ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to extend its non-conference home win streak to 17 games when it steps back out of Ivy League play to face Division III Wells College on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Picked third in the Ivy League preseason, the Big Red are working to claim a spot in the four-team conference tournament for the third consecutive season.
• The Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 84.2 points per game while shooting .503 overall and 34 percent from 3-point range while assisting on 18.1 buckets per outing.
• The team's 13-3 start matches its best after 16 games in a season since 1964-65 when it began 14-2.
• Eight different players are averaging at least 5.8 points per game with four in double figures and six at 9.4 ppg. or better.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team is shooting a blistering .646 from inside the arc this season (first nationally in two-point field goal percentage).
• Cornell's three losses have all come on the road against George Mason (14-5), Syracuse (13-5) and nationally-ranked Baylor (14-4), three teams that have combined to go 41-14 this year. 
• It will be the first non-conference game after Ivy play commenced since visiting Bucknell on Jan. 20, 2004 (66-53 loss).

GAME INFORMATION
Wells at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Wells (4-12, 3-6 AMCC), Cornell (13-3, 3-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 1-0
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
3 Years • 27 Miles • 1 Meeting
Overall: Cornell leads 1-0
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 1-0
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 107-48, 11/19/21 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Wells: 1-0

SERIES NOTES
Cornell has almost annually played and beaten a non-Division I team, going 33-0 with an average margin of victory of more than 30 points per game in the past 29 seasons • the 2010-11 season was the only one in the last 25 years where the schedule was made up completely of Division I teams • each of the team's 33 wins have come by double figures except for one • this is the second of two games scheduled against non-Division I teams this season.

A WIN OVER WELLS WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 14-3 to open the season, matching its best mark after 17 games since the 1964-65 campaign (started 19-2).
• extend the Big Red's win streak to four games.
• make Cornell 2-0 all-time against the Express.
• bump its non-conference home win streak to 17 games.
• up its non-conference win streak to 30 in non-guarantee games. 
• give Cornell a 46-25 record overall (.648) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,340th in program history (1,339-1,495-2 in 123 seasons, .472).

LAST TIME VS. WELLS
• All 16 Cornell players dressed got into the scoring column and the Big Red rewrote the school's record book in a 107-48 victory over Division III foe Wells College at Newman Arena. 
• The win cemented Cornell's first perfect start after four games since 1961.
• Cornell led by 28 at the half and cruised as no player saw more than senior Max Samberg's 16 minutes of action. 
• The Big Red's 107 points rank as the seventh-most in a single game in school history, while its 43 field goals made (third), 63 rebounds (second) and 30 assists (second) all rank in the top 10. 
• The home team dominated all the miscellaneous and hustle stats - 69-16 in bench scoring, 34-4 on fastbreaks, 30-3 on second chance points and 56-12 in the paint. 
• Cornell had more offensive rebounds (27) than Wells had total boards (23).
• Leading scorers Jordan Jones (11 points, four rebounds, two assists) and Chris Manon (10 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals) were joined in double figures by freshman Guy Ragland Jr. (11 points, six rebounds).
• Sophomore Sean Hansen narrowly missing his first double-double with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds. 


 
LAST TIME OUT
• Cornell used late game defense and rebounding after a first-half 3-point barrage to close out Brown 84-83 at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
• Cornell placed five in double figures and connected on 12 3-pointers, including eight consecutive during one 6:33 span in the first half. 
• Seniors Chris Manon (16 points, nine rebounds, four assists, four steals) and Isaiah Gray (16 points, three assists) led the way for Cornell, while Keller Boothby netted a season-best 13, Nazir Williams added 12 with seven boards and Guy Ragland Jr. scored 10 before fouling out late. 
• The visitors held a 36-31 edge on the glass and overcame a 28-17 foul disadvantage, with three of Brown's fouls coming in the final 47 seconds to put Cornell at the line. 
• The Big Red was 4-of-6 at the stripe in the final seconds, including a pair by Manon to put the game away with six seconds left.
• Brown's Nana Owusu-Anane led the way for the Bears with 21 points, seven rebounds and four steals, while Kino Lilly Jr. added 16 points and five assists. 
• Brown shot 49 percent from the floor, but was just 6-for-21 from beyond the arc.



