Women's Basketball Looks for Bounce-Back Win When Marist Comes to Town

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 

• Cornell women's basketball returns seeks a bounce back win when it hosts Marist in the final game before the winter break.
• The Big Red will take on the Red Foxes on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 2:00 p.m.
• The Big Red was selected seventh in the Ivy League preseason media poll. Cornell finished 10-17 in the 2022-23 season, ending at seventh in the Ancient Eight. The Big Red tallied a road win over Brown and a sweep over Dartmouth in conference play.
• Sophomore Emily Pape seemed to have found her rhythm again when she tallied her third-straight double-digit scoring outing at Syracuse. Of the three games, two were 20+-point performances, including a career-high matching 27 against the Orange. She's averaging 57.8 percent shooting from the field in the past three games, and leads the team in scoring with 110 points on the season.
• Senior captain Kaya Ingram and freshman Rachel Kaus follow, each tallying over 90 points so far this season. Ingram also leads Cornell in steals (12) and is second in assists (28).

THE SERIES 
First Meeting: Marist, 75-54, Jan. 12, 1980
Overall: Marist leads, 7-2
In Overtime: N/A
Current Streak: Marist won two
Last Time: Marist, 68-53, Dec. 4, 2005 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Smith vs. Marist: 0-2 (0-1 in Ithaca, N.Y.)
Series vs. Marist: 
- Monday's game will be the 10th all-time meeting between Cornell and Marist. The Big Red is chasing its first win in the series since 1991.
- It will be the first time the Big Red and the Orange will be facing off since the 2005-06 season. Marist took the last matchup, 68-53, on Dec. 4, 2005 in Ithaca. 
- Both of Cornell's wins in the series have come on the home court.

A WIN OVER MARIST WOULD ... 

• Push the Big Red's record to 6-5 for the second consecutive season through 11 games.
• Head Coach Dayna Smith would record her first win in the series.
• Match the most wins against Division I nonconference opponents since the 2019-20 season when Cornell won seven.
• Be the 471st win in program history (470-767 in 53 seasons, .380)

LAST TIME OUT: Syracuse 78, Cornell 71
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY

• The Big Red led for almost three-quarters of its matchup against Syracuse but was outscored 29-17 in the final ten minutes in a 78-71 loss to its Central New York rival on Monday, Dec. 18 from the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
• Sophomore Emily Pape was lights out for the Big Red offense, matching her career-high with 27 points on 13 of 18 shooting alongside five rebounds and five assists. Junior counterpart Summer Parker-Hall also followed suit with Pape, netting a new career high in her second game in the Dome for the Big Red with 18 points, including eight coming from the free throw line. Freshman Azareya Kilgoe rounded out the top scorers with 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds in the loss for Cornell, who outrebounded the Orange 40-36.
• After leading by one after the first ten minutes, the Big Red offense turned up the heat by shooting 11 of 19 from the field in the second stanza. Pape accounted for almost half of the team's 22 points in the quarter with 10. 
• The Orange would eventually claw their way back into the conversation late in the fourth, as a 6-0 run paired with a 14 of 16 showing from the charity stripe over the final ten minutes gave Syracuse the momentum it needed in the come-from-behind win to extend its winning streak over Cornell to nine straight games. 
• Dyaisha Fair (24 points, five rebounds, four steals) and Georgia Woolley (23 points, five rebounds) led the Orange offense in the comeback win over the Big Red.