OPENING TIP
* The Leopards look to continue their hot start in their second of a two-game road trip at Cornell on Saturday afternoon. Lafayette is off to its best start since the 2014-15 season when the Leopards won seven of their first nine on the way to their most recent Patriot League title.
* The offense for the Maroon and White has been outstanding lately as the Leopards sit atop the Patriot League in scoring offense (77.4 ppg), field-goal percentage (51.4%) and three-point field-goal percentage (43.0%). Junior Justin Jaworski has been the catalyst, sitting atop the Patriot League in scoring at 21.1 points per night and coming off a career-high 31 points at Saint Joseph's on Tuesday.
* The Leopards are looking for their first sweep of Ivy League competition since the 2007-08 campaign, having defeated Columbia (65-63), Princeton (72-65) and Penn (86-75) already this season. Lafayette hasn't totaled four Ivy League wins in a season since 2000-01 when it knocked off Cornell (72-62), Columbia (60-50), Princeton (80-73) and Yale (85-77).

LAST TIME OUT
Junior Justin Jaworski powered an offensive eruption on the road in Philadelphia on Tuesday night as Lafayette knocked off Atlantic-10 foe Saint Joseph's by a defiant 94-71 score in its return from a nine-day break.

Jaworski put on an offensive clinic with a career-high 31 points, the first 30-point scorer for the Leopards since Matt Klinewski '18 poured in 30 points against Saint Peter's on Nov. 26, 2017. The junior accomplished the feat on 10-of-17 from the field, 5-of-10 from three-point range and 6-of-6 from the foul line.

Lafayette's offense was clicking from the opening tip, registering a season-best 94 points on 20 assists with just five turnovers. The 94 points were the most since a 95-54 win over Rosemont on Dec. 19, 2018, and the most against a Division I opponent since a 97-84 victory against Wagner on Dec. 16, 2014. Additionally, it marked the first 20-assist game for the Maroon and White this season.

Joining Jaworski in double-figure scoring were his fellow co-captains as senior Myles Cherry recorded 15 points on 6-of-7 from the field and classmate Lukas Jarrett added 13 with 4-of-5 from the foul line. Junior Dylan Hastings registered two blocks to go with a season-best six points and senior Cal Reichwein scored his first points of his final campaign with a triple in the final two minutes.

The win marked the third straight for the Leopards to improve to 5-2 overall this season and broke an 11-game drought to the Hawks with Lafayette's last win in the series coming on Dec. 3, 1975 in Easton. 

THE SKINNY ON THE BIG RED
Cornell had big shoes to fill heading into the 2019-20 season, having to replace Matt Morgan, who graduated with 2,333 career points in the spring and led the Ivy League in scoring all four seasons in Ithaca. The Big Red have struggled to find a rhythm through the early part of their season, sitting at 1-6 on the year with their lone win coming in the opener, an 84-64 win over Binghamton. Head coach Brian Earl is in his fourth season at the helm as the team looks to improve upon a 15-16 finish in 2018-19.

Jimmy Boeheim, son of Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, provides the majority of the offense for the home side, averaging 18.4 points per night, with 23.3 percent of that coming at the foul line (30-of-38 from the stripe). Terrance McBride is the only other Cornell player averaging in double figures at 10.7 points per night, while Josh Warren, who scored 17 against the Leopards a year ago, is putting up 8.1 points per outing. Boeheim paces the Big Red on the glass as well, ripping down 6.6 boards per night.

LAST MEETING
Lafayette fought through a tough offensive night to force overtime with Cornell on Nov. 28, 2018 at Kirby Sports Center, but the Big Red controlled the extra session to drop the Leopards by a 63-58 score.

Myles Cherry recorded his second career double-double, accompanying 14 points with a career-high 17 rebounds, the first 15-plus rebound performance since Matt Klinewski '18 registered 16 against FDU in 2015. The Leopards as a team dominated on the glass by a 51-37 margin, the first outing of 50 or more rebounds since 2014.

Alex Petrie's jumper kicked off the overtime, but that was the lone bright spot in an extra period controlled by the visitors. Cornell opened up a four-point lead with 54 seconds left and that advantage was never surrendered, watching the clock run out on a 63-58 final.

Petrie finished with 12 points on the night, while Justin Jaworski added 15, but the Leopards overall weren't offensively efficient with just nine assists to 13 turnovers. The Maroon and White were 24-of-67 from the floor (35.8%) and 3-of-17 from three-point range (17.6%), both season-lows.

HOT START
The 5-2 start for the Maroon and White is its best start since the 2014-15 season, a year in which the Leopards won seven of their first nine on their way to a Patriot League title. The Leopards already have more wins through seven games this season than they had the last two seasons through seven contests combined, starting 1-6 in 2017-18 and 2-5 in 2018-19. 

The offense has been the difference-maker early in the season, leading the Patriot League at 77.4 points per game. The Leopards have shot better than 50 percent from the field in all five of their victories, averaging a league-best 51.4 percent from the floor overall, good enough for sixth nationally. Additionally, Lafayette has led at the half in five of the seven games to open the year and also leads the Patriot League in three-point field-goal percentage, hitting shots from distance at a 43.0 percent clip.

PICKING (ON) THE IVIES
With its wins over Columbia, Princeton and Penn this season, Lafayette has knocked off three of the top-six teams in the Ivy League Preseason Poll. Penn was picked second behind Harvard, including two first-place votes, while Princeton was picked to earn a spot in Ivy Madness at fourth and Columbia was predicted ahead of Cornell and Dartmouth in the sixth spot. 

The win over Penn secured the first winning record against Ivy League opponents for the Maroon and White since going 2-1 against Penn (W, 83-77), Princeton (W, 83-66) and Yale (L, 82-60) in the 2014-15 campaign. The Columbia win in the 2019-20 season opener was the first victory for the Leopards on the Ivy circuit since a 92-86 win over Penn in 2015 and the win at Princeton was the first for the Leopards on the road in the series with the Tigers since the 2007-08 campaign. 

A-10 DOWN
Lafayette's win over Saint Joseph's was significant as it marked the Leopards' second-straight season with a victory over an opponent from the Atlantic-10 conference. The Maroon and White knocked off La Salle on the road a year ago for their first A-10 win in 12 tries, with the last coming on Nov. 20, 2004 at Duquesne, 85-71.