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Princeton University
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Dartmouth
Players Mentioned
Women's Basketball Tops Dartmouth 62-49, Keeping Ivy Hopes Healthy
February 24, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2006
Box Score
HANOVER, N.H. - Princeton had known the route to defeating Dartmouth (17-6, 8-2 Ivy), even during the 18-point loss at Jadwin Gym two weeks ago. But on Friday night at Leede Arena, loud with Big Green faithful, the Princeton women's basketball team (17-6, 8-2) ran that route to near perfection. The nation's top three-point shooter, Dartmouth senior Jeannie Cullen, was 1 for 5 from distance and had seven points total. Angie Soriaga, the Big Green senior point guard, had no points from distance just two overall. The pair had torched Princeton for 40 points in the earlier meeting but scored just nine this time.
The win was for far more than pride. Princeton jumped over arguably its biggest hurdle left in the regular season in the defending Ivy champions, moving to 8-2 and staying within 1 1/2 games of league-leading Brown at 10-1. The Bears are the only other team to defeat Princeton this year, by two points in Providence three weeks ago. But the Tigers have a game in hand on Brown and the return matchup at home next Friday. It was also Princeton's first win in Leede Arena since 1998.
Princeton forced 24 turnovers from Dartmouth and gave away only 18. The Tigers also blocked a season-high nine shots. After being outshot in the first half, Princeton radically turned the tables on the home team, repeating its 42.3 percent clip from the first half while holding Dartmouth to 28 percent for the half and 35.6 percent for the game. That negated a slight rebounding edge for the Big Green, 35-32. But perhaps most importantly, the nation's No. 1 three-point shooting team was 1 for 7 from distance on the night. All off the fingertips of senior Katy O'Brien, who had 14 points on the night, the Tigers were 4 for 11 from three-point range. Senior Becky Brown, the nation's third-ranked shooter in field-goal percentage, was at it again, hitting 7 of 8 for 14 points while Meagan Cowher led all scorers with 17. With Cullen and Soriaga neutralized, Fatima Kamara led Dartmouth with 13 and Sydney Scott had 12.
Dartmouth never led in the contest. Princeton had a 34-32 lead with 11:17 left when an Ariel Rogers bucket and a three-pointer from O'Brien gave the Tigers a key 5-0 run and a seven-point lead in the space of 27 seconds. The
lead reached double-digits for the first time on another O'Brien three-pointer at 8:04, the first three points of a 10-0 run that essentially put the game out of reach with 4:50 left and a 17-point Tiger advantage. Though that was the largest Princeton lead, the margin never got smaller than 11 the rest of the way.
For the first eight minutes of the game, the loudest part of Dartmouth's gym was the Princeton bench as the Tigers got out to a 15-1 lead. During the span, the persistent Princeton squad caused eight Big Green turnovers and forced the home team to miss its first six shots. It was a complete turn of events from the season's first matchup between the two in which the Tigers missed 14 of their first 15 attempts and saw Dartmouth race out to a lead Princeton never came close to making up.
But it wasn't about to be a long night for the Big Green. Holding Princeton without a point for almost six minutes after the 10:30 mark, Dartmouth nearly closed the gap with a 15-3 run. While Princeton took away Dartmouth's edge from beyond the arc with the Big Green only taking two threes and missing both, Dartmouth's interior play made up for the deficit. Scott had 10 points in the half, including eight during the run that cut Princeton's lead to 18-16 with five minutes left in the period. The teams entered the half tied at 24.
In the first half, Princeton silenced Dartmouth's sharpshooters, Cullen and Soriaga, who combined for two points on 1 for 3 shooting with Cullen taking all three shots. Despite the early tenacity, it was the Tigers who ended the half with more giveaways, 15-14. Again using second chances on the glass to their advantage, the Tigers had 16 rebounds to 14 for Dartmouth, including nine on the offensive end. Seven players got on the board in the half, led by Cowher's seven and Brown's six as Princeton shot 42.3 percent to Dartmouth's 45 percent.
The Tigers have a chance for more history on Saturday as a sweep of the Dartmouth-Harvard trip would be the first in program history. The Harvard game tips off at 6 p.m. at Lavietes Pavilion.