ITHACA, N.Y. – Before returning home to close out Ivy League play with four of its last five games at Newman Arena, a battle at Brown awaits the Cornell women's basketball team on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.
Game Information:
Cornell at Brown
DATE/TIME: Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022 at 2 p.m.
SITE: Pizzitola Sports Center – Providence, R.I.
RECORDS: Cornell 7-12, 2-6 Ivy League / Brown 6-15, 1-8 Ivy League
BROADCAST: NESN+ / ESPN+ (es.pn/3B53wQO)
STATS: brownbears.com (bit.ly/3Gv4dUE)
TICKETS: bit.ly/3GAPFCU
GAME NOTES
What's on Tap:
• The Cornell women's basketball team will close out a three-game road stand and a stretch of games that saw the Big Red play five of its last six contests on the road when it battles Brown on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.
• After its game against the Bears, Cornell will close out Ivy League play with four of its final five games at home at Newman Arena, starting with a classic back-to-back against Dartmouth on Friday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. and Harvard on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m.
• Cornell will be seeking the season sweep of Brown on Saturday after having defeated the Bears in the two teams' prior matchup this season on Jan. 29.
How to Watch:
• The game against Brown 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.
• Saturday's game will also be available in select viewing areas on NESN+.
Last Time Out:
• Cornell was defeated in both of its contests last weekend, falling to Princeton, 75-37, on Friday, Feb. 4, at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, N.J. and Penn, 71-61, on Saturday, Feb. 5 at The Palestra. With the losses, the Big Red dropped to 7-12 overall and 2-6 in conference play this season.
• Senior guard Samantha Will paced Cornell in scoring against Princeton for the fourth time in the Big Red's last five games with eight points.
• Junior guard Shannon Mulroy paced three Cornell scorers in double figures against Penn with 16 points, marking the second time in the last three games that the Big Red has had three players amass double digits.
• Mulroy 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 contest.
• Senior forward Theresa Grace Mbanefo (12) and junior guard Ania McNicholas (11) joined Mulroy in double figures.
• Sophomore guards Kaya Ingram and Mia Beam chipped in eight points apiece, combining to shoot seven-of-eight from the charity stripe in the contest.
• Beam was a perfect 2-of-2 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the free throw line en route to a career-high eight points in just under 10 minutes of action, with five of those points coming consecutively during a pivotal fourth quarter run that gave Cornell a chance to claw its way back in late.
Big Red Blurbs:
• As the second rotation of Ivy League play continues, the Big Red sits in sixth place with a 2-6 conference record.
• Each of the Big Red's seven wins this season have come when Cornell has limited its opponents to less than 60 points. The Big Red holds a 7-2 record on the year when doing so.
• Senior guard Samantha Will has truly come into her own as of late, leading the Big Red in scoring in four of its last six games after not having done so previously this season.
• 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 both of Cornell's games last weekend as well. 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 19 games for the Big Red this season and has played in 28-straight contests.
• 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).
• Ania McNicholas has been the definition of "filling the stat sheet," this season, as the junior guard is averaging 8.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.3 steals per game so far this year.
• McNicholas ranks among the top-six of the conference in two of those four categories, sitting fourth in the Ivy League in steals per game (2.3) and sixth in assists per game (2.7).
• McNicholas has collected multiple steals in 13 of 18 games so far this season. If she can keep up this pace for the remainder of the season, her 2.3 steals per game would rank sixth all-time in program history for a single season.
• The duo of Shannon Mulroy (2.8) and McNicholas (2.7) has done a great job of distributing the basketball so far this season, both sitting among the top-sixth in the conference in assists per game in fourth and sixth, respectively.
• 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 (35.9 rebounds per game).
• Theresa Grace Mbanefo has been a blocking machine, as her 1.9 blocks per game ranks second in the conference and 42nd nationally.
• If Mbanefo continues to stuff shots at this pace, her 1.9 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 (.497) and rebounds per game (7.7), marks which rank second and fifth, respectively.
The Series vs. Brown:
• Brown holds a 53-30 advantage over Cornell dating back to 1974-75.
• The Bears dominated the series for the first 20 years, with Cornell winning only three times prior to the 1994-95 season.
• Since then, the series has been neck-and-neck, with Cornell holding a slim 27-26 advantage from that point forward.
• Cornell will be seeking its second season sweep of the Bears in the last three seasons after defeating Brown, 61-55, in the two teams' first matchup this season on Jan. 29 at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
• Samantha Will had a career day in the Cornell victory, finishing the contest with 17 points and 12 rebounds, both of which were career-bests, for her first-career double-double. Will shot 6-of-14 from the floor, including knocking down 3-of-4 shots from long range, and if that wasn't already enough, she also scooped up a game- and career-high five steals.
• Brown won the two teams' last meeting in Providence during the 2019-20 season by a score of 77-73. While the game came down to the final minute of play, Brown's 3-point shooting in the first half was what put them in a position to emerge victorious in the first place. The Bears made 15 3-point baskets in the contest, including 12 in the first half, finishing the game just one 3-pointer away from tying its program record.
• The Big Red has won five of the last seven meetings between the two schools.
Scouting Brown:
• Brown enters Saturday's contest with a 6-15 overall record and 1-8 mark in conference play, having picked up its first Ivy League victory of the season in its most recent outing against Dartmouth on Tuesday night.
• The Bears beat the Big Green by a score of 70-56, snapping an eight-game losing streak.
• The Bears are led in scoring by Isabella Mauricio's 13.7 points per game. Mauricio is Brown's primary 3-point threat, as she averages 2.7 made 3-pointers per game, a mark which sits second in the Ivy League. She's shooting .348 from deep so far this year, a percentage which ranks fourth in the conference.
• Mauricio scored a game-high 24 points, including hitting 6-of-16 3-pointers, when Brown squared off against Cornell earlier this season, being named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Jan. 31 for her performance.
• Kyla Jones is also averaging double figures at 12.2 points per game while leading the Bears in steals. Her 2.7 steals per game leads the Ivy League and ranks 28th in all of Division I.
• Amanda Latkany leads Brown in rebounding, averaging 6.6 boards per game, while Charlotte Jewell paces the Bears in assists with 2.6 helpers per game.
• Mya Murray has provided Brown with a solid defensive presence in the paint, as her 1.4 blocks per game ranks fourth in the Ivy League. Murray also ranks second on the Brown squad in rebounding, corralling 6.0 per game.
• The Bears are led by head coach Monique LeBlanc, who is in her first season and second year at the helm of the Brown program.
A Win Over Brown Would:
• Improve Cornell to 8-12 on the season and 3-6 in Ivy League play.
• Give the Big Red the season sweep of the Bears for the second time in the last three seasons.
• Be Cornell's sixth win over Brown in the teams' last eight meetings.
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 205-305 for her career.
Team Leaders:
• Points – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 11.3 points per game
• Field Goals Made – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 5.0 per game
• Field Goal Percentage – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, .497
• 3-point Field Goals Made – Samantha Will, 1.0 per game
• 3-point Field Goal Percentage – Samantha Will, .358
• Free Throw Percentage – Shannon Mulroy, .673 (35-of-52)
• Rebounding – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 7.7 rebounds per game
• Assists – Shannon Mulroy, 2.8 assists per game
• Assist-to-Turnover Ratio – Shannon Mulroy, 1.0
• Blocks – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 1.9 blocks per game
• Steals – Ania McNicholas, 2.3 steals per game
• Minutes – Samantha Will, 30.9 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 start the final push of Ivy League play when it hosts Dartmouth on Friday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. and Harvard on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
