ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to snap a nine-game losing streak at the Palestra when it meets Penn on Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Cornell hasn't won against Penn in the "Cathedral of College Basketball" since Galal Cancer's spinning layup with 10 seconds left gave the Big Red a 71-69 win on Feb. 2, 2013.
• The Big Red will be looking to avoid its first losing streak since February 2023 (Harvard, at Yale) after dropping a 78-74 contest to Brown in its final home contest of the season last Saturday, spoiling Senior Day for Cornell.
• The loss dropped the Big Red out of sole possession of first place in the Ancient Eight at 9-2, tied with Princeton and Yale with three games to play.
• Cornell has already clinched a bid in Ivy Madness, its third consecutive appearance and fourth under the direction of Big Red head coach Brian Earl (2018-22-23-24).
• The Big Red is off and running, averaging 82.4 points per game while shooting .492 overall and 35 percent from 3-point range while assisting on 17.7 buckets per outing.
• Cornell is in the midst of its fifth 20-win season in program history, with the top three marks all coming under the direction of current Penn head coach Steve Donahue.
• Following a 77-60 victory over the Quakers on Jan. 15, the Big Red will attempt its first sweep of Penn since the 2010-11 campaign.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Penn
DATE & TIME: Friday, March 1 at 8:00 p.m.
SITE: The Palestra – Philadelphia, Pa.
RECORDS: Cornell (20-5, 9-2 Ivy League), Penn (10-16, 2-9 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads 162-76
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
120 Years • 228 Miles • 238 Meetings
Overall: Penn leads 162-76
In Philadelphia, Pa.: Penn leads 94-26
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 77-60, 1/15/24 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Penn: 3-10

SERIES NOTES
Series dates back to the 1903-04 season • the Big Red snapped an 11-game losing streak against Penn in Ithaca during the 2018-19 season • the Quakers have won 19 of the past 23 meetings, including sweeping the season series in 2019-20 and 2021-22 • prior to that, Cornell won 7-of-8 contests between the teams.

A WIN OVER PENN WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 21-5 overall.
• keep Cornell in first place in the Ivy League at 10-2.
• give the Big Red 21 wins on the season, matching the 2008-09 Ivy championship team for the third-most in a season in school history.
• clinch Cornell's first season sweep of Penn since the 2012-13 campaign.
• snap a nine-game skid at The Palestra for the Big Red.
• avoid Cornell's first losing streak since Feb. 18 (Harvard) and Feb. 25 (at Yale) of 2023.
• give Cornell a 53-27 record overall (.663) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,347th in program history (1,346-1,497-2 in 123 seasons, .474).

LAST TIME VS. PENN
• Cornell posted an 8-0 run to start the second half and hit 10 3-pointers after the break to lift the Big Red to a 2-0 Ivy League start after topping Penn 77-60 at Newman Arena. 
• Senior Chris Manon opened the second half with a pair of 3-pointers in the first 50 seconds as Cornell made 8-of-10 at one point to turn a three-point Penn halftime lead into an eventual 22-point Big Red advantage. 
• Manon finished with a game-high 18 points along with eight rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocked shots in the win. 
• Guy Ragland Jr. added 16 points and Nazir Williams and Isaiah Gray chipped in 10 to round our four double figure scorers. 
• Williams added five assists and Gray tallied five rebounds and three helpers. 
• In all, the Big Red hit 14-of-39 from beyond the ar and assisted on 22 baskets with 10 steals. 
• The Quakers got 15 points off the bench from Reese McMullen, while Nick Spinoso had a double-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. 
• Sam Brown was the third double figure scorer with 11 points. 


 
LAST TIME OUT
•  Brown led by as many as 15 points in the second half and held on late despite a furious rally to capture a 78-74 at Newman Arena. 
• The loss ruined Cornell's perfect home record this season and snapped an 11-game home win streak for the Big Red on Senior Night. 
• Seniors Sean Hansen (16 points, four rebounds) and Chris Manon (10 points, five rebounds, three assists) led four double figure scorers in their final game at Newman, with Isaiah Gray adding nine points, five rebounds and three assists. 
• Guy Ragland Jr. (11 points) and Nazir Williams (10 points) also hit double figures for the home team. 
• Cornell shot 44 percent from the floor and outscored the Bears 52-18 from its bench, but couldn't overcome a huge disparity on the backboards.
• Kalu Anya posted 23 points and 17 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive glass, for a Brown team that held a 19-8 edge in second chance points. 
• Adding a second double-double was Nana Owusu-Anane with 15 points and 13 rebounds.



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the weekend with three double figure scorers, six with at least 8.2 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 6.0 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 47 percent or above and three over .565.
• The Big Red's four leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .387 (145-375) from beyond the arc.
• Williams leads the team in minutes played at 24.6 through 25 contests and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 8.1 minutes.
• Senior Chris Manon, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season (Jan. 2, Jan. 29), is averaging 14.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.8 blocks over his past 15 contests while shooting .585 from the floor (86-of-147).
• Manon leads the Ancient Eight in steals per game (2.3 spg.) and is in the top five in field goal percentage (fifth, .572). In Ivy play, he ranks in the top five in steals (first, 2.5 spg.) and blocked shots (1.0 bpg.) and is in the top 10 in assists (sixth, 3.5 apg.) and scoring (10th, 14.5 ppg.).
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .658 from inside the 3-point arc this season (79-of-120).
• 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 18.0 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks in 38.4 minutes per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor and 39 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 2.48 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (62 assists/25 turnovers). 
• Boothby has committed just 25 career turnovers in 1555 minutes, or one every 62.2 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 59 percent from the floor (62-of-105). 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 52-27 record (.658), a mark that is 52-19 when removing guarantee games (.732).
• Cornell is 31-5 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 15-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• The team's 20 wins are tied for fourth-most in a season, matching the 1950-51 squad.
• Four of Cornell's five losses have come on the road against nationally-ranked Baylor (No. 16 in NET, 19-8), Syracuse (No. 85 in NET, 18-10), George Mason (No. 88 in NET, 18-9) and Yale (No. 93 in NET, 18-8), four teams that have combined to go 73-35 this year and are all ranked in the top 100 in the NCAA's NET rankings. 
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.5 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.1 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .589 from two-point range.
• Entering the weekend, the Big Red led Division I in bench scoring (36.7 ppg.) and ranks in the top 10 in effective field goal percentage (fifth, .576) and assists per game (ninth, 17.7 apg.).
• In 11 Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 181 baskets with 123 turnovers (1.47 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 964 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 1,009 of 1,013 games (6,901 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
• The Big Red eyes a season sweep of Princeton when the two teams meet on Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at Jadwin Gymnasium.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• A win over the Tigers would complete Cornell's first season sweep in the series since the 2019-20 campaign.
• That was also the last time Cornell won at Jadwin, going 0-3 (0-1 vs. Yale) since.