Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
(1/1) Tennessee
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No. 1 Tennessee Hands Princeton 107-39 Defeat in Women's Basketball
December 20, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2005
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The bright side for the Princeton women's basketball team (6-4) is that none of its opponents the rest of this season can be any better than the team it faced on Tuesday night. Consensus No. 1 Tennessee (10-0) raced past the Tigers on the floor and consequently on the scoreboard, winning 107-39 in front of 10,650 fans at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn. It was the largest crowd ever to see the Tigers play.
Tennessee was bigger than Princeton at every position with its smallest player, 5-10 guard Shanna Zolman, doing the most damage with 23 points. Candace Parker led a 52-22 rebounding edge for Tennessee with 10 boards, and Alexis Hornbuckle swiped six of the 12 balls the Lady Vols stole.
The tone was set early on as Tennessee scored the first five points and Princeton got no closer than 7-5 on a Katy O'Brien three-pointer just over two minutes into the game. Tennessee was up 12-8 when it opened up a 12-0 run and a lead that never came close to evaporating, including a 47-19 edge at halftime.
Tennessee ended the game with a 59.7 percent to 29.3 percent advantage from the field, including shooting 70.6 percent in the second half, and benefitted from 16 Princeton turnovers while giving the ball up only eight times. Three-pointers played a significant role in the one-sided outcome, as Tennessee hit 11 of the 15 it attempted, while Princeton went 4 for 23 from beyond the arc. Princeton committed 20 fouls, sending the Lady Vols to the line for 24 attempts to just 10 fouls and four free-throw attempts for the Tigers.
Becky Brown's six straight points near the midway point of the second half helped move her into fifth place on the Princeton all-time scoring list, past Ellen DeVoe's (1982-86) 1,290. Brown, the most accurate shooter in the conference who was 6 for 7 on the night, now has 1,293 with Cornielle Burt's (1988-92) 1,302 ahead. Brown, a Nashville, Tenn., native, was playing a team from her home state for the second time in her career and was making her first appearance in Tennessee since a two-game tournament at Vanderbilt her sophomore year in which the Tigers did not face the Commodores. In the third game of her career, Princeton topped Tennessee-Martin, the alma mater of Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt. Behind Brown's 12 points was sophomore Meagan Cowher, who scored seven points and led Princeton with five rebounds. Freshman Whitney Downs, also making a return trip to her home state, scored four points and pulled down two rebounds.
It was Princeton's most one-sided loss since Nov. 27, 1979, a 116-43 defeat to Rutgers, also the last time a team hit the century mark against the Tigers.
Princeton takes a weeklong holiday break before its next game, a Dec. 28 meeting with Mt. St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md.