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Princeton Women's Basketball Holds Off Rider Comeback in 67-63 Win
December 14, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 14, 2005
Box Score
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. - Nineteen second-half turnovers by the Princeton women's basketball team (6-3) nearly gave winless Rider (0-8) an upset victory over the Tigers on Wednesday night at Rider's Alumni Gym. Fortunately for the Orange and Black, Princeton scored just enough points down the stretch to hold off the Broncs for a 67-63 win.
Princeton led by 21 twice, the later occurrence coming at 54-33 with 11:43 remaining in the second half. With the Tigers ahead 61-41 and just under seven minutes left, Rider reeled off the next 16 points and a 20-point edge dwindled to four in the space of five minutes. A Katy O'Brien three-pointer broke the scoreless string and gave the Tigers a little breathing room with a seven-point lead and 1:36 to play. O'Brien had 14 points on the night. Princeton was up by five at 65-60 with 17 seconds left when Rider put one last scare into the Tigers as Chris Catalanotto nailed a fallaway three-pointer to cut the lead to two. O'Brien was fouled on the next play and hit one of two, making it a three-point game at 66-63. Casey Lockwood secured the rebound on O'Brien's missed free throw and was fouled, putting her at the line. She hit her second attempt, making it a two-possession game and allowing Princeton to hold on.
While Princeton turned the ball over 19 times in the last 20 minutes, Rider handed it back only seven times after committing 15 turnovers in the first half. Even with the spirited comeback, Rider hurt itself with 36.7 percent shooting in the second half while Princeton, which took 10 fewer shots than Rider, hit 11 of them for a 55 percent rate. The 54.9 percent shooting for the game was Princeton's best since Nov. 27, 2002, when the Tigers shot 55.7 percent against Tennessee-Martin. Foul trouble also hurt Princeton in the game, as senior center Becky Brown was limited to 16 minutes, scoring seven points and pulling down four rebounds. She had her fourth foul with 12 minutes left in the game and fouled out with five minutes left. As a team, Princeton committed 23 fouls to 16 for Rider and the Broncs were more than happy to take advantage. The home team hit 24 of 30 free throws while the Tigers hit just 7 of 17 from the line. Princeton took advantage of those 15 turnovers by Rider, including nine Tiger steals, to take a 36-22 lead into the break. Cowher had 14 points in the opening 20 minutes and finished with 19 as the Tigers shot 54.8 percent to an even 30 percent for the Broncs. The one-rebound advantage for Rider in the first half, 15-14, was nullified as Rider's turnovers and missed shots led to Princeton taking 31 attempts to 20 for its hosts. Princeton ended up outrebounding Rider 37-29 on the night. The foul trouble started in the first half as the Tigers were whistled for eight infractions in the half and Rider converted 7 of 8 free throws in the opening stanza.
After Rider's Monica Welborn hit a three-pointer for the game's first points and caught Princeton again at 7-7 with 13:38 left in the half, the Tigers went on a 15-0 run to open up a 22-7 lead before a free throw ended a four-minute Rider scoring drought. From there, the teams played about even through the end of the half as the Broncs cut into Princeton's lead by just one.
Rider had three players in double-figures as Janele Henderson led the Broncs with 18 points. Princeton had lost its last six in Alumni Gym and had gone without a win in the building since the 1990-91 season. The victory also broke a three-game losing streak to the Broncs.
Princeton faces its toughest test of the season in its next contest on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at Tennessee, which is undefeated at 8-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation in both the Associated Press poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.