with a 14-10 overall record and a 7-5 mark in conference action, currently sitting in third place in the Ivy League standings.
• The Bulldogs have lost three of its last four games, however, including its most recent contest against Princeton by a score of 74-36 on Feb. 19 in Princeton, N.J.
• Yale has been solid at home this season, holding a 6-3 record at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
• Camilla Emsbo has been a consistent presence all season long, leading the Bulldogs in scoring (14.3 ppg), rebounding (10.2 rpg), and blocking (2.2 bpg). Averaging a double-double on the season, it comes as no surprise that Emsbo has notched 12 double-doubles this season, a mark which leads the league and ranks 26th nationally.
• Emsbo leads the league in three statistical categories, including blocks per game, rebounds per game, and field goal percentage (.525).
• Jenna Clark is also averaging double-figures at 11.8 points per game while leading the Ivy League with 6.0 assists per game, an average which ranks 10th in all of Division I.
A Win Over Yale Would:
• Bring Cornell's record to 10-14 on the season and 5-8 in Ivy League play.
• Snap a three-game winning streak for the Bulldogs against the Big Red.
• Be Cornell's first victory over Yale in New Haven, Conn. since Feb. 16, 2019 when the Big Red beat Yale, 43-41.
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 207-307 for her career.
Team Leaders:
• Points – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 11.8 points per game
• Field Goals Made – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 5.2 per game
• Field Goal Percentage – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, .496
• 3-point Field Goals Made – Samantha Will, 1.1 per game
• 3-point Field Goal Percentage – Samantha Will, .329
• Free Throw Percentage – Shannon Mulroy, .719 (46-of-64)
• Rebounding – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 7.9 rebounds per game
• Assists – Shannon Mulroy, 2.8 assists per game
• Assist-to-Turnover Ratio – Shannon Mulroy, 1.1
• Blocks – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 1.6 blocks per game
• Steals – Ania McNicholas, 2.2 steals per game
• Minutes – Samantha Will, 31.1 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 Columbia on Senior Day on Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
