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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Lafayette
Players Mentioned
Cowher Scores Game-High 18 Points in Princeton's Record-Tying 73-47 Women's Basketball Win over Lafayette
January 03, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2006
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. - Sophomore Meagan Cowher had a game-high 18 points as the Princeton women's basketball team (9-4) built a first-half lead and never lost a double-digit edge in a 73-47 win over Lafayette (4-8) on Tuesday night at Jadwin Gym. The Tigers have won 8 of 10 to end pre-conference play and tied a program record for wins before the first Ivy game. The 1995-96 team also won nine pre-Ivy contests and started 9-4. Princeton remained perfect against Patriot League schools on the season, Tuesday's game completing a 4-0 sweep, and has won its last three by no fewer than 17 points.
Behind Cowher's 18 points was senior center Becky Brown with 12 and freshman forward Whitney Downs with a career-high 11 points. Cowher also led the Tigers on the glass with six rebounds.
Lafayette turned the ball over 28 times, the most giveaways Princeton has forced since Feb. 22, 2003 against Harvard, which also had 28. The Tigers scored 28 points off those turnovers while giving the ball up a comparatively low 13 times. Lafayette scored just four points off those giveaways. The turnovers also led to Princeton taking 19 more shots than the Leopards as the Tiger rebounding edge was a relatively small 30-27. Defensively, Princeton forced Lafayette to take lower-percentage shots as Princeton outscored its visitors 32-10 in the paint including 18-2 in the first half. Lafayette still shot 45.0 percent for the game to Princeton's 49.2 percent.
A Downs bucket inside of 17 minutes left in the game pushed the Princeton lead past 20 for the first time to 53-32. After a Katy O'Brien three-pointer on which the Tigers took a 56-34 lead, Lafayette made its best run of the second half. The Leopards held Princeton without a field goal for over five minutes during the 9-0 run that cut the lead to 56-43, but Princeton soon regained momentum. Senior Lauren Nestor hit her first three-ball of the year to give Princeton a 17-point lead at the 8:26 mark to end the drought. From there, it got no closer than 11 on a pair of Val Gomez free throws with 4:23 left to cut Princeton's margin to 68-47. Cowher scored Princeton's first six points en route to 12 in the first half. After a 13-13 tie with 12:25 remaining, Princeton used a 26-9 run to open up its largest lead of the half at 39-21 with 4:17 left. On a Brown layup with 1:19 left, the Tigers equaled their largest first-half output of the season at 45 and took a 17-point lead into the break.
Vanessa Van de Venter led Lafayette with 13 points and Lindsay Myers and Kristin Doherty both had a game-high eight rebounds.
On Saturday at 7 p.m., Princeton begins the Ivy League schedule at The Palestra in Philadelphia against Penn. The game can be seen live on the YES Network, which is channel 622 on DirecTV and is available on many cable systems in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, including Princeton's on-campus system.