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Princeton University
Lehigh
Players Mentioned
Banghart, Tigers Get Season's First Win 61-49 Over Lehigh
November 20, 2007 | Women's Basketball
PRINCETON ? First-year head coach Courtney Banghart and the Princeton women's basketball team had been getting closer and closer to its first win. Tuesday night against Lehigh, the trajectory crossed into the positive as the Tigers toppled the Mountain Hawks 61-49.
Meagan Cowher led the Tigers with 18 points and 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the year while freshman Addie Micir tied the top scoring total of her young career with 12 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc.
“Addie Micir is our one, two, three and four,” Banghart said, referring to positions on the court. “She's very poised for being a freshman. She doesn't play like a freshman.”
Cowher moved her career total to 1,228 points, remaining in eighth place. The double-double was the 15th of her career.
“I can't say enough about Meg,” Banghart said. “I've been scouting her for three years from the other side (as an assistant coach at Dartmouth).”
Banghart and her staff helped Cowher develop a greater low-post presence, practice that is beginning to pay off. Cowher hasn't scored fewer than 13 points in a game this season and had increased her totals to 14, 20 and 24 before the 18 points tonight.
The win ended an 0-4 start for the Tigers, who had dropped their first two games by more than 20 points, narrowed the deficits to single digits last weekend before getting their first win by 12 points.
“We're all competitive, so we like to compete. We've got to realize that the competitiveness is going to be bigger than the results,” Banghart said. “We sunk our hips and played man-to-man defense (tonight). We had to be better defensively.”
Princeton did it by holding Lehigh to 25.5 percent shooting (14 of 55) and keeping the turnovers to a season-low 12. The Tigers also won the rebounding battle, 49 to 45, with 15 offensive boards. Lehigh (1-2) missed 18 of its first 19 shots and didn't make a field goal until more than 10 minutes into the first half as its first four points came on free throws.
While Lehigh struggled early from the field, Princeton didn't run away with the first half. Three Micir three-pointers, her total for the game, turned an 8-6 game into a 21-8 lead, Princeton's largest of the half. Lehigh trimmed it to six at 29-23 at the break and would get as close as four on two occasions early in the second half but came no closer.
A Caitlin O'Neill bucket with 9:21 to play gave Princeton its largest lead of 14 at 49-35 and the Mountain Hawks cut it as low as eight only once the rest of the way.
The Tigers will look for back-to-back victories Saturday against another Patriot League school, Lafayette, at 2 p.m. at Jadwin Gym.