Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Duquesne to Visit Women's Hoops at Jadwin Gym Saturday
November 30, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Princeton vs. Duquesne
Sat., Dec. 1 at 6 p.m.
Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
Records: Princeton 2-5, 0-0 Ivy; Duquesne 3-3, 0-0 A-10
All-Time Series: Tied 1-1
Princeton head coach: Courtney Banghart (1st season/Dartmouth '00)
Duquesne head coach: Suzie McConnell-Serio (1st season/Penn State '88)
Internet Audio: Click here
Good help: For the first time since Princeton's regular starters included names like Becky Brown, Casey Lockwood and Katy O'Brien, Meagan Cowher was not Princeton's first- or second-leading scorer and the Tigers won the game. Thursday night at St. Francis, Cowher had 13 while Ali Prichard had 16 and Caitlin O'Neill 14. The last time Cowher wasn't in the top two and Princeton won was Feb. 18, 2006 vs. Columbia.
Streak stoppers: Last season, Meagan Cowher scored double-digits in the first 10 games until the Dec. 22 visit to Duquesne. The Dukes held the Pittsburgh native to nine points, but Cowher had the game-winning basket in Princeton's 62-59 win.
Take ?em, they're free: Princeton has broken the 70-percent mark from the line only once this year, shooting 77.8 percent (7 for 9) in the season opener at Maryland. At St. Francis, however, the Tigers were beneficiaries of poor free-throw shooting as the Terriers hit just 5 of 16 (31.3 percent) in an eight-point game. It was the lowest free-throw shooting percentage for a Princeton opponent since the fourth game of last season against Lehigh.
The pattern repeats, sort of: Princeton will have St. Francis and Duquesne back-to-back once again this season, though at opposite sites. The result so far has been different as well, as Princeton lost to St. Francis last year and won the second time around. The Tigers will look to keep last year's result over Duquesne, a 62-59 win, the same.
The same path, sort of: For the second straight game, Princeton and its opponent will be coming off games against the same team, or at least against similarly named teams. At St. Francis, both teams were coming off losses to Lafayette. Saturday, Princeton will be looking for its second straight win after defeating St. Francis College in New York. Duquesne will be coming off a road loss at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania. The Red Flash, not the Terriers from the New York school, handed the Dukes a 66-54 overtime defeat. Both St. Francis schools are in the NEC.
The series with the Dukes: Princeton and Duquesne are even at 1-1 after two meetings spaced 23 years apart. In a tournament at Bucknell in the 1983-84 season, Duquesne came away with a five-point win, which the Tigers avenged last year. Saturday, Duquesne will make its first visit to Jadwin Gym.
More Dukes-Tigers hoops: Princeton's and Duquesne's men's teams have also met twice, but the Dukes' men haven't been to Jadwin Gym either. The programs met in the first round of the 1952 NCAA Tournament at Michael Jordan's old haunt, Chicago Stadium, where the Dukes bounced the Tigers 60-49. At a holiday tournament 22 years later, the Pete Carril-led Tigers won in Madison Square Garden, 72-62.
Straight from the Steel City: Duquesne is the only one of the three Division I teams from Pittsburgh that the Tigers have faced. Despite regularly meeting Big East schools, Princeton has never met Pitt and the Tiger men haven't encountered the Panthers since 1962 either. Neither Princeton program has faced Robert Morris. The last Pittsburgh-based school to take the floor at Jadwin was Carnegie Mellon, which took a five-point win from the men's team Dec. 28, 2005.
Tigers versus the A-10: Princeton has faced all 14 current Atlantic-10 schools, though some of those teams weren't in the A-10 at the time of the meeting. The Tigers are 12-26 all-time against current A-10 schools. However, when counting Princeton's record against all A-10 teams at the time of the game, it is 11-16. That total adds long-ago games against Villanova and Rutgers and takes away contests against Charlotte, Fordham, Rhode Island, Richmond, Saint Louis and Xavier.
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 14 points, 1,273-1,259, seven 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.
Last time vs. Duquesne: Princeton's last lead at Duquesne last year came less than seven minutes into the game at 10-8. Last lead until the game's final 24 seconds, that is. Princeton chipped away at a 14-point Duquesne lead early in the second half and tied it at 59-59 with 3:28 to play on a pair of Jillian Schurle free throws. The score stuck there for three minutes until Meagan Cowher's layup with 24 seconds left put Princeton ahead 61-59. On Duquesne's next possession, a Dukes player called a timeout the team didn't have, resulting in two technical foul shots. Ariel Rogers made one and Princeton came away with the 62-59 win.
A-10 experience: Princeton assistant coach Melanie Halker coached in the Atlantic-10 last year at Dayton.
Season's best: Princeton had a season-best shooting night from the field (51.1 percent) and three-point range (52.9 percent) at St. Francis, also tying for the season's most three pointers (nine) and having the season's biggest rebounding margin at 14.
Famous guests: In support of their then-boss's daughter, some big-name Pittsburgh Steelers players came to last season's game at Duquesne to root on Meagan Cowher and the Tigers, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and then-Steelers linebacker Joey Porter.
Getting on it early: Princeton scored 33 points in the first half at St. Francis, a season-high.
Watch, listen to the Tigers online: Derek Jones will call Saturday'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, including the Duquesne game, will be available for a monthly subscription through TigerZone.
Shorthanded: St. Francis had just eight available players for Thursday's game and Duquesne has nine eligible players. The Dukes' 11-woman roster has two ineligible transfers, and sophomore guard Keri Pryor, second on the team with 17 points per game, has missed the last three contests.
Everybody in: Princeton has used no fewer than 10 of the 13 players on its roster in any game this year. All 13 have made the floor twice, against Maryland and Lafayette.
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 19.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game