ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will close out the first half of Ivy season when it hosts conference unbeaten Yale in a battle for first place on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. at Newman Arena. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• At 5-1, Cornell has put itself in prime position to qualify for the four-team Ivy League Tournament for a fourth consecutive season, and a second straight win over the Bulldogs at Newman Arena would move the Big Red into a tie for first place in the conference standings midway through the conference schedule.
• The Big Red swept a back-to-back at home this past weekend, knocking off Dartmouth (76-64) and Harvard (75-60) at Newman Arena in the strength of its defense.
• Cornell allowed just 62.0 points per game on .391 shooting (45-of-115) in the two victories while maintaining its offensive efficiency — the nation's leader in two-point field goal percentage shot .625 (40-of-64) from inside the arc.
• Cornell entering the weekend second in Division I in assists (19.4 per game) is little surprise, as the Big Red has ranked in the top 10 in each of the past three seasons (sixth in 2023 and 2024, seventh in 2022). Ironically, the first assist credited in an NBA game was by a Cornellian, Nat Militzok, for the New York Knicks against the Toronto Huskies in Canada on Nov. 1, 1946.
• Cornell also has a direct connection to one of its biggest weapons — the 3-point shot. Cornell has finished in the top 20 in Division I in 3-pointers made and attempted in each of the past three seasons, and Big Red alum Ed Steitz '43, a member of the Basketball and FIBA Basketball Halls of Fame, was the original founder and president of Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America (ABAUSA). He was instrumental in the reinstatement of the dunk in 1976 and was an advocate of the 45-second shot clock and 3-point shot. 
• The Big Red has picked up right where it left off a season ago when it went 22-8, finished tied for second in the Ivy League and made its first-ever NIT appearance.
• All five starters are in double figures and nine players are seeing double-digit minutes.
• The Big Red returns two starters and eight letter winners from last season, with former Big Red captain and longtime assistant and associate head coach Jon Jaques '10 taking over the program.
• Picked fourth in the Ivy League Preseason media poll, Cornell will be in search of its fourth consecutive appearance in the four-team conference tournament.



GAME INFORMATION
Yale at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Yale 13-6 (6-0 Ivy); Cornell 13-6 (5-1 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads 123-113
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
Overall: Yale leads 123-113
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads 67-48    
In Ivy League play: Yale leads 80-56
Streak: Yale, 1
Last 5: Yale leads 4-1
Last 10: Yale leads 7-3
Last meeting: Yale 69, Cornell 57 (3/16/2024 at Columbia)
Last Cor win: Cornell 65, Yale 62 (2/23/2024 at Cornell)
First meeting: Yale 49, Cornell 7 (2/25/1899 in Poughkeepsie)



A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ...
• give the Big Red a 6-1 Ivy League record and move it into a tie for first place in the Ivy League standings.
• push Cornell's record to 14-6 on the season.
• extend its win streak to four games overall and three games at Newman Arena.
• narrow the Bulldogs lead in the all-time series to 123-114.
• improve its Ivy record to 18-4 over its past 22 league contests.
• increase its win streak to six games played on Saturdays (5-0 this season).
• up its all-time record in Ivy League play to 413-531 (.438).
• make Cornell 68-36 overall (.654) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,345th in program history (1,344-1,496-2 in 125th season, .473).

LAST TIME VS. YALE
•  Cornell's high-octane offense couldn't ignite and Yale took full advantage, knocking off the Big Red 69-57 at Levien Gymnasium. 
• The Big Red shot just 33 percent from the floor and 29 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (10-of-34) while getting outrebounded 44-34. 
• Cornell cut a 19-point second half deficit to six with 5:44 remaining, but couldn't get closer as Yale pulled away again late. 
• Senior Chris Manon scored 10 points with four rebounds, two assists and a steal for the Big Red, while Jake Fiegen notched 10. 
• Cooper Noard netted nine points, while Nazir Williams had seven rebounds and three assists, both team highs. 
• Cornell assisted on 15 buckets against just seven turnovers. 
• Danny Wolf led Yale with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while August Mahoney had 16, including hitting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
• Matt Knowling chipped in 12 points with seven boards and John Poulakidas rounded out four double figure scorers with 11 points, four assists and three board.
 

