ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will try to carry over its November success when it visits Lafayette on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Kirby Sports Center. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Cornell enters the contest with three consecutive wins, the most recent a 91-87 victory over Monmouth on Wednesday evening behind the strength of 57 percent shooting and 25 team assists.
• The Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 86.4 points per game while shooting 52 percent overall and 37 percent from 3-point range and assisting on 19.0 buckets per outing.
• Seven different players are averaging at least 7.7 points per game with three in double figures.
• The team's 6-1 start matches its best after six games in a season since 1967 (also done in 2021-22 and 2022-23).
• The Big Red will put its 25-game non-conference win streak in non-guarantee games on the line, including six consecutive victories over Patriot League foes.
• The last time the Big Red dropped a non-conference game that wasn't a guarantee was a 80-76 loss at Hartford on Dec. 22, 2019 — 1,441 days ago.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team is shooting a blistering .649 from inside the arc this season, outpacing the previous record of .582 set last season.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Lafayette
DATE & TIME: Saturday, Dec. 2 at 2:00 p.m.
SITE: Kirby Sports Center – Easton, Pa.
RECORDS: Cornell (6-1, 0-0 Ivy League), Lafayette (1-7, 0-0 Patriot League)
SERIES RECORD: Monmouth leads 2-1
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: GoLeopards.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
54 Years • 261 Miles • 25 Meetings
Overall: Cornell leads 13-12
In Easton, Pa.: Lafayette leads 7-3
Current Streak: Cornell, 2 games
Last Meeting: Cornell won 73-68,12/4/22 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Lafayette: 5-1

SERIES NOTES
Cornell has won six of the past seven meetings, including last season's 73-68 win in Ithaca • Cornell head coach Brian Earl picked up his first collegiate victory in 2016 against the Leopards • the Big Red is 155-126 all-time against current members of the Patriot League • Cornell holds series advantages against Army West Point (20-13), Colgate (75-58), Lehigh (15-9) and Navy (3-2) and trails Bucknell (25-23), Holy Cross (3-2) and Loyola (MD) (2-1) • the series with American (1-1) and Boston University (2-2) are tied.

A WIN OVER LAFAYETTE WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 7-1 to open the season for the third year in a row, tied for its best mark after eight games since 1967-68.
• up its non-conference win streak to 25 in non-guarantee games. 
• extend its win streak over Patriot League opponents to seven games.
• improve its lead in the season series over Lafayette to 14-12.
• be its fourth straight over the Leopards in Easton, Pa.
• give Cornell a 39-23 record overall (.629) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,333rd in program history (1,332-1,493-2 in 123 seasons, .471).

LAST TIME VS. LAFAYETTE
• Cornell rallied from a six-point deficit in the final three minutes to claim its seventh straight victory, a 73-68 triumph over Lafayette at Newman Arena.
• Greg Dolan, Chris Manon and Nazir Williams had 12 points apiece to lead the Big Red offense that made just 8-of-26 from 3-point range (31 percent). 
• Dolan added four assists and three boards, Manon had six rebounds and two assists and Williams chipped in five boards. 
• Keller Boothby was a +16 in his 23 minutes, scoring seven points, and Isaiah Gray also scored seven and posted five boards. 
• Max Watson scored six with a game-high four steals, while Marcus Filien had five big points and chipped in four rebounds along with stellar defense.
• Lafayette got 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists from Kyle Jenkins as one of three Leopard players in double figures. 
• Leo O'Boyle netted 14 points, grabbed five boards and dished four assists and T.J. Berger scored 11 points off the bench. 


 
LAST TIME OUT
• The Cornell men's basketball team extended its non-conference home win streak to 15 games thanks to four double figure scorers to hold off Monmouth 91-87 at Newman Arena. 
• Cooper Noard connected on all five field goal attempts, including four 3-pointers, and hit two clutch free throws in the final seconds to ensure the Big Red's victory. 
• His 17 points led the way, with Nazir Williams chipping in 15 along with five rebounds. 
• Isaiah Gray scored 14 along with five assists and four rebounds and Sean Hansen notched 11 points, four rebounds and four assists in the victory. 
• In all, 12 different Big Red players scored as the home team dished out 25 assists and shot 57 percent from the floor overall. 
• Cornell connected on 11 3-pointers and shot a blistering 82 percent (23-of-28) inside the arc, including 13-of-15 in the second half.
• Xander Rice led Monmouth with 27 points and six assists, while Jaret Valencia made 8-of-9 shots on his way to 19 points with six boards. 
• The Hawks shot 53 percent and hit nine 3-pointers.


