A few years ago, Emily and Ally Pape decided to play one-on-one at Newman Arena, Emily’s home court at Cornell University. Ally, who was still in high school, lost — and she didn’t take it well.
“It was a complete blowout. And I was so mad,” Ally recently told The IX Basketball. “I stormed off, and we got in a fight.”
Fast forward to the present, and the Papes regularly go at each other at Newman Arena. Emily is a senior and Ally is a first-year for the Big Red, and with both able to play either forward spot, they match up fairly often in practice. It’s as competitive as ever, but neither one storms off anymore.
Because of their age gap, the Papes had never played on the same team before this season. They’re trying not to take this brief window for granted.
“It’s been so special because … I don’t have a relationship with anyone like I have with Ally,” Emily told The IX Basketball. “So it just makes me happy.”
Growing up in the Chicago area, Emily and Ally tried several sports, but basketball stuck. From a young age, they worked with the late Jim Kilburg, a family friend and local youth sports coach.
Emily took to basketball more naturally than Ally did. After Ally’s first session with Kilburg, he told the girls’ mom, Amy, something to the effect of, “She’s not like Emily. She just needs a little bit more work.”
Kilburg put both sisters in group workouts with older girls and with boys — something that was intimidating to them at the time but that they credit now with helping them grow. Ally would cry sometimes before sessions where she knew she’d be the only girl.
“There were definitely days where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is horrible,’” Ally said. “But look at where I am now.”
Emily graduated from Maine South High School in 2022 as a two-time all-state honoree. In three varsity seasons, she totaled 1,020 points, 542 rebounds and 180 steals, according to statistics provided by head coach Jeff Hamann. But the COVID-19 pandemic shortened her junior season and disrupted her college recruitment.
Emily considered colleges in all three NCAA divisions, but her decision came down to Cornell and Brown. Planning to major in environment and sustainability, she was drawn to Cornell’s outdoorsy campus in upstate New York. She also liked how then-head coach Dayna Smith planned to use her on the court.
Emily immediately stepped into a big role as a first-year for the Big Red in 2022-23, averaging 11.2 points and 6.6 rebounds in 26.1 minutes per game off the bench. As a 6’1 forward, almost all her shots came from inside the arc, where she shot a career-best 56.2% that season.
She became a starter as a sophomore and started to shoot more from deep, taking 2.3 3-pointers per game. She averaged 10.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 26.6 minutes per game.
But Cornell struggled in both seasons, finishing with losing records and winning just four total Ivy League games. Athletic director Nicki Moore decided it was time for a change and replaced Smith with Emily Garner.
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Before their exit, Smith and her staff had started to recruit Ally, and Garner picked up where they left off. The Chicago area has been kind to Cornell — four starters this season are from there — and Garner prioritized recruiting there right away. When she identified Ally as a potential recruit, she got Emily’s permission to move forward, but then recruited Ally as she would any other player.
“We didn’t want her to be recruited as Em’s little sister,” Garner told The IX Basketball. “… Something that was important to us is that they know we care about both of them for who they are individually. We believe in both of them as individuals.”
At first, Ally wasn’t sure if she wanted to follow Emily to Cornell. The two of them weren’t especially close before Emily left for college, and Ally was unsure whether she wanted to try to balance Ivy League academics and basketball. But they started FaceTiming more and growing closer once Emily left, and Ally found herself drawn to the campus, too, when she visited Emily.
Though Emily was excited about potentially playing with Ally, she tried not to say much about it. That was partly because she knew Ally needed to pick somewhere she’d be happy for four years, not just her first one with Emily. But Emily also knew that pushing her might backfire.
“I also felt like we have the type of relationship where if I were to say, ‘I want you to come here,’ you would purposely not,” Emily said, addressing Ally. (Ally did not dispute that.)
Ally ended up being Garner’s first commitment in July 2024, before her senior year at Maine South. She was also an all-state selection and had 1,066 points, 522 rebounds and 210 steals in three varsity seasons.
Meanwhile, Emily adapted again as a junior in her first season under Garner. She averaged 10.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 27.4 minutes per game while attempting 5.4 3-pointers per game. The share of her shots that were threes climbed from 8% as a first-year to 43% as a junior.
But she wasn’t done reinventing herself. As a senior, nearly 60% of her shot attempts are threes, and she’s making a career-best 2.1 per game. “You have to play her like a guard,” Columbia head coach Megan Griffith told reporters on Jan. 1, two days before Emily shot 4-for-10 from three to help Cornell beat Columbia in a historic upset.
“That kid has probably the quickest release in the league, I think,” Harvard head coach Carrie Moore told reporters on Jan. 28. “And that’s a pretty big compliment, considering some of the shooters that we have in our league.”
This season, Emily is averaging 10.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 28.4 minutes per game. For her career, she has 1,100 points and 616 rebounds, which rank 15th and seventh in program history, respectively. She also ranks eighth with 112 career 3-pointers, despite making just two as a first-year.