LAST TIME OUT
• Cornell shot 67 percent in the second half and closed out a weekend sweep with a 75-60 victory over Harvard at Newman Arena. 
• After falling behind by as many as 12 points in the first half, Cornell bridged the break with a 22-2 run that built a double-digit lead.
• Cornell had four players reach double figures led by junior AK Okereke with 15 points and senior Guy Ragland Jr. with 15 along with six assists, three rebounds and two steals. 
• Senior Nazir Williams netted 11 points, Jake Fiegen scored 10 and Cooper Noard scored eight points. 
• The Big Red shot 57 percent from the floor overall and connected on 22-of-29 shots from inside the arc (.759). 
• Cornell held a 32-23 edge on the backboards in the win and a 44-26 scoring edge in the paint.
• Harvard got 14 points apiece from Thomas Batties II and Chandler Piggem with Battie adding five rebounds and Pigge accumulating three assists and three steals. 
• Austin Hunt chipped in 10 points and three boards for the Crimson. 
• Harvard shot 42 percent overall.



NOTES FROM THE HARVARD GAME
• Junior Cooper Noard was a +27 in his 26 minutes of action in the win over Harvard. It was the best by a Cornell player in a Division I game since Chris Manon '25 was +30 in 23 minutes of action in an 86-70 win over Binghamton on Dec. 29, 2022.
• Cornell shot 67 percent from the floor in the second half, including 80 percent (12-of-15) from two-point range.
• Senior Guy Ragland Jr. moved from 18th all-time in 3-point field goals to 13th with his two treys, giving him 143.
• Senior Nazir Williams' four assists moved him from 15th to 12th on the school's career list with 271.
• The victory was the third consecutive by the Big Red over the Crimson, its first three-game win streak in the series since the 2007-08 and 2008-09 season. It hasn't reached four consecutive since the 1993-95 campaigns.

TRENDING UP
• The Big Red entered the weekend leading the nation in field goal percentage (.513) and effective field goal percentage (.600) and is second in assists assists (19.4 per game). The Big Red also ranks in the top 10 in scoring offense (sixth, 85.3) and 3-point field goals made (10th, 10.5). Additionally, it stands in the top 25 in 3-point field goal attempts (23rd, 28.5) and assist:turnover ratio (23rd, 1.55). 
• Entering the weekend, the Big Red ranked as the Ivy League leader in scoring offense (85.3), assists per game (19.4), assist:turnover ratio (1.55), field goal percentage (.513), effective field goal percentage (.600) and fastbreak points (14.4).
In Ivy League play so far, Cornell is shooting .537 from the field, .404 from beyond the 3-point arc and .782 from the free-throw line while averaging 83.0 points per game.  
• All five starters are averaging double figures in scoring, and no player in averaging more than 27.1 minutes per game (senior Nazir Williams).
• Over the past three contests, Cornell's defense has limited Princeton, Dartmouth and Harvard to 66.7 points on .383 shooting from the floor (70-of-183).
• Senior Nazir Williams is averaging 17.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 0.8 steals over his past 12 games against Division I teams, shooting 57 percent from the floor overall (79-of-138) and 42 percent from 3-point range (20-of-48).
• Williams has reached double figures in scoring in 13 consecutive contests.
• Over his past 12 games against Division I teams, junior Cooper Noard is averaging 13.8 points and 3.2 rebounds while connecting on 37-of-77 shots from 3-point range (.481). He is 21-for-27 from inside the arc over that span (.778) and is 28-for-39 (.718) from two-point range for the year.
• Junior AK Okereke is posting 16.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals in his past nine contests against Division I teams.
• Okereke has reached double figures in scoring in 10 consecutive contests.
• Senior Guy Ragland Jr. is shooting 61 percent (60-of-99) from the floor in his last 14 games, including 50 percent from 3-point range (27-of-54).
• After shooting 31 percent from beyond the arc in his first two seasons, Ragland Jr. is connecting on a .421 clip over the past two (75-178).
• Junior Adam Hinton has made 5-of-7 3-pointers (.714) over his past four contests.
• Junior DJ Nix (87 minutes) and freshman Anthony Nimani (58 minutes) have not committed a turnover in Ivy League play.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior Nazir Williams enters the contest with 1,094 points to rank 21st all-time at Cornell in scoring. He is 20 points from reaching the top 20 (Jerry Szachara '63 with 1,114 points).
• At 12th all-time in assists with 271, Williams is 10 away from reaching 11th all-time and 14 from joining the top 10.
• Senior Guy Ragland Jr. ranks 13th all-time at Cornell with 143 3-pointers and needs two to reach 12th all-time, seven to hit 11th and 11 to jump into the top 10.
• With his 449 rebounds, Ragland Jr. is 51 away from becoming the 28th player in Cornell history to reach 500 career boards.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 67-36 record (.650), a mark that is 66-25 when removing regular season guarantee games (.725).
• Over the past four seasons, the Big Red is averaging 18.0 assists per game and hitting 10.3 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.9 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .599 from two-point range.
• Cornell is 37-9 at home over the past three seasons, including 19-3 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• Cornell earned two votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll on Jan. 29, 2023 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).
• The team's 22 wins last season were tied for second-most by a Big Red, matching the 2007-08 Ivy League champion squad and trailing the 29 wins from the 2009-10 squad.
• Seven of Cornell's eight losses came away from home against top 100 NET teams — nationally-ranked Baylor (No. 15 in NET, 24-11), Ohio State (No. 49 in NET, 22-14), Princeton (No. 55 in NET, 24-5), Yale twice (No. 83 in NET, 23-10),  Syracuse (No. 84 in NET, 20-12) and George Mason (No. 93 in NET, 20-12), six teams that each reached 20 wins and combined to go 133-64 (.675). 
• A year ago, the Big Red led Division I in bench scoring (36.0 ppg.) and ranked in the top 20 in effective field goal percentage (sixth, .572), assists per game (sixth, 18.1 apg.), 3-pointers (10th, 10.3), field goal percentage (14th, .487) and scoring offense (16th, 82.1).
• In 14 Ivy games last season, Cornell assisted on 241 baskets with 153 turnovers (1.58 assist-turnover ratio).  
• The Big Red was 18-2 last season when leading at halftime, with the two losses on the road at Ivy leaders Yale (46-38) and Princeton (35-33).
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 991 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 1,040 of 1,044 games (7,189 3-pointers over that span).

