Saturday, January 20 | 4:00 p.m.
Levien Gymnasium | New York, N.Y.
Cornell (4-11, 0-2)
Columbia (6-11, 0-2)
NEW YORK – The Columbia women's basketball team plays its first home game of the Ivy League season this Saturday when it hosts Cornell at Levien Gymnasium. Tip is set for 4 p.m., and serves as the front end of a doubleheader with the men's basketball game against the Big Red. Saturday's game will air live on the Ivy League Network. A tape delay will air on SportsNet NY (SNY) on Sunday at 3 p.m. and Monday at 1 p.m.
NEWS/NOTES
OPENING TIPS
• Senior Camille Zimmerman is 22 points from becoming Columbia's all-time leading scorer in both men's and women's basketball history. Already the women's record holder, Zimmerman (1,746 points) is approaching Leonard "Buck" Jenkins '93CC, who ended his career with 1,767 points. Zimmerman would be the third Ivy League women's basketball player to lead her school across both genders, joining Penn's Diana Caramanico (2,415) and Harvard's Allison Feaster-Strong (2,132).
• Senior Camille Zimmerman leads the Ivy League in points per game (19.9), total points (338), field goals made (121), free throws made (90), total rebounds (150) and double-doubles (8). She ranks among NCAA leaders in all of those categories, including 24th in double-doubles, 35th in scoring average and 39th in total points.
• Columbia hopes to put an end to two separate losing streaks. The Lions have lost their last five games, all of which came on the road. Prior to the five-game skid, Columbia had won four of five, including three straight over Boston College, UMBC and Saint Francis (PA). The Lions also hope to end Cornell's seven-game winning streak in the series. The Big Red swept the season series each of the last three years. Columbia's last victory came in January of 2014, 71-64, at Levien Gymnasium.
• Senior Camille Zimmerman leads the Lions in points (19.9), rebounds (8.8), assists (3.2), steals (0.9) and blocks (0.8). Last season, she was the only player in the country to lead her team in all five categories.
• Zimmerman became the third player in program history to make 100 career starts on Saturday at Penn. She and senior Paige Tippet have played in all 101 games of their Columbia careers. The only game Zimmerman did not start was on Senior Night of her rookie season.
• Zimmerman registered her 30th career double-double in Friday's game at Princeton, scoring a season-high 29 points alongside 10 rebounds.
• Zimmerman is five rebounds from passing Judie Lomax '10BC for second on Columbia's all-time rebounding list. She enters Saturday with 795 in her career. Lomax finished with 799 in just two seasons.
• Zimmerman is 34 points from passing Donna Yaffe of Brown (1981-85) for a spot among the Ivy League's top-10 all-time scorers. Yaffe ended her career with 1,779 points.
• Columbia is in the middle of a stretch in which it plays eight of nine games on the road. Among those contests, Columbia plays five of its first six Ivy League games away from home. Saturday marks Columbia's first home game since December 11, when the Lions defeated Hofstra, 75-53.
• Columbia is among the top-25 in the NCAA in free throw percentage (76.1 pct.), entering Saturday at No. 24 nationally. Senior Camille Zimmerman, junior Abby Lee and first-years Riley Casey and Madison Pack are all hitting at above 85 percent from the charity stripe. Additionally, Columbia boasts one of the top-50 3-point defenses in the nation, allowing opponents to shoot just 27.9 percent from beyond the arc.
• Columbia has been outrebounded in all 11 of its losses and held to 60 points or less in eight. In their six wins, the Lions average 73.8 points and have never been held to fewer than 60.
SCOUTING CORNELL
• Cornell (4-11, 0-2 Ivy) is coming off very similar results from last weekend as Columbia. The Big Red opened Ivy League play with a 20-point loss at Penn, 68-48, followed by a 21-point loss at Princeton, 75-54. They graduated all five starters from last season, including Nia Marshall, who ended her career as the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,685 points. Cornell is one of just two teams in the nation that returned none of its starters from a year go (Savannah State). They started the season 0-4 for the first time in 11 years before defeating Canisius, 67-59, on Nov. 22. Cornell dropped back-to-back overtime games at home against Oakland (Dec. 16) and Binghamton (Dec. 18), but turned it around just before the start of Ivy League play with road victories over UMass Lowell (Dec. 31) and NJIT (Jan. 3). Samantha Widmann leads the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game and is the Big Red's only player averaging double figures. She also shares the team-lead in rebounds with Christine Ehland (5.5), and ranks among the top-50 nationally in steals at 2.73 per contest. Danielle Jorgenson heads the offense with 63 total assists.
