• The Cornell women's basketball team will close out the 2021-22 season and celebrate its seniors when the Big Red welcomes Columbia to Newman Arena on Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m.
Game Information:
Columbia at Cornell
DATE/TIME: Friday, March 4, 2022 at 6 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Columbia 20-5, 11-2 Ivy League / Cornell 9-15, 4-9 Ivy League
BROADCAST: ESPN+ (es.pn/3BRPPoO)
STATS: CornellBigRed.com (bit.ly/3slalLk)
GAME NOTES
What's on Tap:
• The Cornell women's basketball team will close out the 2021-22 season and celebrate its seniors when the Big Red welcomes Columbia to Newman Arena on Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m.
• The Big Red will celebrate the careers of senior forwards Theresa Grace Mbanefo and Samantha Will during a pregame ceremony.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Barry Leonard and Dave Kudgus calling the action.
How to Watch:
• The game against Columbia 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 Yale women's basketball team limited Cornell to 3-of-26 shooting (.115) bridging the second and third quarters, and that was enough to give the Bulldogs a 56-40 win over the Big Red at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
• Cornell's offensive struggles allowed Yale to outscore the Big Red 25-11 over the middle two quarters after the Big Red made 6-of-10 shots from the floor over the first 10 minutes.
• The Big Red missed all nine of its 3-pointers during the middle 20 minutes.
• Kaya Ingram scored 12 points and Shannon Mulroy notched 11, but 19 turnovers and 26 percent shooting on the night doomed the Big Red.
• Samantha Will, Ania McNicholas and Theresa Grace Mbanefo each had seven rebounds, but the trio combined to shoot 4-of-27 from the floor.
• Mbanefo added seven points, while Will had five points, three assists and two steals in the loss.
• The Bulldogs led from wire-to-wire, scoring the game's first five points and never looking back.
• Cornell trailed 13-11 late in the first, but a 13-7 second quarter made it a 29-21 game at the break.
• The Bulldogs opened the third on a 6-0 run to push its advantage to double figures and never let the visitors any closer the rest of the way.
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 8-3 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 eight 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 24 games for the Big Red this season and has played in 34-straight contests.
• Shannon Mulroy has played in 50-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 (.488) 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 8.4 points, 5.7 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 ninth in assists per game (2.6).
• McNicholas has collected multiple steals in 16 of 23 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 (2.7).
• 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 (14.0).
The Series vs. Columbia:
First Meeting: 1975-76
Overall: Cornell leads, 51-28
In Overtime: Cornell leads, 4-3
Current Streak: Columbia, 1 game
Last Time: Columbia, 57-46 (1/20/22 in NewYork, N.Y.)
Smith vs. Columbia: 22-15 (13-5 in Ithaca, N.Y.)
Series vs. Columbia:
• Cornell dominated the series throughout the 1990s, winning 17 of the 20 matchups from 1990-91 to 1999-2000, including a series-high 12 straight from 1993 to 2000.
• Currently, the Big Red has won 15 of the last 20 outings, though the Lions captured the first meeting this season.
• Columbia and Cornell split its two contests in 2019-20, with the Lions emerging victorious by a score of 76-66 the last time the two teams met at Levien Gymnasium on Jan. 18, 2020.
Scouting Columbia:
• Heading into Saturday's contest, Columbia boasts an 20-5 overall and an 11-2 conference record, clinching the second seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
• The Lions made a statement in non-conference play, earning just the program's second-ever win against an ACC opponent when junior Carly Rivera hit a go-ahead three with 21.5 seconds remaining to lift Columbia over Clemson, 82-78, on Nov. 14 in Clemson, S.C. The Lions trailed by as many as 14, storming back to post the upset.
• Columbia opened the season 5-0 for the first time in program history.
• The Lions are led offensively by Abbey Hsu, who's 16.0 points per game rank fourth in the Ivy League.
• Hsu has made more 3-pointers than just about anyone in Division I so far this season, as her 3.4 treys per game and 85 made 3-pointers on the season rank third and sixth nationally, respectively.
• Carly Rivera ranks second in the Ivy League in assists, as her 5.5 helpers per game sits 21st in all of Division I.
• Two-time Ivy League Player of the Week (Nov. 22, Dec. 6) Kaitlyn Davis leads the team in rebounding, averaging 13.2 points and 8.8 boards per game. Her 8.8 rebounds per game sits third in the conference, while her 1.4 blocks per contest ranks third.
A Win Over Columbia Would:
• Close Cornell's season record at 10-15 on the season and 5-9 in Ivy League play.
• Give the Big Red a season split against the Lions.
• Extend Cornell's lead in the all-time series to 52-28.
• Snap a two-time losing skid.
• Allow the Big Red to finish the campaign with a 6-6 home record.
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 207-308 for her career.
Up Next:
• The 2021-22 season is complete.
• The Big Red will resume practice in October for the 2022-23 season.