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
• 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 was picked fourth in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll after being chosen third a season ago.
• In the past two seasons, the Big Red has led the Ivy League in scoring offense (81.7 and 82.1 ppg.), assists (17.5 and 18.1 apg.), steals (9.7 and 8.3 spg.) and effective field goal percentage (.556 and .572) both years.
• 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 won 33 straight regular season non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford prior to its defeat against Robert Morris.
• Cornell's non-conference home win streak of 20 games, its longest since the 1920s, was snapped with the Robert Morris loss.

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.

BIG RED GRAD TRANSFERS
• Graduated seniors Keller Boothby '24 (William & Mary), Isaiah Gray '24 (Akron), Sean Hansen '24 (George Washington), Chris Manon '24 (Vanderbilt), and Evan Williams (Prairie View A&M) have moved on to play as graduate transfers at other Division I institutions (Ivy League does not allow graduate student eligibility).
• Over the past four seasons, 13 grad transfers have gone on to play Division I basketball elsewhere — Jimmy Boeheim '21 (Syracuse), Kobe Dickson '22 (Howard), Bryan Knapp '21 (George Washington), Terrance McBride '21 (Rice), Dean Noll '22 (Stony Brook), Sarju Patel '22 (UAlbany), Riley Voss '21 (Wright State), Greg Dolan '23 (Loyola Chicago) and Marcus Filien '23 (UAlbany).
• Dating back even further, Big Red student-athletes have gone on to graduate transfer success at UConn (Shonn Miller '15 and David Onuorah '17), Purdue (Errick Peck '13), California (Dwight Tarwater '14) and Kent State (Galal Cancer '15).

UP NEXT
• Cornell will look to complete the season sweep of Harvard when it meets the Crimson on Friday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. at Lavietes Pavilion.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• Cornell enters the game with a six-game road win streak, its longest in nearly two decades.
• It will be the second matchup between the teams in 13 days, with Cornell earning a 75-60 win over over Harvard on Feb. 1 at Newman Arena.