.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University
Yale
Players Mentioned
Women's Basketball Gets Past Yale, Remains in Center of Ivy Race
March 04, 2006 | Women's Basketball
March 4, 2006
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. - For the first 24 minutes of Saturday's contest at Jadwin Gym, the Princeton women's basketball team, chasing its first Ivy title in seven years, let Yale, which entered the game tied for last in the conference, hang around. Up by just two with 16 minutes left in a game that could have ended Princeton's postseason hopes with a loss, the Tigers had enough. Exhorting some emotion out of what was a calm senior-night crowd, the Tigers responded with a 16-2 run over the next six-and-a-half minutes en route to a 67-52 win over the Bulldogs (3-24, 2-12 Ivy).
The win moves Princeton to 20-6 overall, 11-2 in the Ivy League, tying program records with both win totals. Brown's win in Philadelphia ends its regular season at 12-2 and Dartmouth's win over Cornell keeps it tied with Princeton at 11-2. Both Dartmouth and Princeton have games on Tuesday, and if both win, it would set up the first three-way tie in Ivy women's basketball history. In such a scenario, a random draw or coin flip would occur to determine the top team out of the three, as all three went 1-1 against each other. The teams that didn't find luck in the random draw would play Thursday, Mar. 9 at a site to be announced, with the winner facing the team that won the draw on Saturday, Mar. 11, also at a site to be announced, for the Ivy League's NCAA bid.
Senior Katy O'Brien started the key second-half run with two three-pointers to give Princeton an eight-point lead at 39-31 with 14:04 remaining. O'Brien led the Tigers with 15 points on the night and was 3 for 5 from beyond the arc. She also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds, tying her career-best. Sophomore Meagan Cowher scored Princeton's next eight points before O'Brien finished the run with another bucket. Cowher finished with 14 points. From there, Yale never put together a run to cut into the Princeton advantage. The Tigers led by as many as 21 at 63-42 with 3:24 left. Princeton responded from a sluggish first half from the field to shoot 50 percent in the final frame, finishing at 38.9 percent on the night. Yale shot 37.5 percent for the game. Despite a three-rebound edge for the visitors, Princeton capitalized on 19 Yale turnovers while giving away only 14.
Despite being outshot in the first half 39.1 percent to 26.9 percent and outrebounded 19-16, the Tigers were able to take a two-point lead into the locker room thanks to getting 13 turnovers from Yale and giving up only seven.
Yale took its largest lead of the half at 16-11 with 8:04 to go before the break, but Princeton responded with a 7-0 run to take an 18-16 lead. Jessica Berry's running layup at the halftime buzzer gave the Tigers a 24-22 lead going into the locker room.
Sara McCollum led Yale with 16 points and seven boards while Chinenye Okafor had 11 points.
Princeton tips off against Penn at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday at Jadwin Gym, while Dartmouth hosts Harvard at 7 p.m. the same night. While Princeton cannot win an outright Ivy title with a win, it can clinch a tie with Brown. Dartmouth would join in the tie with a win over the Crimson.