Princeton University Athletics
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First Full Ivy Weekend at Columbia and Cornell Ahead for Princeton Women's Basketball
January 10, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2006
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How sweep it would be: After opening the Ivy season last Saturday at Penn, the Tigers have their first full Ivy weekend ahead at Columbia and Cornell. Princeton has not swept the Columbia-Cornell trip since 2000. A sweep would be just the third league-weekend sweep in Richard Barron's four-plus seasons on Old Nassau, having taken both from Brown and Yale at home the past two seasons. It would also make Princeton 12-4 for the first time since the 1987-88 season.
The center of attention: Becky Brown has hit double-digits in the points column in 12 of 14 games this season. The only two times she didn't, six points against Central Florida and seven against Rider, the Tigers won while holding onto once-large leads with their fingernails. Brown has passed 25 points twice in the last four games, including 26 at Mt. St. Mary's in a second-half runaway and 28 at Penn on Saturday as the Tigers pulled away down the stretch. For her career, Brown has reached or exceeded 25 points on six occasions.
Historically speaking: Brown's 28 points on Saturday moved her into third place all-time on the Princeton scoring list with 1,377 career points. Catching Claire Tomasiewicz (1974-78) at No. 2 will be a tall order. Brown would have to average 18.8 points per game, three more than her current average, in order to move to second place. She would have to average 23.5 ppg to catch Sandi Bittler (1986-90) to move into first place. On Columbia: The Lions enter their Ivy opener on Friday at 4-8 and on a two-game losing skid. The two losses, to Lehigh and Sacred Heart, have come by an average of 30 points. Columbia takes advantage of its opponents shooting .396, a league-low for field goal percentage defense, with a league-best 27.4 defensive rebounds a game and 40.8 total rebounds per contest. Columbia also leads the league in blocked shots with 3.0 per game. Sarah Beato, a 6-3 senior, leads the league in blocks with 1.8 per game. Megan Griffith, a junior guard, is the team's scoring leader at 15.7 points per game, and Michele Gage, a 5-11 sophomore guard, is the team's leading rebounder at 8.1 per game.
On Cornell: Heading into the Penn game on Friday, the Big Red is on a five-game losing skid that has seen their record tumble to 3-10. Freshman Jeomi Maduka, a 6-2 forward, already a four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, leads Cornell in both points per game (14.1) and rebounds per game (7.5). Cornell's season stats show a strong disparity with its opponents. The Big Red's foes are shooting 42 percent a game and turning the ball over more than five fewer times a game (16.5) than Cornell (22.1).
You don't just walk into...: Head Coach Richard Barron snapped a personal seven-game skid against Columbia in the last meeting in Jadwin Gym but is still looking for his first win in Levien Gym with a 1-7 overall record. Against Cornell, Barron is 4-4 but 1-3 at Newman Arena. However, the Tigers just snapped a three-game Palestra losing streak in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Marin Catholic Reunion: For the second time this year, Princeton's two Marin (Calif.) Catholic graduates meet another of their schoolmates when junior Casey Lockwood and senior Lauren Nestor play against sophomore Michele Gage. Adrienne Payne, a senior at Army faced her former teammates in December.
The Columbia-Cornell Trip, 2005: Four players scored in double-figures in Princeton's 78-74 win at Cornell last February with Becky Brown's 20 points and 14 rebounds leading the way. The next night, Princeton lost to Columbia, 61-57, despite outshooting the Lions 48.9 percent to 42.2 percent. The Tigers lost the battle on the offensive glass, 11-6, and the rebounding battle overall, 31-29. Eighteen Princeton turnovers to 14 for Columbia also cost the Tigers.
Enjoying her twenties: Even though Becky Brown's 28 points were her most since Feb. 20, 2004 against Yale, also 28, Brown's has equaled or broken 20 on 24 occasions in her career. She has done it twice this year, both Tiger wins, and Princeton has won nine of the last 11 games in which Brown has reached 20 points. Overall, Princeton is 14-10 in those games. Currently, Brown ranks third in the Ivy League in scoring at 15.4 ppg, behind Brown's Sarah Hayes (15.7) and Dartmouth's Jeannie Cullen (16.8).
Becky Brown, Lion tamer: Becky Brown is averaging 20.8 points per game in her six career meetings against Columbia. Last season, she scored 10 and 19 in the two meetings, 22 and 21 the year before that and 22 and 31 as a rookie. The 31 points is a Princeton rookie record, nearly eclipsed by Jessica Berry earlier this year at St. Mary's, where she scored 30. She has done well against Cornell too, scoring 20 and four last year, 25 and 17 as a sophomore and 18 and 12 as a freshman.
Broadcast info: The Tigers have a tag team of broadcasters on the trip as Paul Gornowski calls the action from Manhattan on Friday night and John Sadak sits courtside Saturday night in Ithaca. Click on the "Live Audio" link on the right side of the www.goprincetontigers.com home page under the game date to listen.
Rest up, study hard: This weekend's games are the last before a 19-day break for exams. Princeton's schedule resumes Feb. 3-4 with the Yale-Brown trip.
On target: Princeton is No. 1 in the Ivy League in field-goal percentage at .460 as of the statistics released Monday. Princeton is the only school with two players in the top five individually, with Becky Brown (1) at .667 and Meagan Cowher (4) at .464. All shooters need to average four made buckets a game to qualify for the league's list.
Nationally ranked: Becky Brown's .667 shooting percentage is well ahead of the .488 second-place percentage of Cornell's Jeomi Maduka. Brown is ahead of a lot of people, ranked fifth in all of Division I in that category.
NCAA Division I Field Goal Pct. Leaders
(through games of 1/9 - min. 5 FG made/game)
1. Liz Sherwood, Vanderbilt .693 2. Olayinka Sanni, West Virginia .6814 3. Crystal Langhorne, Maryland .6808 4. Sylvia Fowles, Louisiana State .677 5. Becky Brown, Princeton .667Guarding the glass: The solid shooting has helped Princeton lead the Ivy League in rebounding defense, holding its opponents to a league-low 33.9 boards a game. That allows Princeton to lead the league in rebounding margin, pulling down an average of 3.6 rebounds per game more than its opponents.
More rebounding: Becky Brown, who is fourth in the league in rebounds per game at 7.9, saw the league's leader, Penn's Jennifer Fleischer, last Saturday and will see the other two ahead of her this Friday. Michele Gage (8.1 per game) and Becky Hogue (8.0) rank second and third in the league, respectively. Brown does lead the league in offensive rebounds at 3.21 second-chance boards per game.
You've been a big help: Princeton leads the Ivy League in assists at 16.0 per game. Two of the top three players on the Ivy individual assist list wear the Orange and Black, as Jessica Berry is second at 5.15 per game and Katy O'Brien is third at 4.36. Megan Griffith, whom the Tigers will be seeing on Friday, leads the league at 5.55 per contest. Berry's 67 helpers lead the league and O'Brien and Griffith are tied with 61 apiece.
Injury report: The Tigers have 14 able bodies heading into the Columbia-Cornell weekend. The only unavailable player on the roster is junior guard Elyse Umeda who went down with a torn ACL on Dec. 3. She will miss the rest of the season.
Turning 50: Princeton's win at Penn on Saturday was the 50th of Richard Barron's tenure at Princeton. He is the fourth-winningest coach in program history, 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.