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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn
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Cowher, Prichard lead Women's Hoops to Ivy-Opening Win at Penn, 78-72
January 06, 2007 | Women's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Three-pointers and free throws made the difference in a tight contest as the Princeton women's basketball team began its Ivy League schedule with a 78-72 win over Penn Saturday night at The Palestra.
Princeton improved to 7-8 overall, while Penn fell to 4-8.
The stat sheet was as close as the scoreboard. Princeton only outshot Penn 44.8 percent to 44.6 percent, outrebounded the Quakers only 35-34 and had three more turnovers than its hosts, 17-14. Princeton's six-point advantage came from the lines, plural. Where Penn had three more two-point field goals, the Tigers made up the six points by going to the free-throw line more often, hitting 16 of 22 to Penn's 8 of 13, and making 10 from behind the three-point line to Penn's six.
Ali Prichard and Whitney Downs were responsible for nine of those 10 threes. Prichard scored a career-high 20 points, hitting five three-pointers for the second straight game. Downs was also in double-figures, coming one point from matching her career-best with 16 points while going 4 for 4 from beyond the arc.
"I think that's just a matter of having good shooters and being confident," Prichard said of Princeton's penchant for three-pointers. "I'm feeling very confident. If there's a good time to be playing your best basketball, it's the Ivy season."
Meagan Cowher led Princeton with 22 points, breaking 20 for the third straight game. With Jessica Berry adding 12 points and Caitlin O'Neill with eight, five Tigers contributed all of Princeton's points.
For the Quakers, the Ivy League's two leading scorers pitched in their share. Joey Rhoads led all scorers with 24 points and Monica Naltner scored 20.
Princeton made its first four shots of the game and used a 9-0 run to open up what was a 7-5 game just 90 seconds into the contest. The Tigers worked on maintaining that lead, getting ahead by as much as 13 in the opening period.
With more than six minutes to play in the half, Penn went on an 8-0 run to get within five before a Cowher bucket ended a scoring drought of more than three minutes. Five points was as close as Penn got from that point as Princeton took a seven point, 42-35 lead into the locker room.
Princeton led the rebounding battle at the half, 21-14, a stat that tipped the game's balance to that point since Penn outshot the Tigers by a slim margin, 48.4 percent to 45.9 percent.
The Tigers started the half shooting impressively, hitting 12 of 17, a 70.6 percent clip, en route to a 30-17 lead near the midway point of the half. But for the rest of the period, Princeton made just 5 of 20, allowing Penn to stay in the game.
After holding Penn without a field goal for nearly three minutes to start the second half, back-to-back three-pointers by Prichard and Downs gave Princeton a 14-point lead at 53-39 with 15:59 to play.
But after Princeton took a 15-point advantage on Prichard's last three-pointer with 15:12 left, Penn ground the deficit to six over a five-minute span, limiting Princeton to a pair of Downs free throws. The Tigers didn't get on a run over the next few minutes, allowing Penn to hang around long enough to cut the edge to three on a Naltner three-pointer with 5:54 to play.
The game only got tighter from there, as the score remained Princeton 72, Penn 68 from a Rhoads three-pointer with 3:16 to play until a free throw from Berry with 58 seconds left gave Princeton a five-point lead.
But the play that secured the game for Princeton came just before Berry's free throw. Penn had the ball with the chance to cut the deficit to one or two points, but Prichard got her hand on a pass thrown by Penn's Carrie Biemer and picked the ball out of the air. Biemer fouled to send her to the line, starting a parade to the stripe that sealed the contest.
The Tigers will have two more games before breaking for finals as Columbia and Cornell will visit Jadwin Gym next Friday and Saturday, respectively, for a pair of 7 p.m. contests.
NOTES
Princeton has won back-to-back games at The Palestra for the first time since the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.
Meagan Cowher's 22 points gave her exactly 900 for her career. She is bidding to become Princeton's 17th 1,000-point scorer.
Ali Prichard has scored 37 points over the last two games. With 20 against Penn and 17 on Jan. 3 at Lafayette, Prichard met and passed her previous career-best of 17, set against Harvard the last game of the 2004-05 season. Prichard, a junior, now has 119 points this year, surpassing the combined total of her first two years (116).
Princeton's 10 three-pointers was one of its season-high of 11 against NJIT last month.
Princeton is now 6-0 when it wins the rebounding battle and 1-8 when it doesn't.