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the week with four double figure scorers, six with at least 9.4 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 5.8 points per contest.
• Six regular Big Red players are shooting .526 or better from the floor with two more shooting better than 49 percent.
• The Big Red's three leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .418 (84-201) from beyond the arc so far.
• Junior Nazir Williams is averaging 15.8 points and 3.5 assists with a 13:2 assist:turnover ratio and has shot  50-43-67 over the past four contests.
• Over his past seven contests, Williams has a 4.80 assist-turnover ratio (24:5) and is 22-of-25 from the free-throw line (88 percent).
• Senior Chris Manon leads the team in minutes played at 23.4 through 16 contests and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 8.7 minutes.
• Manon has 150 steals in 70 career games, or 2.14 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.6 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).
• 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.
• Manon's .526 career field goal percentage ranks seventh all-time at Cornell among players with at least 400 shot attempts.
• Manon, who was the Ivy League Player of the Week on Jan. 2, is averaging 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.3 steals over his past six contests while shooting .574 from the floor (35-of-61).
• Manon joined a select group of 11 Big Red players to record at least 500 points, 250 rebounds, 100 assists, 25 blocked shots and 25 steals in their careers when hie ripped down four boards against Columbia. Sean Hansen is just four rebounds and one blocked shot from becoming the 12th player to reach those milestones. Three of those 11 Big Red players to reach those marks have played for head coach Brian Earl (Matt Morgan '19 and Josh Warren '20).  
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .702 from inside the 3-point arc this season (59-of-84).
• Gray has reached double figures in points in nine of the past 10 games, averaging 12.6 points over that stretch while shooting .721 (49-of-68) from the floor.
• Gray has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in each of his past 10 contests.
• Over the team's past seven games, Gray is averaging 2.0 steals per game.
• 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 19.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.6 blocks in 38.9 minutes per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3-point range. 
• 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.
• Senior Keller Boothby has multiple 3-pointers made in 11 of his past 13 games, shooting 28-of-54 (.519) over that stretch and has connected on 12-of-18 over the last five contests (67 percent).
• Over the past two seasons, Boothby has shot .517 (30-of-58) from 3-point range in Ivy play.
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Boothby's 2.33 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (56 assists/24 turnovers). 
• Boothby has committed just 24 career turnovers in 1431 minutes, or one every 59.6 minutes of action.
• Sophomore AK Okereke is shooting 62 percent from the floor (36-of-58). 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).
• Okereke has shot 67 percent or better from the floor in eight contests.
• 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
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 44-25 record (.638), a mark that is 44-17 when removing guarantee games (.721).
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.6 assists per game and hitting 10.1 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.3 points per game. 
• Over its past nine contests, the Big Red is shooting .663 (189-of-285) from inside the 3-point arc.
• In two Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 40 baskets with just 17 turnovers  (2.35 assist-turnover ratio).  
• Cornell is turning the ball over just 10.0 times per game in the past four after averaging 15.0 over the first 11 contests.
• Cornell has hit double figures in 3-pointers seven times this season, with season highs of 14 vs. SUNY Morrisville, George Mason and Penn.
• 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 picked third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, its highest preseason selection since also being chosen third in the 2010-11 poll.
• Cornell is 26-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 14-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 954 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 999 of 1,003 games (6,795 3-pointers over that span).
• 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.
• 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. 
• 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 29 straight non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford.

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
• The Big Red will battle first-place Princeton when the two teams meet on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• The last six matchups between the teams have been decided by seven points or fewer.
• The Tigers hold a commanding 153-84 lead in the all-time series and have won three straight, though the Big Red had won three of the previous four matchups.