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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Women's Basketball to Make Second of Three Big Apple Visits to St. Francis Thursday
November 28, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Princeton at St. Francis (N.Y.)
Thu., Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.
Peter Aquilone Court (St. Francis)
Records: Princeton 1-5, 0-0 Ivy; St. Francis 2-3, 0-0 NEC
All-Time Series: St. Francis leads 2-1
Princeton head coach: Courtney Banghart (1st season/Dartmouth '00)
St. Francis head coach: Brenda Milano (6th season/Wagner '95)
Internet Audio: Click here
So nice, they visited it thrice: Princeton hadn't visited New York City to play against a school other than Columbia since Dec. 1, 2004 at Wagner until the Tigers paid another visit to the Seahawks' gym earlier this season. The St. Francis game marks Princeton's second pilgrimage of the season to the Big Apple. The third trip, and third borough, will come March 7 in Manhattan against Columbia.
Tigers invade the Island: The women's basketball team isn't the only Princeton squad on Long Island Thursday evening. Princeton's women's volleyball team drew Delaware in the first round of the NCAA tournament in a match to be played at St. John's tomorrow at 6 p.m. The Tigers will practice at the Queens-based school Thursday for their first NCAA appearance since 2001.
A slow start, but...: Princeton has shown the ability in recent history to bounce back from a difficult start to the season. The Tigers started the 1998-99 season 2-7 but went 11-3 in the Ivy League to finish tied with Dartmouth and force a one-game playoff. One of the Big Green players who stopped Princeton from making its first NCAA appearance that season is now on the Tiger bench in head coach Courtney Banghart, who was in her junior season.
Miah's mad dash: In last season's meeting with St. Francis on Dec. 16, 2006, the teams were tied at 52 when Casey Lockwood went to the line for the Tigers with nine seconds left and hit the second of two from the line. Kristen Miah, who returns this year as a junior, took the inbounds pass and went the length of the floor for the game-winning layup with two seconds left on the clock. A desparation attempt didn't fall for the Tigers, and St. Francis won a game with 11 lead changes and 11 ties.
Don't be confused: One is the Red Flash, the other are Terriers. One is a College, the other a University. One is in Pennsylvania, the other is in New York. Both St. Francis College and St. Francis University are in the Northeast Conference, but the Tigers have never faced the Loretto, Pa.-based school.
Frequently with the NEC: Princeton will play four games this season against Northeast Conference schools, including Wagner, St. Francis, Monmouth and Sacred Heart. The Tigers have a 32-16 all-time record against schools currently in the NEC, but a 35-18 record against schools in the NEC at the time of the game. The difference discounts two 1970s losses to Monmouth and adds a 1981-82 game with Towson, a 1988-89 game with Loyola (Md.) and five games with Rider in the mid-1990s. The 12-member conference, headquartered just up Route 206 from Princeton in Somerset, N.J., will add Bryant College (R.I.) next year.
A race between teammates: Becky Brown and Meagan Cowher were teammates for two seasons in 2004-05 and 2005-06, guiding Princeton's run to the doorstep of the NCAA Tournament in Brown's final year. Cowher began the season 22 points behind where Brown was on the Princeton all-time scoring list entering her senior year. Currently, however, thanks to Cowher's torrid scoring stretch early this season, Cowher leads Brown by 18 points, 1,260-1,241, six games into each player's senior season.
More Brown-Cowher: Becky Brown topped out with eight double-doubles as a senior and 15 for her career. With her most recent of the statistical achievements, Meagan Cowher topped that with her 16th double-double. Cowher also had eight last year.
On average: If she can hold her current pace (20.2 ppg), Meagan Cowher will become the first Tiger to average 20 points per game for a season. Sandi Bittler '90 holds the record with 19.5 points per game her senior year. Harvard's Allison Feaster holds the record with 27.9 points per game in 1997-98.
Doubly difficult streak: Meagan Cowher has scored in double-digits in all five games this year. Last season, she started with 11 straight double-digit games.
European tour: St. Francis has four international players on its roster, including two from Germany, one from the Czech Republic and one from Hungary. There are almost as many countries as states represented as the American Terriers represent six states.
Tall order: With the addition of freshman Barbora Galandakova at 6-foot-7, the Terriers have two players that height or taller. Senior Katja Bavendam is 6-foot-8.
Free throw woes: Princeton is shooting 55.7 percent from the free-throw line this season. Once, the number of missed free throws has been greater than the margin of defeat when the Tigers were 8 of 14 from the line and fell by one in overtime to Delaware State. Putting the percentages in perspective, Princeton's record for free-throw shooting percentage is 72.9 percent in 1990-91. The record for number of free throws made is 379 in 1991-92, while the Tigers are on pace for 270 this year.
Watch, listen to the Tigers online: Derek Jones will call Thursday's game live on GoPrincetonTigers.com. Princeton is scheduled to broadcast all 30 games this season on the Web free of charge, while video broadcasts of home and select away games will be available for a monthly subscription through TigerZone.
Putting it all together: Four Tigers other than Meagan Cowher have had double-digit scoring games. However, Princeton hasn't had more than three double-digit scorers in a single game, and that happened only once in the loss to Samford. Caitlin O'Neill has reached 10 points twice, while Addie Micir had 12 points in back-to-back games, Ali Prichard had 12 at Samford and Whitney Downs had 14 in the season-opener at Maryland.
Seniors lead the way: Princeton's seniors have scored 150 of the team's 360 points this year or 41.7 percent of the total. Meagan Cowher has 121 of those points, or 33.6 percent of the team's share.
Rebounding is a team effort: All 13 Tigers have at least one rebound this year. Meagan Cowher leads with 58 boards, 25 percent of the team total and 9.7 per game.
Been a long time: No Tiger has averaged a double-double since Ellen DeVoe '86 did so in the 1984-85 season. She averaged 14.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game that year. Cowher is close to averaging a double-double with 20.2 points and 9.7 rebounds per game
Everybody helps: Twelve of 13 Tigers have recorded an assist this year. four players have 11 (Meagan Cowher) or 12 (Whitney Downs, Caitlin O'Neill, Addie Micir) assists, making up 57.3 percent of the team total.
Keep the lights on: Princeton will have a program-record 14 home games this year with the usual seven Ivy games along with seven non-conference contests.