 
PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the weekend with three double figure scorers, a total of nine regulars averaging at least 4.8 points per contest, and 10 posting at least 2.0 points.
• Four regular Big Red players are shooting .595 or better from the floor and seven are at 50 percent or better.
The Big Red's three leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .440 (40-91) from beyond the arc so far.
• In his first seven career starts, sophomore Cooper Noard leads the team in scoring (12.7 ppg.) and 3-pointers (20-of-41) made and second in rebounding (4.4 rpg.).
• Noard leads the team in minutes played at 24.6 through seven contests and is among 10 regulars averaging at least 10.4 minutes.
• Sophomore AK Okereke, is averaging 7.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 20.7 minutes per game with a pair of double figure scoring games while shooting 71 percent from the floor (20-of-28).
• The former walk-on had a streak of 10 consecutive made field goals over the first three games of 2023-24, tied for the fifth-longest streak in school history (record is 14 by Darryl Smith in 2015-16).
• Chris Manon has 125 steals in 61 career games, or 2.05 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.0 minutes per game for his career. 
• Manon had 63 steals in 2022-23, surpassing a two-decades old single-season school record 54 set by DeShawn Standard (1997-98) and matched by Wallace Prather (2001-02).
• Manon collected seven steals in last season's win over Binghamton, tied for the second-most in a single-game in school history and the most since Lenny Collins posted a record eight at Bucknell on Jan. 20, 2004.
• In his 18 minutes of action against Fordham this season, Manon was +24 and finished with a line of 14-4-3 with three steals.
• His five against Yale in the Ivy League Tournament semifinals broke a tourney record for steals in a game.
• Manon's .531 career field goal percentage ranks seventh all-time at Cornell among players with at least 400 shot attempts.
• The senior became the 82nd player in school history to reach the 600-point plateau with his nine points at George Mason.
• The Big Red's two-headed center of Sean Hansen and Guy Ragland Jr. combined to average 18.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks while playing 40.8 minutes per game in 2022-23.
• The duo is even better this season, averaging 20.7 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals in 38.9 minutes per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 37 percent from 3-point range. 
• Hansen set a school record by hitting all eight field goals in the win over Saint Francis (Pa.), doubling his previous scoring high with 26 points and becoming the first player in school history with a game of at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
• Both Manon and Hansen are looking to join a select group of 10 Big Red players to record at least 500 points, 250 rebounds, 100 assists, 25 blocked shots and 25 steals in their careers. Manon is just 30 rebounds away, while Hansen needs 32 points, 33 rebounds and one blocked shot. Two of those 10 Big Red players to reach those marks have played for head coach Brian Earl (Matt Morgan '19 and Josh Warren '20).  
• With his double-double in last year's win over Ithaca, Ragland became just the sixth player in school history with multiple double-double efforts off the bench (Stan Brown, Mike Millane, Bernard Jackson, Brian Kopf and Jeff Foote) in a career.
• Ragland posted five points, seven rebounds and six assists off the bench against Morrisville, becoming just the seventh Big Red player to tally at least five points, five rebounds and five assists in the same game off the bench at Cornell.
• Senior Keller Boothby has multiple 3-pointers made in three of his past four games, shooting 9-of-17 (.529) over that stretch.
• Boothby shot .478 (22-of-46) from 3-point range in Ivy play last year.
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Freshman Jacob Beccles scored 15 points in his collegiate debut, the most by a Big Red rookie in his first game since Chris Manon netted 17 points in a win over Binghamton to kick off the 2021-22 season.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red had its streak of 23 consecutive non-conference wins against opponents from conferences other than the ACC or Big Ten dating back to an 80-76 loss at Hartford on Dec. 22, 2019 snapped at George Mason— a streak that spanned 1,424 days.
• At the same time, Cornell has now won 25 straight non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford.
• Cornell has hit double figures in 3-pointers four times in its seven games this season, with season highs of 14 vs. SUNY Morrisville and George Mason.
• Division I opponents are shooting just 28 percent from 3-point range this season (44-of-155).
• Of the 30 100-point games for the Big Red in school history, head coach Brian Earl has been at the helm for nine of them, including for five of the top 10 totals.
• Earl's teams also have seven of the top 10 single-game assist totals. and six of the top 10 made 3-point field goal totals.
• The Big Red was placed third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, its highest preseason selection since also being chosen third in the 2010-11 poll
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 38-23 record (.623), a mark that is 38-16 when removing guarantee games (.704).
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.6 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.1 points per game. 
• Despite playing at the fastest pace in the Ancient Eight, Cornell's 12.4 turnovers per game was the second-lowest average in the league a year ago.
• Cornell  led the Ivy League in 11 categories in 2022-23, including scoring offense (81.7), 3-pointers made (10.7) and attempted (30.4) per game, assists (17.5), assist:turnover ratio (1.41), steals (9.7), effective field goal percentage (.556) and fastbreak points (15.9), while ranking in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense, assists, bench points, fastbreak points, steals and 3-pointers made and attempted. 
• Cornell is 23-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 13-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• With 300 3-pointers last season, Cornell's mark ranks second in a season for the Big Red.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 946 consecutive games dating back to a contest against Denison in the 1988-89 season opener (0-for-2). Since the 3-point shot came into effect in NCAA play during the 1986-87 season, the Big Red has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 991 of 995 games (6,720 3-pointers over that span).
• The Big Red's seven-game win streak last season was its longest since walking off the floor victorious in nine consecutive contests late in 2009-10.
• Graduated seniors Greg Dolan '23 (Loyola Chicago) and Marcus Filien (UAlbany) have moved on to play as graduate transfers at other Division I institutions (Ivy League does not allow graduate student eligibility).  
• Over the past three seasons, nine grad transfers have gone on to play Division I basketball elsewhere — Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse), Kobe Dickson (Howard), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice), Dean Noll (Stony Brook), Sarju Patel (UAlbany) and Riley Voss (Wright State).
• Current seniors Darius Ervin, Isaiah Gray, Sean Hansen, Chris Manon and Evan Williams are currently in the portal for 2024-25.

