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Princeton University
Penn
Players Mentioned
Brown Scores 22 Second-Half Points to Lead Princeton to 73-55 Women's Basketball Win at Penn
January 07, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2006
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - Becky Brown was determined not to go winless for her career at the home arena of archrival Penn. The senior center piled up 28 points, including 22 in the second half, went 11 for 13 from the field, hit 6 of 8 free throws and pulled down nine rebounds. Consequently, the Princeton women's basketball team (10-4, 1-0 Ivy) snapped Penn's (1-10, 0-1) five-game win streak in the series and three in a row at The Palestra on Saturday night with a 73-55 win.
After a 47-47 tie with 6:36 left, Princeton went on a 14-1 run to take control of the game. Penn's Kelly Scott hit a three-pointer with 1:53 left to end that run and a drought of almost seven minutes without a Quaker field goal. Princeton never let its lead get any smaller than nine from that point as Penn continued to send the Tigers to the line with fouls and Princeton took advantage, finishing 29 for 38 from the line for the game. For the half, the Tigers shot 62.5 percent, a 27-percent improvement over the first 20 minutes. Rebounding also became a strength in the second half. The Tigers outrebounded Penn 21-15 in the final frame and 14-7 on the defensive glass.
Brown scored Princeton's first 11 points out of the locker room and had six in a row during Princeton's run to take control of the contest. But Brown was not the only Tiger who came up big on several occasions on Saturday night. Fellow senior Katy O'Brien had 17 points and had two huge three-pointers in the second half when the game was very much in doubt. O'Brien gave Princeton a 42-41 lead with one of those threes and took the lead from Penn for good with the other, putting Princeton up 47-45. Brown's scoring was her most since Feb. 20, 2004, her sophomore year, against Yale when she also had 28. It moved her into third place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,377 points. The 18-point win was Princeton's largest margin of victory over Penn since the last game of the 1997 season when the Tigers won by 30 at Jadwin Gym. At The Palestra, it was Princeton's largest win over Penn since a 26-point margin in 1976.
For the first time this season, the Tigers took neither a lead nor a deficit into the locker room. While Princeton was loading up on free throws in the first half, Penn stayed in the game via the three-pointer. Five of Penn's eight field goals in the half were from beyond the arc, led by three from Joey Rhoads, who had 11 first-half points. Meanwhile, Princeton was in the double-bonus just past the halfway point of the period. The Tigers went 14 for 18 from the line in the opening 20 minutes, making up for 35.7 percent shooting (5 for 14) in the half. Penn had an even tougher time from the field, missing 21 of 29 shots (27.6 percent). Penn's 15 total fouls helped to create the disparity in field-goal attempts. Rebounds were also in the Quakers' favor, with Penn pulling down 18 including eight offensively. Princeton had 14 and just two second-chance boards.
Rhoads led Penn with 19 points while Scott and Rachel Wilson each had 10. While limited to six points, Jennifer Fleischer had a game-high 11 boards. Penn improved its shooting in the second half as well, though not nearly as much as Princeton. The Quakers shot 31.7 percent for the game. While Penn was also strong from the free-throw line, hitting 11 of 13, Princeton ended up with half as many fouls as Penn to limit the home team's opportunities from the stripe. After going 5 for 12 from beyond the arc in the first half, Penn made just one three-pointer in the second half.
The Tigers have their first full league weekend next Friday at Columbia and Saturday at Cornell.