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Players Mentioned
No. 6 Rutgers to Visit Women's Basketball at Jadwin Gym Wednesday
December 11, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Princeton vs. No. 6 Rutgers
Wed., Dec. 12 at 7 p.m.
Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
Records: Princeton 3-7, 0-0 Ivy; Rutgers 7-2, 0-0 Big East
All-Time Series: Rutgers leads 11-3
Princeton head coach: Courtney Banghart (1st season/Dartmouth '00)
Rutgers head coach: C. Vivian Stringer (13th season/Slippery Rock '70)
Internet Audio: Click here
TV: Comcast Sports (Princeton area only)
Rank ?em: It had been two years prior to Saturday's visit from California that a ranked team had taken the floor at Jadwin Gym. Now, two ranked teams will play on Princeton's home court in as many games when No. 6 (AP and coaches) Rutgers visits.
More ranked: The last three nationally ranked basketball teams to play at Jadwin Gym have been women's teams. That counts Rutgers twice, in December 2005 and this week, and California Saturday. The last time a Princeton men's team faced a ranked opponent was also on Dec. 12, but in 2001, when No. 4/5 Kansas topped the Tiger men 78-62. Throwing in some names from the past, Nick Collison led Kansas with 19 points and Will Venable paced the Tigers with 11 that night.
Points at a premium: Princeton and Rutgers each average fewer than 60 points per game, ranking the Tigers 264th and the Knights 270th of 326 Division I teams in that category heading into the week.
Big East week: Princeton will face back-to-back Big East opponents with Rutgers Wednesday and Syracuse Sunday. The Tigers have faced nine of the current 16 Big East teams with Sunday's first meeting against the Orange making that team the ninth on the list. The only other Big East team any of the current Tigers have seen is Cincinnati, which Princeton faced last season at Northwestern.
Tigers versus the Big East: Princeton is 14-39 all-time against schools currently in the Big East. When counting only the games that occurred when the opposition was a Big East member, the record is 2-14, as many of the other games occurred before the Big East adopted women's basketball for the 1982-83 season. At home, Princeton's record against the Big East is 1-6, counting games against Georgetown, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Villanova. The only Princeton win at home over a Big East team came Nov. 23, 1997 in a 71-44 rout of Georgetown. The Hoyas were then coached by current Penn skipper Patrick Knapp.
Cowher scoring streak: Meagan Cowher's double-digit scoring streak extended to 13 games with her 14 points against California Saturday. Cowher's personal best for scoring double digits is 17 straight games, a streak that spanned the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
Last she saw them...: Princeton has met Rutgers each of the last four years, counting this week's meeting. But new Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart has only faced the Scarlet Knights twice all-time, once as a player and once as an assistant coach. Both of those meetings were in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In 1999, Rutgers knocked out Dartmouth 84-70. In 2006, the Knights escaped with a five-point win, 63-58. With Wednesday's game, Banghart will have faced Rutgers three times all-time, all in New Jersey, at three different sites. The first meeting was in Piscataway, the second was in Trenton at Sovereign Bank Arena.
A record pace: Princeton is on pace to near a pair of team records this year. With 573 field goals attempted in nine games, Princeton is on pace for 1,719, just short of the current record of 1,723 set by the 1979-80 team. The Tigers have also grabbed 380 rebounds, close to the pace of the 1995-96 team 1,179-1,140.
More stats rankings: Meagan Cowher is the only Tiger on an NCAA top-100 statistical list this week. She ranks 73rd in points per game (17.1) and 75th in rebounds per game (8.7). Princeton's highest ranked category as a team is three-pointers per game in 65th at six per contest.
Last time at Jadwin Gym: Princeton and Rutgers met Dec. 11, 2005 at Jadwin, when the Scarlet Knights were also ranked sixth in the AP poll. Princeton led by as much as six at 27-21 with a pair of free throws by Becky Brown with 1:27 to go in the first period, but Rutgers had closed it to two by the break. Using an 11-0 second-half run, the Rutgers lead grew to as much as 10 and the Tigers never had it to a one-possession game after that in a 65-56 loss. Cappie Pondexter, who went on to a career in the WNBA, scored 19 of her 25 points in the second half and the Knights employed a full-court press in the second half that threw the Tigers off the upset bid.
Last time against the Knights: Kia Vaughn led Rutgers with 27 points, still a career high for the junior, as the Scarlet Knights topped the Tigers 76-51 last Dec. 9 in Piscataway. Rutgers led by as much as 17 in the first half before the Tigers got as close as six with 13:53 to play on a three-pointer by Casey Lockwood, but Rutgers then outscored Princeton 33-12 to build a lead as high as 27.
Shuffling the starters: Princeton fielded the same starting five of Meagan Cowher, Whitney Downs, Caitlin O'Neill, Tani Brown and Ali Prichard for the season's first six games. Since then, Princeton has used four different starting lineups without returning to that original five. Addie Micir, Jillian Schurle and Julia Berger have been added to the starting lineup during the shuffling.
Team game: No Tiger may come close to a record for rebounds in a season, but the reason the Tigers are on pace to near the team single-season rebounding record is because everyone's in on the boarding. Every Tiger, from guards to posts, has at least two rebounds this year, from Krystal Hill's two to Meagan Cowher's 87.
Tigers in the Ivy stats: Princeton leads the Ivy League in three statistical categories in stats released Monday. The Tigers share the offensive rebounding category with Dartmouth at 38 per game, have a league-best assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.75:1 and an Ivy-best defensive rebounding average of 27 per game.
Princeton opponents in the rankings: Four of Princeton's opponents are in the Associated Press poll rankings this week. Maryland checks in at No. 4, right where they were at the start of the season when they faced the Tigers. Rutgers, the only team to beat Maryland, fell two spots from the loss to Duke last week and is in sixth. California remained unchanged after its win over the Tigers and is in 11th (the poll came out prior to the Cal-Rutgers game Monday) and Vanderbilt, the Jan. 5 opponent, is 23rd.
Watch, listen to the Tigers online: Derek Jones will call Wednesday'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 Rutgers game, will be available for a monthly subscription through TigerZone.
Tigers on the tube: Comcast Sports will broadcast Princeton's game with Rutgers to the Princeton area as well as parts of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. Comcast also televised the California game Saturday and is scheduled to show future games this season. Paul Spychala and Lou Brogno will be on the call Wednesday.
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.