NEW YORK – Winners of two straight to begin the calendar year, the Columbia women's basketball team (4-9, 0-0 Ivy) opens up its 33rd season of Ivy League basketball on Saturday at Cornell (6-5, 0-0 Ivy). Due to impending winter weather in the Northeast, game time has been moved up two hours to 11 a.m. The game will air on ESPN+.

OPENING TIPS
• Columbia is red hot to start 2019, ringing in the New Year with a convincing, 88-63, victory over Hampton (Jan. 2), followed by a tough, 72-68, road win against defending Southern Conference champion Mercer. Over that span, the Lions are averaging 80.0 points per game, shooting 47.7 percent from the field, 39.2 percent from 3-point land and outrebounding opponents by a combined 95-69.
 
• Following Columbia's last two games, sophomore Riley Casey was named Ivy League Co-Player of the Week while first-year Sienna Durr was selected Rookie of the Week. Casey averaged 27.5 points, including a career-high 31-point performance where she shot 7-for-11 from beyond the arc against Hampton. Durr averaged 19.5 points and 8.5 rebounds to earn her third Rookie of the Week selection.
 
• Durr went on to be named the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Freshman of the Week after shooting 68 percent (17-25) in wins against Hampton and Mercer. She is the first Lion in program history to earn the accolades. Casey was named that week's Met Basketball Writers Association Co-Player of the Week.
 
• Columbia is 9-23 all-time in Ivy League openers and will be looking to win its first since 2014.
 
• Last season, Columbia won at Cornell, 72-54, snapping the Big Red's eight-game series winning streak that dated back to 2014. It also marked Columbia's first win in Ithaca since 2010.
 
• Columbia's first-year class has provided 53 percent of the team's points, 51 percent of its rebounds and 59 percent of its assists this season.
 
• Sophomore Riley Casey leads the Ivy League in 3-point field goal percentage (.391) and shares the league lead in free throw percentage with Princeton's Carlie Littlefield (.780).
 
• First-year Sienna Durr leads the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.513), a mark that ranks No. 3 among NCAA freshman. Durr also ranks No. 3 in the league in free throw percentage (.745) and enters Saturday averaging a team-best 15.2 points and 6.6 rebounds. She is No. 4 in the Ivy League in scoring.
 
• First-year point guard Mikayla Markham enters the game averaging an Ivy League-best 5.4 assists with a 2.24 assist-turnover ratio. She ranks top 50 in the NCAA in both categories and holds the No. 3 spot in each statistic among NCAA freshmen. Markham has had at least five assists in each of her last eight games.

• Junior Janiya Clemmons ranks third on the team in scoring (10.3), second in rebounding (5.8) and second in assists (2.3). She has been named to the Ivy League Weekly Honor Roll a team-best five times.
 
• Columbia has outrebounded its opponents by an average of 13.0 per game in 2019. The Lions were -5.5 on the glass through the first 11 games of the season.
 
• First-year Lilian Kennedy is coming off her first full stat sheet, recording four points, eight rebounds, an assist, two blocks and a career-high three steals in the win at Mercer.
 
• Sienna Durr tallied her 10th double-figure scoring game of the season at Mercer.

SCOUTING CORNELL
• Cornell (6-5, 0-0 Ivy) enters its Ivy League opener winners of four straight overall and six straight on its home floor. They haven't played a game since New Year's Eve, when they defeated St. Bonaventure, 58-44, at Newman Arena to earn their first A-10 win since the 2011-12 season. Junior Laura Bagwell-Katalinich scored a game-high 14 points in the victory and has reached double figures in seven consecutive games. Bagwell-Katalinich leads the Big Red in scoring at 14.0 points per game and in rebounds at 7.2 per contest. Fellow junior Samantha Widmann also averages double figures scoring (11.0) and has tallied a team-high 23 steals. Cornell does a lot of work defensively, allowing just 56.9 points per game to rank No. 33 nationally. They are also the Ivy League leaders in 3-point defense (.250) and steals per game (10.4). Their 3-point defense is No. 12 in the NCAA.
 
NEW YEAR, NEW TEAM
• Columbia has gotten off to an explosive start in 2019 that began by snapping its nine-game losing streak with a 25-point thrashing of Hampton (Jan. 2). Columbia set or tied season-highs in that game for points scored (88), field goals made (34), field goal percentage (.486), 3-pointers made (13), 3-point field goal percentage (.481) and assists (24). The 25-point win marked its largest over a Div. I opponent since Feb. 20, 2009 when it thumped Brown by 31 at Levien Gymnasium. Adding to the victory, sophomore Riley Casey scored a career-high 31 points, shooting 7-for-11 from 3-point range, while first-year Sienna Durr tacked on 21 to mark the first time two Lions had 20 points in a game since last February at Dartmouth. It was also Columbia's first wire-to-wire victory since last January at Cornell.
 
• The Lions used that momentum to fly down to Macon, Georgia, and defeat defending Southern Conference champion Mercer, 72-68 (Jan. 6). Columbia built as large as a 14-point fourth-quarter lead that it maintained with less than three minutes remaining. However, they had to hang on as Mercer, which won 30 games last season, didn't go down without a fight. The Bears completed a 13-1 run to pull the score to 70-68 with 25.7 seconds remaining. Casey, who finished with a game-high 24 points, came through by hitting enough free throws in the final seconds to cement the victory. Durr impressed with 18 points and 11 rebounds to notch her third double-double.
 
CASEY ON FIRE
• Sophomore Riley Casey is on fire in 2019. After averaging 7.5 points and shooting 31.5 percent from the floor through the first part of the season, Casey has scorched the nets with an average of 27.5 points, 44.4 percent shooting and an even 50 percent (11-22) from 3-point range. The Brentwood, Tennessee, native poured in a career-high 31 points against Hampton and a game-high 24 points at Mercer,  eclipsing her previous career-high in scoring (21) in both of those games. Against Hampton, she also posted career-highs in field goals made (10), attempts (18) and 3-pointers made (7), coming up one 3-pointer shy of the program's single-game record. She went on to be named Ivy League and Met Basketball Writers Association Co-Player of the Week.
 
INSIDE COLUMBIA BASKETBALL PODCAST
Columbia Athletics debuted a brand new podcast featuring the men's and women's basketball programs. New episodes are available weekly on iTunes and SoundCloud.

THE IVY LEAGUE ON ESPN+
All home Columbia games and most Ivy League road contests will air on ESPN+ as part of The Ivy League's new partnership with ESPN. ESPN+ is a new, subscription-based service that offers monthly ($4.99) and yearly ($49.99) plans. Click here to subscribe to ESPN+ and start your free trial! Click here for frequently asked questions about the Ivy League on ESPN.  

#ROADTOIVYMADNESS
• The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments have a new home this season. After the first two years of the tournaments were held at the Palestra in Philadelphia, this year's tournaments will be hosted by Yale at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. The top four men's and women's teams will earn berths to the tournament with the semifinals on Saturday, March 16, and the championships on Sunday, March 17. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For tickets and more information please visit IvyMadness.com.