MISCELLANEOUS TEAM NOTES
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (Chattanooga) are one of five active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bryce (Grand Canyon) and Scott (Baylor) Drew, Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley, Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones and Archie (Rhode Island) and Sean (Xavier) Miller.
• Associate head coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Cornell has played in 47 different states, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia, France and Spain. The only states the Big Red has not played in are Alaska, North Dakota and Mississippi.
• The Big Red continues to be ranked among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR). The APR measures semester-by-semester records for every individual team in Division I with regard to each team members' continuing eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation. The NCAA "commends" teams that have APR scores in the top 10 percent within their sport. Cornell has been recognized 10 times in since the APR began in 2005, including seven consecutive (2009-16).

THE BIG RED IN OVERTIME
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 42-51 in games that go an extra period. 
• Cornell is 7-10 in multiple overtime games, with the longest game for the Big Red being a five overtime contest against Princeton, won by the Tigers 66-61 on Feb. 24, 1979 at Barton Hall. 
• Cornell is 31-19 in home overtime games, 2-2 in neutral contests and 10-29 in road games.

ARE CORNELL STUDENT-ATHLETES ON SCHOLARSHIP?
• The easy answer is no. Cornell student-athletes are awarded need-based financial aid, just as any other student who applies to the school - that package can come in the form of student loans and grants. 
• The basic intent of the original Ivy League agreement of 1954 was to improve and foster intercollegiate athletics while keeping the emphasis on such competition in harmony with the educational purpose of the institutions. 
• The Ivy League is nationally recognized for its level of success — absent of athletic scholarships — while rigorously maintaining its self-imposed high academic standards. 
• The Ivy League has demonstrated a rare willingness and ability, given the current national pressures on intercollegiate success, to abide by these rules and still compete successfully in Division I athletics.

UP NEXT
• Cornell will head up I-81 to renew its series with Syracuse on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. at the JMA Wireless Dome.
• The contest will be broadcast live on the ACC Network.
• The Big Red will attempt to snap a 42-game losing streak to the Orange dating back to the 1968-69 campaign, the fourth-longest streak in NCAA history.
• Cornell is 0-28 in the Dome against the Orange (1-29 overall).