ROOKIE STANDOUT
• First-year Riley Casey is making quite an impact in just her first season. The rookie is averaging 10.5 points per game, which is second among Ivy League rookies and among the top-20 in the conference overall. A guard out of Brentwood, Tennessee, Casey has scored in double figures 10 times, including a season-high 20 points in Saturday's game at Penn. Casey buried a season-best six 3-pointers on 13 attempts in the contest, becoming the first Lion in more than two years to make six threes in a game. She is seventh in the Ivy League in 3-pointers per game (1.8) and leads all of the Ancient Eight's freshmen. Casey has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice, doing so on back-to-back occasions in mid-December. Additionally, she has been recognized on the Ivy League Weekly Honor Roll four times.
43 STRAIGHT IN DOUBLE FIGURES
• Senior Camille Zimmerman ran a double-figure scoring streak that spanned 43 consecutive games. The streak came to end on Jan. 13 at Penn, as Zimmerman finished with nine points against the two-time defending Ivy League champions. The streak began with a 22-point performance against UMBC in the 2016-17 season opener. Along the way, Zimmerman scored 20 points on 31 occasions. The last time Zimmerman did not reach double figures was the final game of her sophomore season, March 5, 2016, against Yale.
PICKING A FIGHT
• Columbia has shown its not afraid to play anybody, as evidenced by the strong opponents on this year's non-conference schedule. Heading into Saturday, Columbia has faced six teams in the RPI top-50, which includes Mississippi State (3), Green Bay (12), Arizona State (23), Buffalo (27), Houston (42) and Princeton (47). According to the Jeff Sagarin ratings, Columbia's strength of schedule ranks 84th nationally, which is the toughest in the Ivy League.
ON THE APPROACH
• Senior Camille Zimmerman is steadily making her way up the Ivy League's career record books. She enters the weekend 34 points from passing Donna Yaffe for a spot among the Ivy League's top-10 all-time leading scorers. Yaffe scored 1,779 points at Brown from 1981-85. Zimmerman cracked the Ivy League's top-15 in field goals made (645) and free throws made (391) last weekend. She is also among the league's top-10 all-time in scoring average (17.3) and field goal attempts (1,504), while ranking among the top-20 in free throw percentage (82.0 pct.).
LEGEND OF IVY LEAGUE BASKETBALL
• Ellen Bossert '86CC was named to the 2018 Class of Legends of Ivy League Basketball. Legends of Ivy League Basketball recognizes individuals who have contributed significantly to - and left a lasting impact on - their respective basketball programs and universities. Bossert spent just two seasons in a Columbia uniform, but left an indelible mark on the program. She owns two of the top-five single-season scoring (598, 470) and rebounding (355, 335) marks in program history, and is one of eleven 1,000-point scorers with 1,008 career points. Her .544 career field-goal percentage paces all Lions and sits second all-time in the Ivy League. Bossert helped the Lions to a third-place finish at the NCAA Div. III Tournament in 1986, defeating Buffalo State in the third-place game, 89-73, behind Bossert's 38 points. Her single-game record of 39 points still stands today.
LEGEND IN THE MAKING
• Camille Zimmerman is Columbia's all-time leader in points (1,746), field goals made (645), field goal attempts (1,504) and free throw percentage (82.0 pct.). She is also among the top-five all-time in rebounds (795), free throws made (391), free throw attempts (477), blocked shots (93) and games started (100). She passed Columbia Hall of Famer Ula Lysniak '87BC earlier this season to become the all-time leading scorer, and later passed Kathy Gilbert '91CC for the top mark in field goals made. Zimmerman passed another Hall of Famer, Nora Beck '83SOA, for one of the top-five spots in career rebounds.
