ALBANY, N.Y. - The UAlbany women's basketball team heads on the road to face off against Cornell.
GAME INFORMATION
UAlbany at Cornell
DATE: Wednesday, November 22
TIME: 2:00 PM
SITE: Newman Arena at Bartels Hall - Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 3-1, 0-0 America East | Cornell 2-2, 0-0 Ivy League
SERIES RECORDS: 9-1, Cornell leads
STATS:
CornellBigRed.com
STREAM:
ESPN+
INT'L STREAM:
Stretch Internet
TICKETS:
CornellBigRed.com
HEAD COACH COLLEEN MULLEN
"Cornell is a well-coached, scrappy team that has a balanced attack. We will focus on keeping their aggressive guards out of the paint and controlling the boards. Offensively, we want to value the ball and not be sped up by their changing defense. We need to outmatch their toughness and own all the winning plays."
GREAT DANE REWIND
- UAlbany started their season with three wins and one loss.
- The Great Danes opened their season with a down-to-the-buzzer win over Merrimack (Nov. 6).
- UAlbany fell to Fordham in a one-possession loss on November 10 before hosting Division III opponent Sarah Lawrence for a 91-point victory (Nov. 13).
- In a record-breaking night, the Great Danes notched the highest single-game point total (118), single-half point total (61), and single-game assist total (37) in program history.
- Most recently, UAlbany took to the road on Thursday (Nov. 16) to defeat St. Bonaventure, 66-56.
- Senior Kayla Cooper leads the Great Danes with 13.5 points per game.
- Freshman Deja Evans holds a team-high 8.5 rebounds per game and six blocks.
- Graduate student Sarah Karpell leads the team in transition with 13 assists and nine steals.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
- Recruits Deja Evans and graduate student Sarah Karpell have become defensive anchors for the new-look UAlbany women's basketball team.
- Starting in her first collegiate game, Evans leads the Great Danes with 8.5 rebounds per game and six blocks in four contests.
- Fitting in seamlessly with UAlbany's aggressive defense, Karpell owns the team-high in steals with nine.
- The graduate transfer has started the season scoring 8.8 ppg from 50% shooting.
FIRST HALF HEROES
- This season, the Great Danes have started games strong with impressive first-half performances.
- UAlbany has averaged 39.75 first-half points while only conceding 23.25 points per first-half.
- In comparison, the Great Danes scored 36.5 second-half points on average while surrendering an average of 27.25 points.
- The first quarter has been the Great Danes' highest-scoring quarter with 81 points scored through four contests.
WATCH YOUR POCKETS
- UAlbany leads the America East with 45 steals in only four contests (11.25 per game).
- Turning defense into offense, the Great Danes have averaged 24.3 points off turnovers.
- Five Great Danes are ranked top 20 in steals in the conference:
AUTOMATIC SHOOTING
- The Great Danes are ranked second in the conference in Team FG Percentage (44.6%) and Team 3-Point FG Percentage (37.2%).
- Accurate shooting has made UAlbany have the highest-scoring offense in the conference (76.3 ppg).
- UAlbany has leaders across all the shooting categories:
MILESTONE WATCH
- Kayla Cooper is 120 points away from scoring 1,000 career points. Averaging 13.5 points this season, Cooper could reach this milestone within the next 10 games.
- After her 21-point performance against St. Bonaventure, Cooper will hit 20 career 20+-point games with the next one.
- Having tallied 237 boards and 242 assists, Sarah Karpell is chasing 250 career rebounds and assists.
- Helene Haegerstrand is five starts away from recording her 100th career start for the Great Danes.
ABOUT CORNELL
- The Big Red has started its season with a 2-2 record.
- Falling in its opening matchup against Colgate (Nov. 7), Cornell rebounded for an 80-77 victory over Southern Illinois (Nov. 11).
- The Big Red was defeated on the road by Western Kentucky (Nov. 13).
- Most recently, Cornell beat Mount St. Mary's (Md.) (Nov. 18).
- Leading the team with 14.8 points per game, senior Kaya Ingram has started the season as the Big Red's primary scorer.
- Emily Pape and Summer Parker-Hall hold the team-high in rebounds with 5.5 per game.
- Azareya Kilgoe has served as Cornell's floor general with a team-best 13 assists. Ingram is close behind with 12.
SERIES AGAINST THE BIG RED
- Cornell leads the series, 9-1.
- Most recently, the Great Danes hosted the Big Red for a 53-45 loss on December 3, 2022.
- Helene Haegerstrand led the team with 12 points while Lilly Phillips trailed with eight.
- In 2021, UAlbany visited Ithaca for a last-second loss, 47-46. After Haegerstrand put the Great Danes up, 46-44, with just nine seconds left, Cornell's Shannon Mulroy made a half-court shot to win the game.
- Current head coach Colleen Mullen has competed against her former coach and the Big Red four times with her Great Danes.
- The sole UAlbany win came with an 80-55 victory during the 2009-10 season.
PAST CONNECTIONS
- Prior to coaching at Cornell, head coach Dayna Smith served as an assistant coach and interim head coach at Rhode Island.
- During her time at URI, Smith contributed to the recruitment of UAlbany's head coach, Colleen Mullen.
- Mullen spent two seasons playing at Rhode Island, coached by the point guard coach - Dayna Smith.
- Big Red associate head coach Val Klopfer was an assistant coach at UAlbany during the 2002-03 season.
DRIVE THE LANE WITH UALBANY HOOPS
- UAlbany will continue its partnership with ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team and City Line Bar & Grill for the third consecutive year.
- Coaches Colleen Mullen and Dwayne Killings, along with select student-athletes, will join ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team's Charlie Voelker and Dan Bahl every Monday from 6-7 pm live from City Line Bar & Grill for a weekly segment entitled 'Drive the Lane with UAlbany Hoops'.
- Fans are invited to come out to City Line Bar & Grill to join Coach Mullen, Coach Kills, the student-athletes, and the ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team crew.
- Food and drink specials will be available on a weekly basis as the teams embark on their new seasons and talk hoops every Monday.
AROUND THE AMERICA EAST
- NJIT leads the conference with four wins in five contests.
- Bryant, Maine, UAlbany, and Vermont are close behind. Each holds a 3-1 record.
- New Hampshire and Vermont sit even at .500 with New Hampshire getting the edge with one more win.
- Binghamton sits even at .500 with four competitions complete.
- New Hampshire and UMBC are tied with three losses, however, the Wildcats hold the advantage with two wins to the Retrievers' one.
- UMass Lowell rounds out the America East still looking for their first victory of the season.
AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK
- Tuesday
- NJIT at Lafayette, 6 pm
- Binghamton at Navy, 6 pm
- UMass Lowell at CCSU, 7 pm
- Bryant at Merrimack, 7 pm
- Wednesday
- UAlbany at Cornell, 2 pm
- Utah Tech at New Hampshire, 2 pm
- UMBC at Oregon State, 7 pm
- Friday
- Bryant at Florida Atlantic, 12 pm
- Vermont at UNC, 1 pm
- Binghamton at Appalachian State, 2:30 pm
- Maine - Drake Tournament, 5:30 pm
- Saturday
- Vermont - 2023 Gulf Coast Showcase, TBA
- Maine - Drake Tournament, 12:30 pm
- UMass Lowell at Fordham, 1 pm
- NJIT at Hofstra, 2 pm
- Binghamton at Furman, 2:30 pm
- Sunday
- Vermont - 2023 Gulf Coast Showcase, TBA
- Dartmouth at New Hampshire, 1 pm
- UMBC at Maryland Eastern Shore, 2 pm
- Maine - Drake Tournament, 3 pm
- UAlbany at Stanford, 4 pm
UP NEXT: The Great Danes will head west to face Stanford on Sunday (Nov. 26).
For more information on the University at Albany women's basketball team, follow the squad's official social media accounts shown below.
Twitter - @ualbanywbb
Instagram & Threads - @ualbanywbb
Facebook – facebook.com/UAlbanyWBB
