Ivy Unbeatens Tussle On Saturday When Princeton Visits Men's Basketball

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• A battle between the Ivy League's two remaining unbeaten teams will highlight a key early season game as Cornell welcomes Princeton to Newman Arena on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 6 p.m.
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with Barry Leonard and Eric Taylor '05 on the call.
• Both at 2-0 on the season, the winner will take over the top spot in the standings, at least for a week.
• Cornell's second half defense eventually wore Penn out in an 88-69 victory over the preseason Ivy favorites on Friday.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team went 10-3 in non-league play, posting the third-most non-league wins in school history with its only losses being road decisions at ACC foes Boston College, Miami and Syracuse — the first two by two points each. 
• Earl, the reigning Ivy League Coach of the Year, has accomplished all this despite a roster that lost four of five starters from last season's 15-11 squad that made the conference tournament.
• Now off to a 2-0 start in Ivy play, the Big Red will look to remain unbeaten against Earl's alma mater.
• Saturday's matchup is one between longtime friends and Princeton teammates, Earl and Tigers’ leader Mitch Henderson (Earl was Henderson’s assistant at Princeton from 2011-17).

THE SERIES 
Overall: Princeton leads 150-84
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Princeton leads 61-53
Current Streak: Princeton, 1 game
Last Meeting: Princeton won 77-73, 3/12/22 in Cambridge, Mass.
Earl vs. Princeton: 4-7
Series Notes: Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • the two teams have nearly split the meetings down the middle over the last 17 seasons (Princeton leads 18-17) • the Tigers have the better of the recent meetings, claiming 17 of the last 23 after the Big Red had gone 7-1 in the previous eight matchups • Cornell snapped a six-game Princeton win streak in 2018, a three overtime thriller won by the Big Red at Newman Arena.

A WIN OVER PRINCETON WOULD ... 
• improve Cornell's record to 13-3 for the first time since 2009-10 (13-3).
• push the Big Red to 3-0 in Ivy play for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.
• give Cornell an 18-2 record over its last 20 home contests and extend its home win streak to nine, its longest since .
• make head coach Brian Earl 5-7 against his alma mater.
• up its all-time Ivy League record to 392-520.
• extend its win streak in Ancient Eight play to five games, its longest since winning the final seven of the 2009-10 campaign.
• make Cornell 9-4 in its past 13 Ivy games,
• be the 1,305th in program history (1,304-1,474-2 in 121 seasons, .469).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 88, Penn 69
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS I GALLERY
• The Cornell men's basketball team closed the game on a 33-13 run to pull away from preseason Ivy League favorite Penn and capture an 88-69 victory on Friday evening at Newman Arena. 
• Penn led 56-55 with just under 12 minutes to play after a Clark Slajchert 3-pointer, but the Big Red went on a 13-0 run to regain the lead.
• The Big Red forced 13 second half turnovers and 20 overall. 
• Penn shot just 38 percent after halftime after shooting 57 percent in the first 20 minutes.
• Isaiah Gray tied his career high with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor and added two assists and two steals to lead four double figure scorers. 
• Williams added 13 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals, Sean Hansen matched his 13 points and added three boards and Dolan posted 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. 
• Keller Boothby scored nine points, Guy Ragland Jr. had eight and Chris Manon netted seven as Cornell shot 51 percent overall and made 10-of-27 from beyond the arc. 
• The Quakers got 21 points from Jordan Dingle and 15 from Slajchert, while Max Martz notched 13. 

NOTES TO KNOW
• Nazir Williams has reached double figures in 13 of 15 games this season.
• Junior Isaiah Gray is averaging 12.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 62-60-67 without a turnover in 71 total minutes over his past three games.
• Junior Keller Boothby has turned the ball over just three times in 325 minutes on the court (18 assists) this season and has just 14 career miscues (one every 64.7 minutes). Dating back to its game on Feb. 5, 2022 against Penn, he has just three turnovers in 515 minutes of action (23 assists and 45 3-pointers made over that span).
• Cornell ranks among the top three nationally in 3-pointers attempted (second, 31.5), 3-pointers made (third,11.6) and assists per game (third, 20.1).
• Among 352 Division I teams, Cornell ranks in the top 10 percent nationally in the rankings of 12 of 28 categories despite having just two individuals in the top 50 of any category (Greg Dolan in assist:turnover ratio, 17th at 3.10; Chris Manon in steals per game, 35th at 2.20).
• The Big Red leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (84.3), 3-pointers made (11.6) and attempted (31.5) per game, 3-point percentage (.369), assists (20.1), assist:turnover ratio (1.56), steals (10.1), turnovers forced (16.1), turnover margin (3.4), bench points (32.7), field goal percentage (.487), effective field goal percentage (.579) and fastbreak points (18.8).
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 27-14 record (.659), a  mark that is 27-8 when removing guarantee games (.771).
• In its past three games, Cornell opponents are shooting just .217 from beyond the 3-poijnt arc (13-of-60), but 65 percent (70-of-107) inside it.
• Since turning the ball over 19 times at Monmouth, the Big Red has surrendered the basketball just 92 times in the past nine games (10.2 per game).
• Despite playing at the fastest pace in the Ancient Eight, Cornell's 12.7 turnovers per game is the second-lowest average in the league.
• Since the season opener against Boston College, the Big Red has a 1.70 assist:turnover ratio (283:166), including 173:94 over its past nine contests (1.84).
• The Big Red has at least 20 assists in nine of its 15 games this season — tying the school record of nine set last year, including in seven of the past 10 games.
• The Big Red has held opponents to 30 percent shooting or below from beyond the arc in nine of its 15 games this season.
• At the same time, Cornell has made double figures in 3-pointers in 11 of 15 games.
• If maintained, Cornell's 84.3 scoring average would be the program's second-highest in school history, behind only the 1965-66 team that posted a school record 85.2 points per outing.
 

Photos by Dave Burbank, Madison Epperson, Eldon Lindsay, Hannah Rosenberg, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr