Penn Athletics Game Notes for Cornell

Men's Basketball Hosts Cornell, Columbia This Weekend
Penn Athletics

PHILADELPHIA - The Penn men's basketball team is home for its second straight Ivy League weekend, and the Quakers are looking to stay in the championship hunt as they host Cornell Friday night and Columbia Saturday night. Both games will tip off at 7 p.m. Penn enters the weekend tied for second place in the loss column with Yale; the Bulldogs are 6-2, while the Quakers are 5-2. Both teams are one loss behind Harvard (7-1) in the standings.

Prior to Saturday's game with Columbia, the men's basketball program will host its annual alumni game at The Palestra. Tipoff for the alumni game is scheduled for 4 p.m.

GAME 25 - PENN (13-11, 5-2 Ivy) vs. CORNELL (10-12, 5-3)
The Palestra (Philadelphia)
Friday, Feb. 17, 2012 * 7 p.m.
TV: PennAthletics.com (there is a charge for this service)
Radio: ESPN 950 AM (Brian Seltzer, Vince Curran)

GAME 26 - PENN vs. COLUMBIA (14-10, 3-5)
The Palestra (Philadelphia)
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012 * 7 p.m.
TV: PennAthletics.com (there is a charge for this service)
Radio: WFIL 560 AM (Brian Seltzer, Stan Pawlak)

Penn Game Notes (PDF) / Cornell Game Notes (PDF) / Columbia Game Notes (PDF)

This Weekend in The Ivy League
While Penn and Princeton (4-3) host the Big Red and the Lions, Harvard (7-1) looks to expand its advantage in the standings with home games Friday against Brown (1-7) and Saturday vs. Yale (6-2). Dartmouth (0-8) hosts the Bulldogs on Friday and the Bears on Saturday.

The C-C Weekend
*Penn has hosted the Ivy League's New York institutions on the same weekend 52 times; the Quakers have swept the weekend 39 times, split it 10 times, and been swept twice.

*Each of the last two years, Penn has won the Friday game and lost on Saturday. Last season, it was a 64-54 win over Columbia before a 74-72 loss to Cornell. Two years ago, of course, the Quakers knocked off a nationally ranked Cornell squad that would go on to win the Ivy title, but lost the next night to the Lions.

The Penn-Cornell Series
*The Quakers and the Big Red have met 217 times previously, with Penn holding a 144-73 lead in the series. Heading into this season, the Big Red had won seven of the last eight meetings; prior to that run, the Quakers had defeated Cornell 18 straight times.

*Penn got its first win in Ithaca in four years earlier this season, gaining a 64-52 win at Cornell's Newman Arena. Zack Rosen led Penn with 18 points, five assists and five steals, while Tyler Bernardini matched him in the scoring column. Shonn Miller was Cornell's only double-figure scorer; in fact, he had a double-double (19 points, 10 rebounds).

*Cornell gained a season sweep last year, winning 82-71 in overtime at home and then escaping The Palestra with the aforementioned two-point victory.

About Cornell
The Big Red enter the weekend having won three in a row and four of its last five. Last weekend, Cornell stunned second-place Yale in overtime, 85-84, in overtime. Senior Drew Ferry is the Big Red's leading scorer, he is averaging 11.4 points per game and has more than twice as many three-pointers as any of his teammates (67). Senior Chris Wroblewski, an All-Ivy guard, is averaging 10.6 points per game and leads Cornell with 122 assists and 39 steals. Freshman center Shonn Miller averages 9.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game -- the rebound average leads the team -- while Johnathan Gray is averaging 8.3 ppg.

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