“Emily Pape’s gonna go down as one of the Cornell women’s basketball greats,” Garner said.
Emily said she never really had a conversation with Garner about shooting more threes. It just happened naturally because the team needed shooting, she was best suited to provide it, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help the team.
Reflecting on what she’s learned from having to evolve every season, Emily said, “I just know that I shouldn’t be put in a box, and if I am, I can get out of it. … I feel like I don’t really get stopped easily by roadblocks. I just kind of work around them. And that’s … super applicable to just life and working with other people and being in high-stress environments and stuff like that. It’s just really taught me that I can do anything that I want to.”
Garner sees plenty of similarities between Emily and Ally, from their lefthanded shooting to their leadership qualities and work ethic. And like Emily did, Ally is coming off the bench as a first-year. A 5’11 guard/forward, she is averaging 3.5 points and 1.8 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per game, the most of any player on the roster who hasn’t started any games.
“When I go in, I honestly just try to play the hardest that I can and try to do everything right, basically,” Ally said.
“I actually forgot [Ally] was [Emily’s] sister at first,” Griffith said. “… And I was like, ‘Oh, this kid’s like a young Pape.’”
Though Emily and Ally can play together, they haven’t much this season. They’ve shared the court for 156 of Cornell’s offensive possessions, or about 8%, according to Synergy Sports. More often, Ally is leading the bench celebrations for Emily, who’s been an unequivocal bright spot in an 8-18 season.
“When she is popping off, I’m so excited,” Ally said. “I think there’s so many pictures of me cheering, jumping up and down. I could find so many videos also. … I’ll slam the ground. It’s just really weird celebrations, but it definitely makes me hype.”
On Jan. 13, the sisters got to switch roles in a blowout win over SUNY Delhi. Emily and the other starters only played a few minutes, then watched as Ally put up a game-high 24 points on 10-for-16 shooting, 10 rebounds and three assists.
“That was really fun to watch. And I was just like, ‘Daaang,’” Emily said, drawing out the last word. Turning to Ally, she continued, “All of a sudden, you had — I don’t even know — like 12 points. And then you just kept making threes.”
However, the love between the sisters comes out differently when they go against each other in practice.
“Occasionally we get a little bit of, probably, what their parents got growing up in … their backyard,” Garner said.
“It almost always ends in some kind of little argument or like, ‘Why are you pushing me?’” Ally said. “… It’s just stuff that we would obviously not do to any other teammate.”
The intensity sometimes ramps up when Ally tries to take it to Emily.
“I especially feel like I can just bulldoze her, just because she’s my sister,” Ally said.
“There was a time where [she] really wanted to cross me up, and I could tell,” Emily said. “… I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s trying to drive and go at me.’ And then that just made me be more aggressive.”
When Ally scored on Emily in a recent practice, Emily took it extra personally. “I’m guarding Ally,” she insisted while going back on defense. A teammate pointed out that the other matchups wouldn’t be right, but Emily didn’t care.
Sometimes when Garner is matching players up, she’ll ask the Papes, “Are you two going to be good today?” But as long as no one’s bleeding, she likes watching them battle because it sets the tone for everyone else. It makes practices more competitive, and their closeness has also boosted the team’s chemistry.
“What better way to create kind of a family environment than when you have actual siblings on the team?” Garner said.
Garner has now coached three pairs of siblings, including one set of identical twins. She believes the Papes are the closest pair she’s had.
Off the court, Emily and Ally try to see each other as much as possible. Cornell’s players lift whenever they have time during the week, but the Papes always do theirs together. They also shoot and do skill development together, and on the road, Ally can often be found hanging out in Emily’s hotel room.
“I’m definitely going to miss when I can’t just go to my sister when I’m sad or when I don’t really want to talk to anyone else,” Ally said.
They’ve also taken classes together: “Introductory Oceanography” last semester and the behavioral economics class “Better Decisions for Life, Love, and Money” this semester. Oceanography was more geared toward Emily’s major, while Better Decisions counts toward Ally’s major, psychology.
Emily, who lives off campus, has even become Ally’s chauffeur, picking her up every day from her on-campus dorm and driving her wherever she needs to go. Emily good-naturedly pointed out that she didn’t have that luxury as a first-year, but she loves that time together, too.
“I’m just gonna miss the little moments — the things that you don’t really think about. … Like picking her up in the mornings,” Emily said. “And sometimes, if we spot each other on campus, we act like we’re meeting like a celebrity. We’ll look at each other, and then we’ll run across the street to find each other.”
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With less than three months until Emily’s graduation and her senior day coming up on Saturday, she got emotional thinking about how soon so much is ending. She hopes to extend her career by playing professionally overseas (and perhaps get a master’s degree at the same time), but Saturday is her last college game with Ally.
During the senior day festivities, Ally will join their parents to walk Emily onto the court. In three years, Emily will likely be back to celebrate Ally’s senior day — and, perhaps, bring their basketball careers full-circle with another game of pickup at Newman Arena.
