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Princeton University
Columbia
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Players Mentioned
Women's Basketball Completes Columbia Sweep, Regains Control of Ivy Outcome
February 18, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2006
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. - While cruising to a double-digit victory over Columbia on Saturday night at Jadwin Gym, the Princeton women's basketball team (16-6, 7-2 Ivy) got a nice bit of news from three states away. With Brown's victory over Dartmouth, the Tigers, coupled with their 59-45 win over the Lions, have regained control of their own destiny in the Ivy League race. If Princeton can take care of its own business, the Tigers can do no worse than a three-way playoff with Brown and Dartmouth.
Senior center Becky Brown became just the third player in Princeton women's basketball history to score 1,500 points, bridging that milestone with a 17-point, 10-rebound night. It was her sixth double-double of the season and 13th of her career. Junior forward Casey Lockwood also earned a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards, marking the second straight night that Lockwood notched double-digits in both categories. With the win, Princeton completed the first season sweep of the Lions since 1999.
A three-pointer by rookie point guard Jessica Berry started the night for the Tigers, who never really allowed Columbia back into the game. A night after Cornell allowed the Tigers a 14-2 start, the Lions were down 12-2 nearing the halfway point of the first period before Brittney Carfora hit a three-pointer to make it 12-5. Any momentum from that bucket was quickly stifled as Princeton scored the next eight points to take a 20-5 lead with less than six minutes left in the half. When Columbia cut Princeton's lead to 10 at 23-13, the Tigers responded with a 10-0 run to close the period, taking a 20-point lead, their largest of the night, into the locker room. Princeton shot 43.3 percent in the first half and benefitted from Columbia shooting an even 20 percent from the field. The Tigers doubled the Lions on the glass, outrebounding the visitors 26-13 and getting 12 second-chance boards while limiting Columbia to only four.
In the second half, Columbia cut the deficit as low as 15 on three occasions before Princeton led 42-27 with 11:17 left and went on a 9-0 run to take a 24-point edge. The lead didn't get below 20 again until Megan Griffith hit a pair of free throws with 5:08 left to bring the Lions within 18. But after neither team scored for the next four minutes, the contest was well out of reach and Princeton moved to 7-2 in league play for the first time since 1999.
The Tigers shot 39.7 percent for the game and withstood a solid 54.2-percent effort from Columbia in the second half. The Tigers were able to do so in large part to their proficiency on the glass, outrebounding Columbia 44-29 for the game. Columbia also took just 10 three-pointers, hitting four, in a game in which it was down by double-digits from the 9:33 mark of the first half through the final horn. Three of those, including two in the final 1:14, came from Katrina Cragg, who finished with 10 points while Griffith led the Lions with 13.
Now that Princeton has regained control of its own fate in the Ivy League, the Tigers are faced with the team that handed them their largest margin of defeat of the season outside of the game against then-No. 1 Tennessee. Friday at Dartmouth, the Orange and Black will be looking to avenge the 18-point loss suffered at Jadwin Gym on Feb. 11 and secure its first win in Leede Arena since 1998. With Saturday's results factored in, Brown now takes the Ivy lead at 9-1 with Dartmouth a half-game back at 8-1 and the Tigers one-and-a-half games back at 7-2 with the two losses coming to the teams ahead of them. Friday's tip is at 7 p.m.