Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Mount St. Mary's
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Brown's 26 Points Helps Princeton to Second-Half Surge and 73-56 Win at Mt. St. Mary's
December 28, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2005
Box Score
EMMITSBURG, Md. - A 47-29 second-half advantage led the Princeton women's basketball team (7-4) to a 73-56 win over Mt. St. Mary's (3-6) at Emmitsburg, Md. on Wednesday night. Senior center Becky Brown led the Tigers with a season-high 26 points, including 19 in the second half. Sophomore forward Meagan Cowher also had 20 points, her second-most of the year. The win started a string of three post-holiday games leading up to the start of Ivy League play on Jan. 7 at Penn.
Brown, who entered the holiday break ranked 16th in all of Division I in shooting percentage, hit on 11 of 14 attempts. The 26 points gave her 1,319 for her career and put her into fourth place on the all-time school scoring list ahead of Corneille Burt's (1988-92) 1,302.
The Tigers shot 72 percent in the second half, hitting on 18 of 25 attempts, to finish at 53.7 percent for the game. After a 30-30 tie a minute into the second half, Princeton built a lead that grew as much as 20 at 68-48 with 3:35 left in the game. Brown (11 rebounds) and Cowher (10) both had double-doubles, the fifth of the year for Brown and second for Cowher, as Princeton outrebounded the Mountaineers 46-36 for the game. Meanwhile, the home team shot just 29 percent in the second half.
Despite the second-half cruise to victory, the game showed a couple areas that continue to nag the Tigers. Princeton hit just 13 of 25 free throws and turned the ball over 16 times to nine for Mt. St. Mary's. Princeton managed only one steal to six for the Mountaineers.
Princeton led 20-10 with 10:18 left in the first half before the Mountaineers went on a 15-4 run to retake the lead at 25-24 with just over two minutes remaining. Unlike last year's contest at Jadwin Gym where Princeton took a 20-point lead into the locker room, the Mountaineers were up by a point at the half, 27-26. The 10-point lead was built thanks to the Tigers hitting 9 of 14 shots to start the half. After taking the 20-10 edge, however, Princeton missed 13 of its last 15 attempts from the field to finish with 37.9 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes. The Tigers turned the ball over 10 times in the half and recorded no steals to make up for the giveaways. Princeton held a small rebounding edge in the half, 24-19. Foul trouble also hurt Princeton, as Brown picked up her second foul with just under 10 minutes remaining in the half and didn't re-enter the game until after the break.
Tiffany Green led Mt. St. Mary's with 13 points as the Mountaineers shot 30.3 percent for the game.
The Tigers face their last of this season's three Northeast Conference opponents on Friday at Jadwin Gym when Fairleigh Dickinson visits for a 7 p.m. tipoff.