Princeton University Athletics
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Women's Basketball to Open Ivy Season Saturday at Penn
January 04, 2007 | Women's Basketball
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Following Meagan Cowher's 27-point night at Lafayette, the Tigers will look to carry momentum into the first Ivy League game of the season Saturday at 7 p.m. at Penn. Listen to the game here.
Last time out: Princeton led start-to-finish Wednesday at Lafayette as Meagan Cowher poured in a season-high 27 points to lead the Tigers to a 79-62 win. Princeton overcame a 26-12 turnover deficit by winning the rebounding battle 49-24 and outshooting the Leopards 49 percent to 33.3 percent.
In her 20s: Cowher's 27 points tied for the third-most in her Princeton career. In one weekend last season at Columbia and Cornell, Cowher had 32 and 27. Against St. Peter's in 2004-05, she scored 28. Cowher has scored at least 20 points on 11 occasions in her career including each of the last two games.
Prichard pitches in: Junior forward Ali Prichard equaled a career-high with 17 points at Lafayette including five three-pointers, which also matched her career-best from the same game at Harvard at the end of the 2004-05 season.
Ivy opener: As it did a year ago, Princeton will open the Ivy League season at The Palestra against Penn. In last year's 73-55 win, Princeton went on a 14-1 run after being tied at 47-47 with 6:36 to go. While the Tigers hit 6 of 7 shots after the tie, the Princeton defense held Penn to a free throw for a critical span of nearly five minutes to break the game open and win at The Palestra for the first time since Richard Barron's first year in 2001-02.
Still important: Princeton's rebounding advantage leading to victory at Lafayette wasn't an aberration. The Tigers are 5-0 when they outrebound their foes and 1-8 when they don't.
Listen to the game: Derek Jones will return for his fourth broadcast of the season Saturday at Penn. Fans can listen to the game for free at www.GoPrincetonTigers.com by clicking on the speaker icon on the women's basketball schedule page or on the right side of the front page under “Schedule.”
Getting closer: Meagan Cowher's 27 points at Lafayette moved her to 878 for her career. At her current average, she would become Princeton's 17th 1,000-point scorer at Cornell Feb. 16.
The series: Princeton leads the series 38-22, but had lost three in a row at The Palestra and five straight prior to last year's season sweep of Penn.
On Penn: The Quakers have lost three in a row, all by double-digits, heading into Saturday's Ivy League opener. Both teams are regrouping this year after losing heavily involved centers in Princeton's Becky Brown and Penn's Jennifer Fleischer. But each team also has a forward that has stepped up with Princeton's Meagan Cowher (16.8 ppg) and Penn's Monica Naltner, a 5-11 senior who averages 19 points per game. Joey Rhoads, a senior guard, has added 17.3 points per game as she and Naltner are the Ivy League's top two scorers heading into conference play. The Quakers have employed the same starting lineup in 10 of 11 games, with three seniors and two sophomores.
Speaking of...: While Penn's starting lineup has been almost constant, Princeton's has been anything but. The Tigers have used seven lineups in the 14 games this year, with Wednesday's combination of Lockwood, Meagan Cowher, Rogers, Downs and Berry a first. Only Cowher and Lockwood have started every game.
For threeee: Princeton hasn't been reluctant to shoot from distance this year, hitting an Ivy League-high 79 three-pointers. Wednesday, Princeton and Lafayette each made nine, a season-high for combined threes in a game. Princeton's total was two off its season-best of 11.
Show 'em the D: Princeton was ranked first in the Ivy League in scoring defense (now 63.9), field goal percentage defense (now .406) and three-point field goal percentage defense (now .304) heading into the week.
Figuring the rotation: Head coach Richard Barron has tapped a season-low 10 players in each of the last two games. The 10 players differed only in one place, as freshman Tani Brown saw time against Lafayette whereas Elyse Umeda played at Vanderbily. Prior to those two games, Barron had used no fewer than 11 and, once, all 17 players.
Little bit of this, little bit of that: A win Saturday would give Princeton its first back-to-back wins of the season. But lengthy losing streaks haven't happened to the Tigers either, as the team has alternated wins and losses in the last eight games.
Big help: Sophomore point guard Jessica Berry has recorded 14 of her 45 assists this season in the last two games. Her eight helpers against Lafayette matched a career high she set on four occasions last year. After starting the first five games, Berry has regained a spot in the starting lineup in the last four contests. A year ago as a freshman, Berry started all 27 games she played and finished the season ranked 23rd in the nation in assists at 5.4 per game.
More Prichard: Ali Prichard's career-best-equaling 17 points against Lafayette only spotlighted her hightened contribution this campaign. She has reached double-digits in four of 14 games this season with eight or nine points on four other occasions. Her 99 points this season are more than she has had in any previous season and almost reach her career total of 116 entering the season.
Downs-town: Sophomore forward Whitney Downs started one game last year, but she is on a current streak of eight starts and has two double-digit scoring games during the span while reaching eight or nine four other times during the stretch.
Lines on Lockwood: Senior forward Casey Lockwood has been putting together a fine season with nine double-digit scoring games while starting all 14 this year. The three-year captain is shooting 49.1 percent from the field and also pulls down 5.1 boards per game. She set a new career high in scoring this year with 21 points against Maine Nov. 19.
Princeton in the NCAA rankings: In NCAA rankings through the beginning of the week, Princeton's highest-ranked categories were assists per game (15.1, ranked 74th) and three-point field goals per game (5.4, ranked 91st). The Tigers did better than their average on both accounts at Lafayette with 18 assists for a new average of 15.2 per game and nine three-pointers for a new 5.6 average in that category.
Head coach Richard Barron: Princeton's sixth-year mentor carries a 67-84 record at the school into the 2007 Ivy League season. He is the fourth-winningest coach in school history, behind Liz Feeley's 68 wins in the 1990s, Pat Walsh's 72 wins in the 1970s and Joan Kowalik's 163 wins between 1984 and 1995. He led a team that set new school records in total wins (21) and Ivy League wins (12) a year ago while gaining the program's seventh Ivy title.
Home soon: Princeton will close a period of nearly a month without a home game next week after it completes its four-game road trip at Penn before welcoming Columbia and Cornell to Jadwin Gym for the first full Ivy weekend.