Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Princeton Women's Basketball Hosts Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday Night at Jadwin
December 29, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2005
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Closing out 2005: Princeton looks to end 2005 with back-to-back wins against Northeast Conference teams with a victory over Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday. With a win, Princeton will have won 7 of 9 heading into 2006.
School record in sight: If Princeton wins its last two games before the Ivy opener on Jan. 7 at Penn, the nine wins would tie a school record for victories before the first Ivy game. In 1995-96, Princeton also entered Ivy play 9-4. The 1987-88 team also won nine before league play, going 9-3.
Weathering a Nor'easter: The Fairleigh Dickinson game is the last of three games against Northeast Conference teams this year. On Dec. 1, Princeton defeated Monmouth 64-56. Wednesday, Princeton topped Mt. St. Mary's 73-56.
She's No. 4: With 26 points at Mt. St. Mary's, senior center Becky Brown breezed past Corneille Burt (1988-92) and into fourth place on the all-time school scoring list. Brown now has 1,319 points. Jennifer Donnelly (1984-88) is in third place with 1,367.
Hot shooting: Princeton entered the locker room against Mt. St. Mary's with a one-point deficit. That didn't last long as the Tigers shot 72 percent (18 for 25) in the last 20 minutes at Knott Arena to take a lead as large as 20 points and earn their sixth victory in the last eight games.
Free throw woes: While the Tigers are ranked near the top in the Ivy League in several categories, free throws have proven to be a nagging concern so far this year. At Mt. St. Mary's, Princeton hit just 13 of 25, lowering the team's season average to .612. The tosses from the charity stripe have proven important, as the Tigers are 3-0 when they shoot better than their season average and just 4-4 when they don't. No Brown-outs here: Becky Brown ranked 16th in the nation in shooting percentage on Dec. 19 when the last NCAA statistics were released. Since then, she went 17 for 21 from the field against Tennessee and Mt. St. Mary's to raise her average to .660. Based on the last NCAA stats, Brown would be No. 6 in all of Division I in accuracy.
More Brown: Becky Brown's 26 points against the Mountaineers was her highest total since Feb. 20, 2004 against Yale, when she had 28, and fourth-most all-time. Brown had 27 points on March 12, 2003 against Penn, and 31 the game before that against Columbia. Interestingly enough, all four of those games were on the road.
Double the double-doubles: Becky Brown and Meagan Cowher both had double-doubles against Mt. St. Mary's, combining for 46 points and 21 boards. Brown augmented her 26 points with 11 rebounds while Cowher had 20 points and 10 boards. It was the 12th double-double of Brown's career and fourth of Cowher's.
More Cowher: The 20 points for Meagan Cowher against Mt. St. Mary's is nothing new. Cowher had 25 points against Central Florida last month and topped the 20-point mark once last season with a 28-point night against St. Peter's. It was also her fourth career game with 10 or more boards, and Cowher has had a double-double in all four of those games.
YES! We're on TV!: The first two Princeton games of 2006 will be on television, including one nationally. The Jan. 3 game from Jadwin Gym is one of five games this year on local Patriot 8 in the Princeton area. The Jan. 7 game at Penn is on the YES network, the only women's Ivy game to appear on that channel this season. While available to cable viewers in parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, YES is on DirecTV channel 622 nationwide.
WhataBerger: Freshman center Julia Berger set new career-bests in the Mt. St. Mary's game for her young tenure at Princeton. Berger scored seven points and pulled down four rebounds against the Mountaineers. She has also proven accurate from the field, hitting 8 of 12 shots this year, and from the line as well, making 4 of 5.
Hang on to that ball: Every basketball team hates to turn the ball over, and Princeton is an example of the benefits of not doing so. When the Tigers turn the ball over less than their 18.5 per-game average, they're 5-1. When Princeton makes up for at least half its turnovers with steals, it's 4-1.
Point of information: Freshman Jessica Berry has started every game this season at the point guard position and ranks fourth on the team with 9.0 points per game. She and senior Katy O'Brien, who also spends some time at the point but starts at shooting guard, both have assist-to-turnover ratios of better than 1:1. O'Brien is third on the club in scoring at 9.3 per game and ranks seventh on both the all-time assist (268) and three-point lists (152) in school history.
All in: In seven games this season, including the last three, every dressed Tiger has seen floor time. Princeton is 6-1 when all available bodies get into the game.
Broadcast info: John Sadak returns courtside for the Fairleigh Dickinson game on Friday. The broadcast, free of charge, can be accessed on the right side of the www.goprincetontigers.com home page. Under Friday's game, click "Live Audio" to hear the play-by-play. Gametracker is also available for Friday's contest.
See `em while you can: Princeton fans have only two opportunities left until February to see the Tigers at Jadwin Gym. Following Friday's game against Fairleigh Dickinson and next Tuesday's game against Lafayette, Princeton is away from home until a big series with Harvard and Dartmouth on Feb. 10-11. This is because Princeton's first five Ivy games are on the road with the break for finals in between in the second half of January.
We've got the Knight fever, we know how to show it: Princeton completes the "gauntlet" on Friday against FDU after facing all four Division I teams with "Knights" in the nickname. Army, Rutgers and Central Florida are the others.
On FDU: Fairleigh Dickinson enters Friday on a two-game losing skid. The team is balanced with three players in double-figure points and three players averaging over five boards a game. The only common player in those two categories is senior guard Krissy Suckow, who averages 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
Injury report: Healthy through its first five games, Princeton had its first major injury of the season on Dec. 3 when junior Elyse Umeda went down with a torn ACL. She will miss the rest of the season.
Head Coach Richard Barron: In his fifth season, Princeton head coach Richard Barron stands fourth on the school's wins list. With 47 wins, he is behind Liz Feeley's 68 wins from 1995-2000, Pat Walsh's 72 wins from 1974-79, and Joan Kowalik's 163 wins from 1984-95.