Women's Hoops Hosts Columbia For Ivy League MLK, Jr. Day Celebration

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 

• The Cornell women’s basketball team opened the 2022-23 conference play by hosting Dartmouth on Sunday, Jan. 1 where it won 61-48.
• The Big Red have a five-game home win streak following a 61-48 win over Dartmouth to open Ivy play.
• Picked sixth in the Ivy League Preseason media poll, the Big Red is coming off a 9-16 season and a sixth-place finish among the Ancient Eight.
• Cornell swept Ivy League weekly awards on January 3rd for the first time since the 2019-20 season when Shannon Mulroy won both Rookie and Player of the Week. This time around, Emily Pape won Rookie of the Week and Ania McNicholas took home the Player of the Week honor.
• Freshman Emily Pape neared double-double territory in both of her first two collegiate outings (13 pts, 7 rebounds at Colgate; 7 pts, 10 rebounds at FDU). She tallied a remarkable 24-points in the 66-61 win over Mount St. Mary's, the most by an active Cornellian since Shannon Mulroy tallied 27 in her freshman year. Pape earned her first career double-double at Penn with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
• Ania McNicholas is demonstrating true defensive prowess this season currently ranking number one in the nation in steals (56), and second nationally in steals per game at 4.00 as of January 5, 2023. She earned the first triple-double for the Big Red since 1988 in the outing against Clarion (13 pts, 13 rbs, 10 stls)

THE SERIES 
Overall: Cornell leads, 42-29
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads, 24-11
Current Streak: Columbia won two
Last Meeting: 70-57 loss on March 4, 2022
Smith vs. Columbia: Yale leads, 22-16
Series Notes:

• Cornell's last win over Columbia dates back to the 2019-20 season when the Big Red took the Lions to overtime and won, 80-77 Ithaca, N.Y.
• The Big Red held an eight-game win streak from the 2013-14 season to the 2017-18 season.

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ... 

• be the first win in the series since January 25, 2020.
• move the Big Red back to .500.
• be the 465th win in program history (464-754 in seasons, .381)

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 56, Yale 68
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY

• Cornell fell to Yale, 68-56, to go below .500 for the first time since November 30, 2022.
• Ania McNicholas led the scoring charge with 16.
• Cornell led for the first 5:53 of play, but would never regain the lead
• Freshman Ruby Grace Williams tied her career-high steals with four.
• Freshman Emily Pape led the team in rebounds for a third consecutive game with nine.
• Pape was one rebound shy of her second career double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.

Photos by Eldon Lindsay and Patrick Shanahan.