Princeton University Athletics
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Princeton Women's Hoops Faces Penn on Tuesday for Ivy Championship, Playoff Berth
March 06, 2006 | Women's Basketball
March 6, 2006
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Ivy title on the line: Princeton stands at 11-2 in the Ivy League, even with Dartmouth and a half-game behind Brown, which has completed its regular season. With a win over Penn, Princeton clinches a share of the Ivy League title and a playoff. If Dartmouth defeats Harvard on Tuesday, Dartmouth would also join that playoff, making the first three-way playoff in Ivy women's history.
What happens then?: If it's a three-team playoff, there would be a random draw held by the league to determine the top team of those three, since all three split with each other head-to-head. Whichever team is chosen doesn't have to play in a game on Friday, Mar. 10 at 7 p.m. If it's Princeton-Brown or Princeton-Dartmouth, it will be at Yale. If it's Brown-Dartmouth, it will be at Harvard. That winner meets the team that won the draw on Sun., Mar. 12, at 2 p.m. for the Ivy's NCAA berth. If Princeton's in that game, it will be at Yale.
If Dartmouth loses Tuesday, a two-team playoff between Princeton and Brown will be on Sat., Mar. 11 at 4 p.m. at Yale.
School records at stake: Saturday against Yale, the 2006 Tigers became just the third team in program history to win 20 games and the third to win 11 league games. The team can establish new records in both categories against Penn. Also, Princeton has never won seven league games in a row, nor has it completed an entire half of the league schedule unbeaten, which it would do with a win on Tuesday.
1,573: After 31 more points last weekend, senior Becky Brown has scored 1,573 points in her career. That's third-most in Princeton women's history (Sandi Bittler `90 - 1,683; Claire Tomasiewicz `79 - 1,622) and fourth-most between the Princeton men and women. Only Bill Bradley has scored more on the men's side (2,503). More Brown scoring/rebounding: Becky Brown has now scored double-digit points in 17 straight games, 24 times this season and 83 times in her career. Against Brown on Friday, Brown also had 13 rebounds, giving her eight double-doubles this season and 15 in her career.
Three for she: Senior Katy O'Brien hit eight threes over the weekend to give her 188 for her career. That's good for third place on the Princeton all-time list. Former teammate Maureen Lane `03 is in second place with 190 threes and Sandi Bittler `90 is the all-time leader with 246. This season, she ranks second in the Ivy League in threes per game at 2.38.
Record for a rookie?: Freshman Jessica Berry has 137 assist this season, second only to Andrea Razi `96 and the 149 helpers she recorded as a junior. Berry ranks second in the league in assists per game at 5.48, just ahead of Katy O'Brien, who ranks third with 4.04 per contest.
Clinching the scoring title: Becky Brown continues to lead the league in scoring at 15.846 points per game. She's just ahead of Brown's Sarah Hayes at 15.814 ppg. If Brown scores exactly 15 points, the two would both have 427 points in 27 games, so 16 points vs. Penn clinches the scoring title for the Princeton center. Meagan Cowher is fifth in the conference at 14.5 ppg. Penn's Joey Rhoads is seventh at 13.3 ppg.
Last time against Penn: Princeton and Penn were tied at 47-47 with 6:36 left in the second half at the Palestra on Jan. 7 when the Tigers went on a 14-1 run over four-and-a-half minutes that helped the team move to 1-0 in the Ivy League. Princeton outshot Penn 52.6 percent to 31.7 percent while Becky Brown led all scorers with 28 points. Joey Rhoads led Penn with 19 points. Foul trouble for Penn also benefitted the Tigers, who went 29 for 38 from the line compared to 11 for 13 for Penn. Monica Naltner and Kimberly Franklin fouled out for the Quakers, who had four other players with four fouls.
From Jadwin Gym to your computer... and radio too: John Sadak will call the action on Tuesday as the Tigers look for a share of the Ivy League title and a berth in a league playoff for the NCAA bid. Tuesday's game will also be on radio around Princeton on WHWH 1350 AM.
For starters: In all 26 games this year, Princeton's starting lineup has had the same combination by class: two seniors, one junior, one sophomore, one freshman. The lineup itself has remained the same in 24 games, while in the other two, 2008's Ariel Rogers replaced fellow soph Meagan Cowher and 2009's Whitney Downs filled in for fellow rookie Jessica Berry.
Highly-rated accuracy: New NCAA statistics won't come out until Tuesday, but Becky Brown ranked third in the nation in field goal percentage at .653. Her current percentage is .652. As a team, Princeton ranked 15th with only one non-major conference team ahead of it. In the Ivy League rankings, Meagan Cowher at .507 is behind Brown in second place.
On the glass: The league's leading rebounder visits Jadwin Gym on Tuesday when Penn's Jennifer Fleischer takes her 9.8 rpg average against the Tigers. Becky Brown is third in the league at 7.8 rpg, and Meagan Cowher is 10th at 5.6 rpg. As a team, however, Princeton is second in the league in rebounds per game at 36.8 and first in limiting its foes to 32.2 rpg. That's good for a league-best 4.6 rebounding margin.
Swat!: Two of the league's top four shot blockers square off on Tuesday. Penn's Jennifer Fleischer is second at 1.88 bpg and Becky Brown is fourth at 0.73 bpg.
Foul someone else: If Tuesday's game gets into a possession-by-possession battle at the end, the Tigers will know who not to foul and send to the line. Penn's Joey Rhoads hits her free throws at a league-best 87.1 percent rate among those who average 2.0 made per game.
What a year, already: With last weekend's wins over Brown and Yale, Princeton recorded its fourth weekend sweep of the Ivy season. In the six seasons prior, that's how many league weekend sweeps Princeton had in total.
Turning 60: With a sweep last weekend, fifth-year head coach Richard Barron earned his 59th and 60th wins at Princeton. That's good for fourth in program history, behind Liz Feeley's 68 wins from 1995-2000, Pat Walsh's 72 wins from 1974-79, and Joan Kowalik's 163 wins from 1984-95.
Don't party like it's 1999: A Penn-at-Princeton game to end the regular season has had Ivy title implications fairly recently for the Tigers. In 1999, Princeton was 11-2 in league play heading into the final game. All Princeton needed to do was defeat Penn to avoid a playoff with Dartmouth, which had handed Princeton its only two league losses. But Penn played spoiler and walked out of Jadwin with a 71-65 win. Princeton lost the playoff at Yale to Dartmouth, 66-49. This is also the first time since that game that Penn visits Princeton to end the regular season.
Long time since: Princeton has not swept a season series from Penn since 1997. It has also not defeated Penn at Jadwin Gym since 2003, carrying a two-game skid into Tuesday night's game.
Double-digits: All 11 of Princeton's Ivy League wins have come by no fewer than 12 points and by an average of 14.8 points. If Princeton defeats Penn by more than 10 on Tuesday night, it would be the second season in which every Ivy win has come by double-digits. In 1979-80, the Ivy League's first season with regular-season games and not just a tournament, Princeton went 2-5 but defeated Barnard (Columbia) and Cornell by 37 points each.