ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will celebrate its seven seniors and attempt to complete an undefeated home slate when the Big Red hosts Brown on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. at Newman Arena. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Nick DeLuca on the call.

• Prior to the contest, Cornell will honor Keller Boothby, Darius Ervin, Isaiah Gray, Sean Hansen, Chris Manon, Max Watson and Evan Williams for their contributions to the Big Red program.
• The septet has helped Cornell to three Ivy League Tournaments and has posted a 52-26 overall record (23-15 Ivy) with an impressive 31-4 mark at Newman Arena over three seasons after missing the 2020-21 cmapaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Big Red took over sole possession of first place in the Ivy League with a 65-62 victory over Yale on Friday evening, improving to 9-1 in conference action, remaining unbeaten at home (10-0) and clinching its bid to Ivy Madness.
• Cornell has been especially dominant in its 10-0 start at home this year, averaging 86.0 points on .510 shooting overall and .370 from 3-point range with 20.3 assists per game and a 1.75 assist:turnover ratio.
• With four games to play, Cornell will be looking to post double figure Ivy wins for just the 10th time in school history.

GAME INFORMATION
Brown at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Saturday, Feb. 24 at 6:00 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Brown (8-17, 4-6 Ivy League), Cornell (20-4, 9-1 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 84-56
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
74 Years • 326 Miles • 140 Meetings
Overall: Cornell leads 84-56
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 49-21
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 84-83, 1/20/24 in Providence, R.I.
Earl vs. Brown: 8-5

SERIES NOTES
Cornell holds an 84-56 lead in a series that dates back to the 1949-50 campaign • Cornell has had the best of the series recently, having won 26 of the past 37 meetings • the Bears ended Cornell's 13-game win streak in the series in March 2013 •  the teams split the series each of the past two years with each team winning on a buzzer-beater on the other's home court in 2021-22 and each team holding home court in 2022-23.

A WIN OVER BROWN WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 21-4 overall.
• give the Big Red's seven seniors a win in their final home game.
• keep Cornell in sole possession of first place in the Ivy League at 10-1.
• make the Big Red 11-0 at Newman Arena this season with 12 straight wins at home and a 32-4 record over the past three seasons.
• give the Big Red a 10-1 start in Ivy League play for the first time since 2009-10 (13-1 finish).
• make the Big Red 15-2 since the holiday break with its only losses on the road at nationally-ranked Baylor and Yale).
• extend its home win streak against conference opponents to eight games.
• give Cornell a 53-26 record overall (.671) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,347th in program history (1,346-1,496-2 in 123 seasons, .474).

LAST TIME VS. BROWN
• 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.


 
LAST TIME OUT
•  Senior Isaiah Gray scored a career-high 18 points, including the go-ahead bucket and a pair of clinching free throws with three seconds to play, to help Cornell claim sole possession of first place in the Ivy League with a 65-62 victory over Yale at a packed Newman Arena. 
• Gray made 5-of-9 shots from the floor and 8-of-11 from the charity stripe while adding five rebounds to lead three double figure scorers in a virtual rock fight for the second time in two weeks against the Bulldogs. 
• This time the Big Red defense (holding Yale to 39 percent shooting overall and 28 percent from 3-point range) made the difference. 
• Nazir Williams added 14 points and eight rebounds and Chris Manon scored 11 points with three blocked shots and two steals. 
• AK Okereke scored nine with four boards and both Sean Hansen and Guy Ragland Jr. posted six rebounds apiece.
• Yale's August Mahoney had a team-best 16 points, while Matt Knowling posted 15 points and 12 rebounds for the double-double. 



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the weekend with three double figure scorers, six with at least 8.w ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 6.1 points per contest.
• A total of 14 different Cornell players have scored in double figures at least once this season.
• Five regular Big Red players are shooting 50 percent better from the floor with seven at 48 percent or above and three over .575.
• The Big Red's four leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .388 (139-358) from beyond the arc.
• Williams leads the team in minutes played at 24.4 through 24 contests and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 8.4 minutes.
• Senior Chris Manon, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season (Jan. 2, Jan. 29), is averaging 14.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.6 steals and 0.8 blocks over his past 14 contests while shooting .599 from the floor (82-of-137).
• Manon leads the Ancient Eight in field goal percentage (.578) and steals per game (2.4 spg.).
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .670 from inside the 3-point arc this season (75-of-112).
• The Big Red's two-headed center of senior Sean Hansen and junior 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 has been every bit as productive this season, averaging 17.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks in 38.3 minutes per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 38 percent from 3-point range. 
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, senior Keller Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Boothby's 2.40 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (60 assists/25 turnovers). 
• Boothby has committed just 25 career turnovers in 1536 minutes, or one every 61.4 minutes of action.
• Boothby missed his first career game at Harvard after making 74 appearances over his first three seasons.
• Sophomore AK Okereke is shooting 60 percent from the floor (62-of-104). 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).
• The Big Red is 2-0 with Okereke in the starting lineup this season, with the sophomore averaging 10.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists while shooting 80 percent from the floor (8-of-10) and 67 percent from beyond the arc (2-of-3) in those games.
• Okereke has shot 67 percent or better from the floor in 12 different 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
• Cornell earned two votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll on Jan. 29 after its victory over Princeton, the first time the Big Red earned recognition in the poll since ranking No. 17 in the final poll in 2010 (April 6, 2010).
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 52-26 record (.667), a mark that is 52-18 when removing guarantee games (.743).
• Cornell is 31-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 15-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• The Big Red is one of 21 teams nationally that are undefeated at home this season.
• The team's 20 wins are tied for fourth-most in a season, matching the 1950-51 squad.
• Cornell's four losses have all come on the road against George Mason (No. 80 in NET, 18-8), Syracuse (No. 87 in NET, 17-10), nationally-ranked Baylor (No. 14 in NET, 19-7) and Yale (No. 84 in NET, 17-7), four teams that have combined to go 71-32 this year and are all ranked in the top 90 on the NCAA's NET rankings. 
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.5 assists per game and hitting 10.1 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.2 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .590 from two-point range.
• Entering the weekend, the Big Red led Division I in bench scoring (36.9 ppg.) and ranked in the top 10 in effective field goal percentage (third, .582), field goal percentage (fifth, .498) and assists per game (ninth, 18.1 apg.).
• In eight Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 163 baskets with 112 turnovers (1.46 assist-turnover ratio).  
• The Big Red is 17-1 this season when leading at halftime, with the lone loss at Yale after holding a 46-38 edge (lost 80-78).
• Of the 31 100-point games for the Big Red in school history, head coach Brian Earl has been at the helm for 10 of them, including for five of the top 10 totals.
• Earl's teams also have 11 of the top 20 single-game assist totals and 18 of the top 20 made 3-point field goal totals.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 963 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 1,008 of 1,012 games (6,888 3-pointers over that span).
• ESPN analyst and Hall of Famer Dick Vitale named Brian Earl his national Coach of the Week on Feb. 5 following the Big Red's 83-68 victory over first-place Princeton.

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 hit the road for its second and final Ivy League back-to-back when it visits Penn on Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Palestra.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• The Big Red will be looking for its first win in Philadelphia since 2013 and its first season sweep of the Quakers since 2011.
• Cornell won the first meeting between the teams 77-60 on Jan. 20 at Newman Arena.